It’s a new chapter for Brown who, two years ago this month, launched Jones Road, a direct-to-consumer beauty line in Brown’s signature minimalist, “no-makeup makeup” style. Jones Road is the first cosmetics company Brown has been allowed to create since selling her first brand, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, to Estee Lauder for a reported $74.5 million in 1995. Then 38 years old, Brown signed a 25-year non-compete clause, figuring she’d be happy turning Bobbi Brown Cosmetics into a billion-dollar brand under the umbrella of a bigger company until it was time to retire in her 60s.
While Brown maintains that she doesn’t regret signing the 25-year non-compete—“I don’t believe in mistakes,” she said. “I believe in an opportunity to shift and fix things”—she nonetheless got an itch to leave Estee Lauder before the contract was up. She announced her departure at the end of 2016, and bought herself a necklace charm with the date when she’d be legally allowed to operate in the beauty space again: 1020, for October 2020.
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