Though Bobbi Brown has founded two groundbreaking cosmetics companies and written nine best-selling beauty books, she's no fan of traditional makeup.
“I don't like makeup that looks like makeup. When I'm done, I want to look better. I don't want to look tired. I want to look pretty. I want to glow,” the 67-year-old mogul told The Washington Post.
Her current company, Jones Road Beauty, is a leader in the growing clean beauty market, and Braun's philosophy has led the company to never offer specific products like those used for contouring.
“Everybody wants to contour, and I refused to do it,” she said of the makeup trend popularized by the Kardashians and others, in which people apply thick layers of light and dark foundation to alter the appearance of the face's contours. “I don't believe in contouring, so I didn't want to preach it or promote it.”
Although Brown now lives in the Manhattan suburb of Montclair, New Jersey, after calling Manhattan home for decades, she has always remained a dynamic New Yorker.
In addition to running Jones Road, she recently launched her own Substack newsletter and designed and runs a local boutique hotel, The George, with her husband, developer Steven Plofker.
She doesn't have time for elaborate beauty routines, and she suspects that neither do many of her Jones Road customers, so some of her products are multi-purpose, blurring the line between skincare and makeup.
“It's an approach to beauty that's practical and very New York, but has broad appeal to all women,” Brown said.
Hers is a classic tale of the heights ambition and talent can reach in the Big Apple.
When she moved from Chicago to New York in her early 20s, she picked up a phone book, called modeling agencies, and began asking for makeup looks. It worked, and soon she was getting booked regularly.
work.
“If you move to New York, you'll be successful,” Brown said.
Eventually, she grew tired of the loud, gaudy makeup of the 1980s, and in 1991 launched her own brand, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, with the idea of beautifying women's looks, rather than changing them.
“I think my face is beautiful just the way it is and I don't try to enhance it or change it,” she explained. “I don't think confidence is a positive thing when you're always looking in the mirror and thinking about what you could change. I believe in self-esteem and confidence.”
In 1995, Estée Lauder acquired Bobbi Brown Cosmetics for a reported $74.5 million. Brown stayed on as chief creative officer and grew the brand's sales to more than $1 billion.
After more than 20 years as an Estée Lauder employee, Brown left her namesake brand in 2016 to return to her roots as a makeup artist and entrepreneur.
Four years later, the day after her non-compete agreement with Lauder expired, and in the middle of a pandemic, Braun launched several clean-beauty products under the name Jones Road Beauty.
She and Plofker put $2 million of their own money into the company, so she has no boss and no outside investors to whom she is accountable.
“When I started [my] The first line was this: [natural beauty] “The philosophy remains the same, but we change, we adapt, we do things because the market wants it or because someone thinks we should,” she said. “I'm never going to do that again.”
Jones Road currently employs 115 people and operates six stores, including in Williamsburg, Greenwich Village and East Hampton, and expects to do $140 million in sales this year. LinkedIn just named the company a Top 50 Startup.
On Black Friday 2023, Jones Road's buzzworthy Miracle Balm — a subtle, hydrating shade that can be applied to cheeks, lips, or “anywhere you want color and glow” — sold more than 375,000 units on Shopify, making it the platform's best-selling product.
Although Jones Road is approaching a seven-figure valuation, Brown has no plans to sell at this time.
“I'm in charge,” she said.
Though she never went easy on Bobbi Brown Cosmetics (Leonard Lauder wisely told her to “always ask for forgiveness, never ask for permission”), she's now in a free position to do things exactly how she wants.
That means simple packaging (a brown paper bag instead of a fancy box) and irreverent product names like What The Foundation (WTF).
Brown pays attention to details big and small.
Twenty minutes into our conversation on Jones Road in Williamsburg, she pauses to point out that one of the shop's glossy posters has a white mark, what looks like a faint scratch.
“I realized the moment I walked in… and now I'm going to focus on that. [they] “Bring another photo. I think the poster could be bigger…we have the space on the wall,” she said.
Attention to detail is fundamental to success: “The details make the difference,” she explains.
“Anyone who's in business knows that other people don't see what we see, and that's hard.”
Because Jones Road is small, she does a lot of things herself, rather than outsourcing to a team of employees.
She chooses the models for the shoot, applies the makeup, selects the photos and even edits them.
“I'm pretty involved in anything that I'm interested in and that I'm good at,” she says. “I'm pretty much involved in anything that I want to be involved in.”
But despite her success, Brown remains humble and unassuming, brushing off flattery like it's powder.
“I didn't invent makeup,” she joked. “I just reinvented it, right?”
This story is part of “NYNext,” a new editorial series showcasing innovations and those leading the way across industries in New York City.
