Make-up artist Bobbi Brown: ‘I have lines on my face and I’m okay with that’

When popular beauty TikToker Meredith Duxbury horsed almost a full pot of Jones Road What the Foundation on to her face in one sitting and posted it online last year, the renowned make-up artist and founder of Jones Road, Bobbi Brown, didn’t quite know what to make of it. Duxbury’s “thing” is applying impossible quantities of foundation for a fuller-than-full coverage look. She applied handfuls of What the Foundation – the hugely popular less-is-more, moisturising brainchild of Brown, whose preference for minimal natural make-up has always been her “thing” – and declared, “It’s going to be a no from me. I really wanted to like this though.” Brown, who is one of the most influential make-up artists, responded by making a tongue-in-cheek short video good-naturedly mimicking Duxbury’s application technique with her foundation.

“My response wasn’t intended to be posted,” Brown tells me. “It was done as a joke for the Jones Road team. But it ended up being a very positive experience for the brand.” The original video and Brown’s response went viral. The foundation sold out and made Bobbi Brown’s young brand globally visible overnight. This was the sort of unorthodox marketing success that wasn’t possible before the social media era, when Brown first started her career as a beauty entrepreneur. It was in some ways a masterclass in the bottled lightning that is viral social media marketing. Brown launched Jones Road in 2020, at the age of 63.

When I launched the first brand, it was a world of crazy make-up. I was this new person saying, ‘No, you should look like yourself’

It was not a good time to launch a new beauty brand. “Nobody could have stopped me,” she smiles. “Not my husband, not PR people who literally said, ‘What are you doing? It’s a week before the presidential election, during a pandemic, in the middle of social unrest.’ And I just said, ‘I want to do this.’” Brown doesn’t just accept how different the beauty industry is now to when she started her first brand but seems genuinely invigorated by the knowledge. The newer direct-to-consumer brand is leaner and more dynamic than the old model, she says. “When I used to do personal appearances at department stores like Brown Thomas or Harrods in London, if we got 50 people and did $30,000 in business, it would be a huge success. Now, the joy is that I just get to go rogue.” Social media has allowed Brown to run Jones Road in a way that connects directly to her consumer “without relying on the old machinery” that was once critical to beauty marketing. “I can reach far more people.”

Brown, who is in many ways the original make-up artist founder, launched a 10-strong lipstick line in 1991. After a dominant make-up-heavy aesthetic enduring through the 1980s, which continued into the 90s and was spearheaded by other leading artists such as Kevyn Aucoin, her minimalism was radically different, and it appealed to female consumers. Brown invented the “no make-up make-up look” and pioneered the five-minute face. In a beauty industry that ignored all but white complexions and advertised to women’s insecurity, Brown’s brand featured inclusive shade ranges. Its marketing was non-invasive, seeking to influence through neither glamour nor shame, but selling women their own inherent potential for beauty. Irish women loved it. “When I launched the first brand, it was a world of crazy make-up. I was this new person saying, ‘No, you should look like yourself,’ and that really was new.”

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Brown sold her eponymous brand to Estée Lauder a few years later for a reported $74.5 million. It allowed her to maintain creative control but still be present at home with her then young sons. She stayed on for more than two decades but is open about the fact that she felt limited by the time she left in 2016. “Now I just get to be me. When I was a 30-year-old make-up artist trying to figure out how to get a lipstick into people’s hands, I didn’t know who ‘me’ was yet.”

When she sold her first brand, Brown signed a non-compete agreement that would bar her from launching any new beauty brand for 25 years. After some time off to adjust to life outside her former role at Estée Lauder and leaving the brand that still carries her name behind, she says, “I had no idea what I was going to do. It was one of those rare moments in life when you have a clean slate. That was scary to someone who has always been so busy. So active. It took me a while to kind of figure out who I am, what I love to do and what I miss doing. But I realised that I missed the world of make-up.” Brown decided to return to the life of a jobbing make-up artist but found obstacles in her way, some of which were inadvertently contributed to by her success. “I went out and tried to find an agent who would represent me as a freelance make-up artist. I couldn’t find an agent who’d take me on. I guess I was too known and, you know, too old.”

Beneath her warm manner and straight-to-the-point delivery, Brown exudes a magnetic confidence that suggests she has absolutely no time for anyone’s nonsense. While things are improving, the beauty industry as a whole remains obsessed with youth – the capturing, elevation and exultation of it. Being treated as though she had aged out of make-up artistry despite being one of the most recognisable names in it annoyed Brown but did not deter her. “I just started calling people and saying, ‘I’m available,’ and I ended up back in the studio doing make-up. I also went back to school and got certified as a health coach.” Brown decided to launch a beauty brand that melded the direct-to-consumer model with her interest in health-conscious formulations and her classic minimal make-up aesthetic.

“I launched Jones Road in October 2020, the day my 25-year non-compete was up,” she says. If the 30-something Brown who couldn’t afford to package her initial lipstick line in boxes was unsure of herself, the 60-something Brown shares none of that trepidation. Having built success the first time around, she doesn’t take Jones Road’s popularity and growth for granted, but also has the composure of someone who knows precisely what she is doing. Some might consider the stakes to be higher this time, given Brown’s former success with her eponymous brand, but she doesn’t see it that way. Success this time is “just this wonderful thing”, she says. “I’m incredibly surprised by how positive people’s reactions have been, and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t do this because I am just really, really into it,” she laughs. “It’s fun starting all over. It doesn’t feel scary to me.”

I do not believe in anti-ageing, but I certainly spend a lot of time and energy on feeling good in my 60s

When we talk on Zoom, Brown is in her Florida home and has just come from a session with her trainer. Her healthy lifestyle is the stuff of beauty industry legend. Brown is make-up free but generally wears less make-up these days, she says, and believes the same is true of a lot of beauty consumers who just want to look like themselves. “I don’t care about trends at all,” she says emphatically. “Like, zero. I do not care. Especially as we get older, I think we just have to embrace who we are.” Brown says she has always found beauty where the face departs from perfection. “When I was a kid, if you weren’t blonde with blue eyes – and I wasn’t – forget it, you weren’t attractive ... but the beauty landscape is so much better now. I’ve always loved women who have gaps in their teeth, a strong nose, who have lines on their face.”

Brown is distinctly in favour of ageing and the self-knowledge that comes with it. “I’m so sorry,” she laughs sarcastically. “I have lines on my face and I’m okay with that. Do I sometimes wish they weren’t there? Sure. But they’re my friends now, so I make peace with them and put creams on, so they just look better. I do not believe in anti-ageing, but I certainly spend a lot of time and energy on feeling good in my 60s.” Tweakments aren’t for her though, Brown says. Skincare and make-up are all the facial enhancement she feels a need for. “There’s more room for unapologetic acceptance than there used to be. That’s a good thing.”

Jones Road allows Brown to pursue creative ideas and make products that, in a more traditional corporate context, would be considered too risky and, frankly, too weird. Brown formulates the products that she wishes existed. The brand launches online to Irish consumers today, and Brown says there’s a lot more coming in terms of product innovation. “I’m probably not supposed to tell you, but there’s no one here to stop me,” she chuckles. “We have a loose powder coming next. I don’t do ‘baking’. I don’t even know what that is. This is a tinted powder that does not look like you have anything on. That’s how I do make-up. How I have always done it.” It’s true. Brown has found a way to market her classic beauty aesthetic to a new generation overwhelmed by choice and high-effort beauty norms, but while still catering to women her own age. Her products are forgiving and high reward for low effort. The beauty industry may have changed, but 30 years later, Brown still knows exactly how to find her way to the top.