Bobbi Brown on Real Faces, Botox and a Beauty-World Shift

Brown says the idea of real faces was a radical shift when she began her career, and the concept now contrasts with a beauty culture that leans heavily on cosmetic procedures. The back cover of her new memoir Still Bobbi notes the 'crazy thought' in 1980 that real faces are beautiful—a sentiment Brown says has evolved as cosmetic technology and acceptance have changed by 2025.

In the 1980s Brown built her reputation by working with the era’s top models. She describes Ali MacGraw as a revelation after seeing Love Story, and notes that she once applied makeup to Carla Bruni for campaigns during that period. She recalls that, in the fashion world of that era, real faces meant people without nose jobs, freckles visible, and gaps in teeth, a standard she says later shifted as the industry embraced more procedures.

Brown’s early years were marked by a backstage pass to the era’s supermodels, including Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista. By 1991, she launched her eponymous brand based on 10 shades of lipstick. The line was successful enough that Estée Lauder bought it four years later and turned it into a billion-dollar business, though a noncompete barred Brown from using her name on other lines for 25 years. In her memoir she describes how the deal let her reach a broad audience while shaping the path she would later take, including leaving Lauder in 2016 to seek a fresh start.

Brown stepped out on her own with Jones Road on October 26, 2020, the day her noncompete ended. Raised in Wilmette, a Chicago suburb, she grew up in a family with entrepreneurial roots: her grandfather owned a Cadillac dealership and her father practiced law. Her mother pursued fad diets and beauty routines, and her Aunt Alice helped keep the household grounded. Those influences, Brown writes, helped fuse pragmatic glamour with ambition and resilience that would define her career.

Brown writes about formative moments with a mother who encouraged beauty yet also faced challenges. She recalls Ali MacGraw as a guiding image and praises Sarah Jessica Parker for aging with her own face intact, saying she admires Parker for not chasing drastic changes.

On cosmetic procedures, Brown reveals two Botox experiences at age 40. The first injection caused an eye to droop, prompting concern that she was having a stroke; the second produced a cartoonish brow. She emphasizes that the experience was a turning point and that she is grateful for the lesson. While not ruling out doctors or devices entirely, she cautions that some work can be good but not reversible.

More recently, Brown has explored noninvasive options such as Sofwave to tighten skin and boost collagen. She says Ulthera was more painful and that the technology has evolved since then. In addition to cosmetic choices, she credits her nearly four-decade marriage to Steven Plofker for support of aging naturally.

Looking beyond her life in cosmetics, Brown reflects on a culture-wide shift toward natural beauty and wearable makeup that still photographs well. She frames her journey as part of a broader industry evolution, not a rejection of makeup artistry but a recalibration of how beauty is defined and pursued by different generations.

Brown has three sons and two grandchildren and has built Jones Road into a platform for clean beauty, evidence of how a single mentor to the beauty industry can become a lasting business leader. The memoir closes with a sense of continuity: an ongoing commitment to products and principles that favor real skin, real expression, and aging with authenticity.