When Bobbi Brown launched her namesake make-up brand in 1991 she was the original beauty industry disruptor, selling it four years later to Estée Lauder for a reported $US74.5 million ($114 million).
At the time, the former make-up artist wasn’t worried about the 25-year non-compete clause in the contract.
“I didn’t want to do it again when I left,” says Brown, 68, on a Zoom call from her home in New Jersey. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”
Jones Road founder Bobbi Brown with supermodel Christie Brinkley and actor Lorraine Bracco in New York in August.Credit: Getty Images
Having pioneered the concept of a cult cosmetics brand – her brown lip colour was everywhere in the early nineties – Brown demonstrated that you could make your beauty mark without becoming another Revlon or Maybelline.
Following the deal Brown stayed on as creative director at Bobbi Brown Cosmetics until 2016. She launched a boutique hotel in New Jersey, which she is still involved with, and a supplement range, which she isn’t. “When you leave a brand you have to brush yourself off and clean the cobwebs out of your brain and start again.”
“I finally got to sit back and see what was happening in beauty. The old brands were looking really old, and the new brands were looking exciting... I saw a hole in the market.”
“The older brands were overly packaged and overly marketed, making all of these promises. I’ve never been someone that believes those promises mean anything.”
Suddenly, the non-compete clause became a countdown clock. It expired on a Saturday in May 2020. On the Monday, Brown launched Jones Road Beauty.
Her second beauty venture follows Brown’s no-fuss beauty philosophy, with minimal packaging and clean ingredients, free of sulphates, parabens and phthalates.
Jones Road also embodies Brown’s ability to spot a profitable trend. Brown and her property developer husband Steven Plofker started Jones Road with $3 million of their own money, targeting the clean beauty market which was valued at $12.4 billion in 2024 and is predicted to reach $50.6 billion by 2034.
“I started messing around with formulas, and I was like, oh my these are so good.”
Beauty entrepreneur Bobbi Brown has returned to the world of cosmetics with Jones Road.
“I wanted it to look like a really cool brand, like Balenciaga, and I wanted to keep the cost down. I don’t think people should pay for the packaging.”
What people are paying for is Jones Road’s Miracle Balm, What The Foundation, Lip and Cheek Sticks and mascara, made available to Australians through their website this month. The foundations, balms and tinted moisturisers are hands-on products designed to layer and enhance rather than conceal complexions.
“I’m someone who doesn’t like a lot of make-up, but I like to look better and not tired,” she says.
On our call, having finished a long day surveying a packaging show – “I used to have people who did this for me, but now I’m right in there” – Brown looks far from tired. She has avoided the stretched appearance of many of her industry peers but her spitfire remarks and enthusiasm for the beauty industry make it difficult to stop and examine her eyelashes or lip line. You focus on Brown instead of her make-up.
That hasn’t stopped her from stepping into the social media space, dominated by smooth-skinned young people with convoluted routines and countless products.
In 2022, when beauty influencer Meredith Duxbury posted an unfavourable viral review of Jones Road’s What The Foundation, having incorrectly applied it, Brown clapped back. By mimicking Duxbury’s flawed techniques and providing correct instructions, the entrepreneur tapped a new market on TikTok.
“I’m my best when I’m myself,” she says. “I’m authentic and I don’t try hard. If I try to be something I’m not, you know, like, super, super cool, super intellectual, I just sound like an idiot.”
Brown’s definition of cool is slightly different to most of us. In April, she attended the TIME100 Gala, alongside Snoop Dogg, Scarlett Johansson and Caroline Kennedy, having made the list.
“But people love it when I show real things like my messy closet after the TIME100 Gala,” she says. “People were like, ‘oh, my god, my closet looks like that too’.”
Relating to Brown is becoming increasingly difficult, with Jones Road on its way to helping her amass another fortune. Industry sources estimate the business surpassed $245 million in revenue in 2024.
For now, however, Brown is focusing on the journey with Jones Road and not the destination of another gigantic pay day.
“Our revenue is not indie beauty, but our mindset is indie beauty 100 per cent.”
“I still feel the pressure to make something better than anything else that I’ve tried,” she says. “You just have to be quick.”
Having waited 25 years, Brown is ready to race the second lap.
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