Bobbi Brown


Bobbi Brown is an American professional makeup artist and the founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Brown has written nine books about makeup, beauty, and wellness. She has been the Beauty Editor of The Today Show and Beauty & Lifestyle editor of the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show radio broadcast. In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.
, New Zealand

Biography

Born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois. Brown has 5 siblings including her step siblings. Brown graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a self-directed degree in theatrical makeup. In 1980, she moved to New York City to work as a professional makeup artist. Brown became known for a makeup style that included moderate and natural tones, which was a stark contrast to the bright colors used at the time.
She and a drugstore chemist created a line of lipsticks. In 1991, Brown and her husband partnered with another couple to launch the brand Bobbi Brown Essentials, which debuted at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.
A chance meeting with the grandmother of an NBC Today Show producer led to a 12-year run as a regular beauty consultant on the show. The revolutionary success of her makeup line prompted Estée Lauder to buy the company in 1995, retaining Brown as an employee. Her work has since been featured on the covers of magazines such as Elle, Vogue, Self and Town & Country. Brown was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2013. Brown served as Yahoo Beauty's Editor-in-Chief from February 2014 to February 2016.
In November 2017, Brown received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award for her work in Beauty.

Bobbi Brown Essentials

In 1990, Brown worked with a chemist to come up with ten natural lipstick shades. In 1991, the ten shades debuted under the name Bobbi Brown Essentials at Bergdorf Goodman. She was expecting to sell 100 in a month but instead sold 100 in a day. The following year, she released yellow-toned foundation sticks. Estée Lauder Companies Inc. bought Bobbi Brown Essentials in 1995; Brown retained complete creative control of the makeup line. In 2007, the first freestanding Bobbi Brown Cosmetics retail store opened in Auckland, New Zealand with a makeup school in the back. In 2012, Bobbi Brown's cosmetics were estimated to represent approximately ten percent of Estée Lauder Companies' total sales. As of January 2014, there were approximately thirty free-standing Bobbi Brown cosmetics stores.
In December 2016, it was announced that Brown would step down from the company by the end of the year.

Other product lines

Bobbi Brown has a collection of six fragrances named Bobbi, Beach, Bath, Almost Bare, Bobbi's Party, and Bed.
In 2013, she collaborated with Safilo Group S.p.A. to produce an eyewear line, Bobbi Brown Eyewear.
In 2019, she announced new wellness line, Evolution_18.

Books

Bobbi Brown Cosmetics launched The Pretty Powerful Campaign for Women & Girls on International Women's Day in 2013. Pretty Powerful supports organizations that seek to empower women through job skills training programs and girls through education. Beneficiaries to date include Dress for Success, the Broome Street Academy High School, and the Girl Rising Fund.

Personal life

Brown is married to Steven Plofker, has three sons, and lives in New Jersey. She spends her summers in Bay Head on the Jersey Shore.