Bobbi Brown On Jones Road Beauty, Investing In Herself, And Miracle Products

Five years after stepping back from her eponymous beauty brand, legendary makeup artist Bobbi Brown is back to market with a shiny new empire-in-the-making, Jones Road Beauty.

And, if her disk necklace stamped with ‘10.20’ (the month and year that her 25-year non-compete with Estée Lauder expired) is anything to go by, it couldn’t come soon enough.

“My desire to create Jones Road was simple— I was back to being a makeup artist and realized that the makeup I was doing on set was exactly how I was doing my own,” Brown tells me. “I quickly saw an opportunity to teach this fresh, new aesthetic to others, and knew the products I needed to do so.”

With the lift of her non-compete looming and an initial $2 million investment, funded by herself and her husband, she got to work.

“Whenever I believe in a project, I put my entire being into it. For me, it’s not about the minutes or hours, it’s about passion for the product and wanting others to love it as much as I do.”

Off the bat, she knew she wanted to create ‘clean’ beauty and skincare products that contained no phthalates, sulfates, petrolatum, PEGs, cyclic silicones, EDTA, or BPA, but had no idea if it could be achieved.

“The process was actually really joyful and exciting. I hadn’t been one on one with labs since the beginning of it all, so everything felt new again. I wasn’t sure if the products I wanted to make—high performance and clean—were even possible.”

To start, she brainstormed a small collection of beauty ‘must-haves’ and approached labs that were already making clean formulas so both visions could be understood, no matter how many product revisions she sent back.

“Sometimes it was two and sometimes it was one hundred!” she admits. “I couldn’t have done it without my brand new micro team of two product developers who just got on with it all.”

And, as you might expect, the fruits of their labor have not fallen short of Brown’s expectations. The 20-piece Jones Road Beauty collection (soft-launched in the US last October, almost 25 years to the day since she made her Estée Lauder deal) became an instant hit among clean beauty fans.

Particularly ‘hero product’ The Face Pencil, dubbed ‘the everything stick’, which can be used as both a concealer and foundation—color-correcting redness, dark spots, discoloration and more with a skin-like finish.

But Brown herself has another favorite. “Our Miracle Balm really amazes me— it’s the perfect combination of moisture and tint, and just a few pats on the face makes you look instantly better.

“It can be used literally anywhere: on the cheeks, eyes, lips, neck, legs and body, or even to pat down hair flyaways. I love every shade but Tawny is definitely the favorite for my skin tone— it gives me the perfect post-vacation look.”

As both US and international demand grew, Brown decided she’d expand the business’ scope to the UK.

“I actually think there are a lot of similarities between the two markets,” she says. “There will always be people that love a full face of contoured, strong makeup. I find it so exciting to see people love this fresher, un made up aesthetic, which I view as much more modern.

“I’ve always been obsessed with the UK so it was truly a dream to launch there. I’m excited to see which products are the most loved and grow the range accordingly.”

Brown is keeping operations as intimate as possible for now; the brand has less than ten full-time employees, conducts product launches on Instagram (rather than wasting money on marketing), and its HQ less than one mile from her Montclair, New Jersey, home.

Which is exactly where rumors circulating of a standalone Jones Road Beauty store launching later this year.

Nevertheless, her short- and long-term goals remain the same. “I hope that we continue to create best in class formulas and grow awareness of the brand, all while simplifying people’s everyday routines. Our team is a young, scrappy group of nice people that truly enjoy working and spending time together.

“We have so much to look forward to, including monthly new product launches.”