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Brown had founded her namesake brand, Bobbi Brown Essentials, about five years before.
Photographed by Max Burkhalter
(She and a friend had each put up $5,000 to produce the line.)
And, of course, Brown was relinquishing her name.
“Im like, Im not going to want to work when Im in my 60s!
Brown with her son Dylan in February 1991, on the day her first collection of lipsticks launched at Bergdorf Goodman. PHOTO: Bobbi Brown personal archives.
Thats fine.'”
PHOTO: Bobbi Brown personal archives.
Turns out 38-year-old Bobbi Brown didnt know much about 63-year-old Bobbi Brown.
Jones Road Beauty is formulated to meet the European Union’s stringent ingredient safety standards. The lineup includes seven shades of moisturizing “Cool Gloss” (above left) and four all-over light-reflecting “Miracle Balms” (above right, from bottom: Dusty Rose, Tawny, Clear, and Bronze). “I don’t know a lot, but one thing I think I know is formula. I just get it," says Brown, whose journey to creating a clean line started where anyone’s might: “I was Googling ‘clean labs.'"
Because 63-year-old Bobbi Brown has every intention of working hard.
On October 26, 2020, she launched her second makeup line in 30 years:Jones Road.
It has to be meaningful, right?
Brown in her Montclair NJ studio/office in January 2021. Brown’s embrace of social media was early and full — her Instagram accounts currently include @justbobbidotcom, @bbportfolio, and of course @jonesroadbeauty. “It’s funny, I used to take pictures of my children and print them and cut them in squares and tape them together. And then I would pull out this little cut-up, taped-up thing [to show people photos of my kids]. It was Instagram!"
Maybe Jones Road is the Chicago street of her Russian immigrant grandfathers car dealership.
Or the address where she first met Steven Plofker, her husband of 32 years.
Perhaps her third son was born in the backseat of a car racing down Jones Road to the hospital?
Brown in action backstage at the Ford Models “Face of the ’80s" fashion show. PHOTO: Bobbi Brown personal archives
Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
“It came from Waze,” says Brown.
Jones Road Beauty is formulated to meet the European Union’s stringent ingredient safety standards.
Allure’s first coverage of Bobbi Brown, in the June 1991 issue
I don’t know a lot, but one thing I think I know is formula.
The name was one of the last elements to fall into place.
I couldn’t do it.
Brown and two of her three sons, Dylan (left) and Cody (right), at home in Montclair, NJ in the 1990s (if you couldn’t tell from the denim).
I wasn’t talented enough to do what Kevyn Aucoin did.
And it started catching on."
Then there were the lipsticks, the Lauder deal, the 14-year run as theTodayshows beauty editor.
Brown did the makeup for her first Allure cover in November 1993, on model Bridget Hall
Bobbi Brown was the worlds patron saint of “natural makeup.”
(Her products came to be sold on every continent except Antarctica.)
But you know what?
“It was still a lot of friggin' makeup,” says 2021 Brown.
“Too much makeup, if you ask me now.
And I want to be part of showing people how good they could look without it.
Its a pencil for your face, and its called, well,The Face Pencil.
“[Jones Road] isnt ‘no-makeup makeup.’
You just look so much better,” says Brown.
“I wanted to have a hashtag called ‘how not to look like shit.’
Really, it’s why I wear makeup.
This is the only thing I can put on that…
I don’t look bad, I look better.'
I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s the idea.'”
Brown in her Montclair NJ studio/office in January 2021.
It was Instagram!”
“It was like putting me on Mars,” she says.
“There was nothing corporate about me.”
For one thing, “I didn’t go to business school.”
(Brown studied theater makeup at Emerson College in Boston.)
And also, “I don’t know how to bang out.”
(Though she has managed to author nine books about beauty and wellness.)
“And I certainly don’t know how to, you know, dress appropriately.”
But Brown adjusted to, and ultimately thrived in, that air in outer space.
And growing into a founder that was not “just” a creative force.
Just beg for forgiveness."
Brown in action backstage at the Ford Models Face of the ’80s" fashion show.
PHOTO: Bobbi Brown personal archives
But then, in 2016, Bobbi Brown left Bobbi Brown.
“Anyone thats been a founder and then becomes part of a corporation [understands].
Lets just say it was time for me to be the boss again.”
Browns budding new empire is about 11 teams short of having 12 different teams.
She has seven full-time employees and her office is 0.9 miles from her Montclair, New Jersey, home.
Or maybe its buttery makeup that you’re able to scoop out with four fingers?
Anyway, whatever this stuff is, people wanted it… and it was gone.
Until, one day, the team found 2,500 units they didnt know they had.
But the boxes they came in wouldnt be ready for a couple more months.
Or… “We took a sandwich bag,” says Brown.
In four hours wed sold all 2,500."
I can exclusively share that Bobbi Brown in fact has a longstanding affinity for sandwich bags.
First thing, get yourself some deep, honest, youve-got-this love.
In 1990, he did those post office runs and offered the encouragement that wasnt coming from anywhere else.
“It was the opposite of that.
You would never tell anyoneanything.
“Hes really into it,” says Brown.
“And I couldnt have done this without him.
Day to day, I know what needs to be done.
But I couldnt have set up the structure.
Im not someone that sets up structure.”
Second thing, somewhere below true, unconditional love: Use your common sense.
And then maybe get yourself a uniform.
“Finally, I was like: This doesnt make sense.”
But I would still carry the high shoes for certain events,” she says.
“Im five feet tall.
I mean, you should see the pictures of me standing next to theObamas.”
Third, be a little clueless and highly optimistic.
“I don’t think, Oh, I’m too scared.
I might lose all my money.
I might lose my reputation,” says Brown, matter-of-factly.
“It’s not fearlessness.
I’m just naive.”
“New companies are like babies,” she says.
And then, all of a sudden, the baby starts to not sleep and poops.
And you’re like, all right, now what?
Then youve gotta know who the baby is and give them time to grow.
Having a brand is the same thing."
“So… is your baby having colic and diarrhea right now?”
I ask in a follow-up question I could not have predicted when preparing for this interview.
“Its happening at the right speed.
Were catching up with demand.
I like to win.
Im competitive with myself, but Im not in oh-my-god-we-have-to-do-this-quickly mode.”
Because I’m getting bombarded on social… people want it.
They just want it, you know?
I mean, that’s cool."
(“Were not going into a department store.")
And as for the cash?
“Im never saying never, but we dont need it right now.”
Brown does know one thing for sure, though: “This isn’t my last gig.
Because I’m an entrepreneur.
I just love making things up and figuring things out.”
