LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE:
If you, like me, have lived most of your life in fear of foundation, this week’s guest is your saviour. Because this woman saved us no-makeup makeup girls’ lives.
Back in 1991, Bobbi Brown was a makeup artist frustrated by the fact that most makeup looked like a mask. So she produced a range of 10 lipsticks that actually matched people’s lips. Shocker! Those lipsticks were the start of something huge: the first eponymous make up artist led beauty brand. A brand that Bobbi sold to Estee Lauder just four years later for a reported $74.5million dollars
Then, after 22 years at Estée Lauder, Bobbi left the company. Suddenly. Then… silence. What nobody knew at the time was that at the age of 37 she had signed a 25 year non-compete. Twenty five years! And she used the rest of that time to regain her mojo.
Then, Bobbi reappeared with her brilliant new brand Jones Road Beauty (hands up, I’m a big fan), and now she’s decided it’s time to tell her own story, in her own words in her autobiography, Still Bobbi.
Back in 2022, to celebrate the launch of Jones Road, Bobbi joined me from her house in the Hamptons to talk about how she reinvented herself in her sixties. We also discussed the emotional wrench of leaving her name and her legacy behind, how to get what you want at work (and at home), seeing the beauty in growing older and the joy of nobody trying to fix you.
Listen to the full episode here:
If you enjoyed this episode with Bobbi, you might also like my conversations with accessories designer, Anya Hindmarch:
And entrepreneur Trinny Woodall:
• For more info on all the books mentioned in every episode of The Shift with Sam Baker podcast, visit The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org.
