The beauty industry is obsessed with anti-aging, but Bobbi Brown isn’t
The beauty industry is full of anti-aging products. Bobbi Brown believes they’re mostly hogwash. “That stuff is not going to make you look younger, or be younger,” she says. ”And why would you want to be younger anyway?”
[Photo: Jones Road]
Brown is one of the best-known make-up artists of our time. She’s been a fixture of the beauty industry for nearly 40 years. Her eponymous makeup brand Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, generates nearly $10 billion a year. But at 67, Brown sees a gap in the market for makeup designed for aging skin. She also believes that most makeup brands don’t know how to speak to women past their thirties. “The beauty industry tells us that it’s not good to get older,” she says. “But it’s amazing getting older.”
So, in 2020, Brown decided to fill the gap herself. She launched a direct-to-consumer makeup startup called Jones Road that is meant for women of all ages, but is specifically tailored to the needs of women over 50. She’s created a range of innovative, hydrating makeup products that are perfectly suited to older skin that can become dry and dull.
Jones Road is now leaning into its identity as a brand that appeals to older women. It has just dropped a new campaign called “I Am Me” that features women with white hair and lines on their faces. (Brown is allergic to the word “wrinkle”.) These women talk about embracing this phase of life and wanting to look like the best version of themselves, rather than someone younger. Brown believes the brand can do more than just create makeup for older skin: it can push back against ingrained narratives about how aging is bad.
Makeup is a growing—and aging—market
The $374.18 billion beauty industry is overcrowded, with new brands launching daily. But Brown believes that there is still room to grow by targeting older women, who tends to be left out of the conversation when it comes to makeup. It’s proven to be a lucrative approach for Jones Road, which generated more than $100 million in revenue last year, just three years into the business.
In a strange twist, Bobbi Brown is no longer associated with the brand that bears her name. She launched the company in 1991 in her mid-thirties, after developing a reputation as a top-notch makeup artist at fashion shows. Her approach was to use products to create a natural aesthetic that made you look like a slightly more polished version of yourself. Her makeup brand was such a hit that Estee Lauder acquired it three years later for a reported $74.5 million. Brown stayed on as chief creative officer for two decades.
[Photo: Jones Road]
A decade ago, Brown was eager to do something new, but she was bound to a non-compete agreement with Estee Lauder until October 2020. The day it expired—smack in the middle of the pandemic—Brown launched Jones Road.
With the new brand, Brown’s approach has stayed the same. She’s still interested in helping to create the “no-makeup” look. But in the years since her first startup, there’s been a focus on creating non-toxic beauty products. She partnered with a lab that formulates products free of more than 2,700 potentially harmful ingredients.
Brown also had ideas for interesting new kinds of products that didn’t yet exist on the market. Her very first product was Miracle Balm. She realized that many products designed for adding color—like blush and bronzer—came in powder form that can dry out the skin. Powders can also make facial lines look deeper than they are. So she created a thick balm with a Vaseline-like consistency, that has both color and shimmer in it.
Her other products have a similarly hydrating formula. Her foundation has a thick, creamy texture, which is meant to combine the benefits of moisturizer with makeup. Her bronzer comes in gel form. She has a face oil that contains a shimmer, to give the skin a boost of moisture while creating a subtle glow.
[Photo: Jones Road]
A Social Media Sensation
Brown wasn’t expecting Jones Road to take off. She imagined it would be more of a small pandemic side hustle. And with no stores or in-person events, the only way to introduce the brand to customers was online. So Brown hired the most social-media savvy person she knew to be her marketer: Cody Plofker, her son.
As TikTok was taking off, Plofker decided to be nimble. He put Brown in front of a camera, so she could talk directly to TikTok users. In the first few videos, Brown simply took questions and Plofker noticed that many women were asking questions about how to do makeup when you’re over 50. “TikTok started with a younger audience, but then it went more mainstream,” he says. “And influencers on TikTok tended to focus on trendy, dramatic makeup. Older demographics weren’t finding what they were looking for.”
[Photo: Jones Road]
Plofker realized they should lean in to that messaging. While the skincare industry targets older women with products that promise to keep skin looking young and healthy, makeup brands tend to target younger consumers. Their ads generally feature young models with dewy, wrinkle-free skin. “Bobbi has an audience that has been following her for decades,” he says. “They were looking to her to help them navigate makeup in their current stage of life, where many other brands aren’t really marketing to them.”
As it happens, Brown has strong views about what kind of makeup works well for older women. She points out that as skin ages, it tends to lose moisture. So it’s crucial that all the makeup they use on their face be highly moisturizing. “I create products that instantly make you look healthy and radiant,” Brown says. “I don’t like to use the term ‘youthful glow.’ It’s about looking their age, but the very best version of themselves.”
Jones Road has resonated with women of all ages, but older women are certainly accelerating the brand’s growth. The brand sells entirely through it’s own channels. In addition to its website, there’s also a fleet of five stores across the country and more coming. For Brown, getting the chance to launch another beauty brand has been an unexpected joy, one that demonstrates to other women that it’s never too late to start something new.
This post originally appeared at fastcompany.com
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