Bobbi Brown left her namesake makeup brand 7 years ago. The rest of the world hasn't caught up.
- Bobbi Brown sold her namesake beauty brand in 1995 and left the company in 2016.
- But even some of her biggest fans don't know she's no longer part of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.
Bobbi Brown is the makeup icon behind nine books, countless TV segments, and a cult-favorite beauty brand.
But we're not talking about Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.
After founding her eponymous brand in 1991 with a range of 10 lipsticks, the entrepreneur sold her company to Estée Lauder in 1995 for a reported $74.5 million. The deal also included a noncompete agreement that prevented her from creating cosmetics for 25 years.
She departed the company entirely in December 2016 after years of working on the creative side.
But Brown told Business Insider that even some of her biggest fans are unaware of her career change.
"I can't believe that people are still coming up to me and telling me what's wrong with their Bobbi Brown Cosmetics products," she told BI. "I'm like, 'I've been gone from that brand six and a half years.' Even today, someone sent me something like, 'These are breaking!' And I'm like, 'Lady, lady! Open up your Instagram."
Now, 66-year-old Brown is entirely focused on Jones Road, her brand of simple cosmetic products that help people emphasize their natural beauty.
The company is massively successful — via its website, TikTok, and stand-alone stores — and has a dedicated fan base that loves its products and Brown's beauty tips, which she regularly shares on its social-media accounts.
But while 99% of the fans she meets applaud her new brand, Brown said she knows a few are likely referencing her former company.
"It is what it is," she said. "When people stop me on the street — which is happening much more, more even than when I was on QVC and the 'Today' show as the beauty editor — they stop me and go, 'My God, I love your makeup. It's all I wear.' And I'm like, 'Which makeup?'"
When Brown first sold her company in the '90s, she was unphased by the gravity of the sale.
"I was in my early 30s when we sold the company, and my husband said, 'I just want you to know they bought your name for cosmetics,'" she recalled to BI. "I was like, 'OK, they can have my name.'"
But she was more emotional when she officially left the company in 2016.
"I definitely had to go through some kind of a mourning period," she said.
After time away from Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and a successful three years with Jones Road, the mogul said she's "been able to let a lot of that go."
"Honestly, it's not the same brand it was when I was there," she said of her first company. "The colors, the formulas, it's completely different. The packaging, the visuals, there's nothing that is me, and that's fine. Jones Road is 100% me."