The X-ray structure imaging of the soft thin biological samples is particularly difficult as they are often attached to the solid carrier which has much higher absorption of X-rays. The highly absorbing carrier forces the use higher energies of X-rays decreasing the achievable contrast of the sample structure. The proposed method uses a flat sample carrier (metallic, glass or even plastic) acting as mirror. The carrier with the sample is irradiated at grazing angle and the X-ray beam is reflected from the interface between the sample and carrier. That way the beam penetrates through the sample only without entering into the carrier. The energy of the X-ray beam can be low (e.g., nanofocus X-ray tube with Cr, Fe or Cu cathode) providing good contrast for soft sample imaging. The beam path in the sample is prolonged giving more chance for absorption in very thin samples. The reflectivity of X-ray depends on the beam properties and on the refractive index of the sample (for a given carrier material). Then, it is possible to make imaging of the refractive index distribution across the sample. Sufficient spatial resolution and good sensitivity can be achieved using nanofocus X-ray tube together with a highly sensitive pixelated detector Timepix. Several experimental results obtained with such a system verifying the principles described above are presented.