Bobbi Brown - Make-up Artist and Businesswoman The 100 Women Interviews

Bobby Brown is an internationally renowned businesswoman and make-up

artist began her career in New York. In those days, the Scandinavian look

was in vogue. But she created looks for women of all shapes. She started

with lipstick, and now, with a career of three decades, she has

become synonymous with a clean and polished look loved by women all

over the world. I talk to her about building a successful business and

promoting inclusiveness in an exclusive industry.

Welcome to the BBC's 100 Women Series. Growing up, you were

inspired by your mother applying make-up. Has it's always been

important to you? When I was a young child watching my mother doing that

I was amazed how beautiful she looked. -- it. She was never overly

made up, but she transformed into this incredibly beautiful creature.

It was the seventies. It was a little bit about looking like Cher,

you know, very sexy and Ricky. You started your career in 1980 when you

moved here to become a make-up artist. -- pretty. When I moved to

yield in the 80s I did not know anyone and didn't know what I was

going to do. -- New York. I moved out and try to get a job as a

waitress which I wasn't successful with. So I thought I should make it

as a make-up artist. I didn't know what to do and had no idea. I didn't

know anyone. So I opened the Yellow Pages and look up make-up and called

modelling agencies and ask how I can start working. -- asked. I put

together a portfolio and it took a few months to get a job with a

magazine. Tell me about your company in the early days and what it is

now. I had just had my first child when I started, I was living in the

suburbs, outside the city, learning to be a mother and commuting. I was

also a work of artists, doing shoes. -- work-up. It was me and my

partner. I never thought what I was doing was wrong. It's just made

sense to me. There were so many big companies out there that were my

competition. -- It. I never thought of them as that. I had tunnel vision

and was running as fast as I could. I was adding products as I could and

was running home at night to take care of my children and see my

husband and in the morning I would go back to work and either do a

shoot or go back to my office. I never really looked at the

competition because what I was creating was something that didn't

exist. I really thought that my cosmetics were different than

everything else out there. Now I know I was finding a niche. Tell us

about your big break. Many of the things I was organically doing what

me on the map. I was a make-up artist when I started the company.

Traditionally, most people in cosmetics were very smart people

with MBA, I did not have an MBA, but I worked with regular women. I was

very lucky to have relationships with editors. They would write about

my new company and how to put make-up on. So I became a teacher

through the magazines. Now I know it is called PR. I was lucky enough to

go on television to explain how the board make-up on. My products have

also... -- how to put. I would tell them, put chocolate lions near I, I

would explain to women how to do it in those terms. -- lines near your

eye. I was on Oprah once. When she said I only use Bobby Brown

foundation I completely sold out of it. Much of my success came from

working with TV and magazines. You started your company with just

$10,000. Did you ever think that Bobby Brown would be as big as it is

today. -- Bobbi. If I had a crystal ball and had known I probably would

not have done it. It would have been overwhelming. I never set out to be

famous or a CEO, a CCO, of a humongous brand. I just set out to

make women look beautiful, make make up easy to apply. You said that when

you were a teenager you inspired to be tall, thin and blonde, like

popular models of the time. Did you have any role models? Ali McGrath, I

saw her in the movie Love Story. I did not look like any models at the

time. She was brunette, had very strong eyebrows, very natural

make-up, she was the most beautiful woman in the world to me. She was my

role model. You said in the 80s that make up was about pale white skin

and red lips. But you also say that you are somehow part of a revolution

that looks at natural skin as more of a natural and healthy look. What

made you go against the grain? When I started getting involved in

make-up in the 80s it was so artificial. It's never looked

right. I was never talented enough at the time to be able to paint and

shade and contour a face. It made no sense to me to change the colour of

someone's skin. I thought that the models looked so beautiful with no

make up. So in trying to enhance their looks I found they were so

much prettier. It was not a trend at the time, the opposite, but I always

followed my gut and it made sense. Your involvement in this industry,

obviously, one can imagine you hoped to revolutionise it to get more

people like you. I like people with good energy. Sometimes in the

creative field you get people who are pretty intense, have different

personalities, I mean, I have worked with some of the top models, whether

it is Naomi Campbell, so many people... UCI lots of differences

and a lot of brilliant. -- You see a lot. It is great to be around that.

-- brilliance. But when I go home I put my hair in a ponytail and put my

sneakers on, and I can be the real Bobbi that I am with my family and

friends. Seeing that the nice person you are I will take advantage of

your kindness and ask for a makeover. I am looking forward to

getting your magic hands on me. You always talk about intrusiveness and

inclusiveness and you often used black models when many do not use

then. -- inclusiveness. -- them. I never knew who would be sitting on

my chest I had make-up for anyone. -- chair. But even from day one I

wanted all women to have access. I didn't want anyone to go to a desk

and hear that there is no foundation for them. So there is make-up for

everyone. No matter what kind of make-up. So, with the darker skin

tone, how dark aryou willing to go? Are foundation, called Ebony, is

very dark. -- Our. It is the lowest selling foundation and many want to

discontinue it but I never will. There are women who have that can

colour. There is not another foundation in the world that

matches. It is important to me. My lightest is called ZeroZero.

Alabaster is the lightest colour and not many use it in the UK there are

many with that colouring so I make sure we have a colour for ebony and

alabaster. It is really important for me. You also say you don't want

to change how women look. You want to enhance. Make them look better.

You are part of an industry that objectified women. Does that not

make you feel uncomfortable? I don't objectified them, I empower them.

The better you feel the more you do with your life. If feeling better

means putting on a blush, an eyeliner, I like to be a part of

that. Confidence means everything to me. It means being comfortable in

your skin, that is the secret of life. Tell me about Pretty Powerful.

That is a campaign that is the keystone of our company. It is about

how powerful you can be with the right make-up. It isn't about a

woman with shoulder pads and a briefcase, it is about feeling good

and doing anything you put your mind to. For some people it is a little

bit of make-up, and others it is a lot. It is also a campaign that

teaches women to be their best self and appreciate yourself without

make-up and we also help women who are in need with different things,

from either giving make-up to women in need, or, helping to educate

women. It will be a global message for the brand for a long time. You

also distribute make-up kits to women in need. We have a few

partnerships globally with different organisations that help women who

have gone through bad times and are able to use the make up to be

better. Tell me about Les Murray. She is this incredible. --

incredible girl. I wrote this book about her, you read it and then you

realise... It couldn't even be fiction when you read it. The things

that she went through and somehow ended up living on the street... And

going and graduating from Harvard... What is amazing about

her, she has no chip on her shoulder. She is not angry. She

looks back on her incredible life with her parents who had many

issues, drugs and addiction, and she feels loved. Her parents love her.

She feels like. She is the most incredible role model... If I ever

hear anyone complaining about their life I tell them to read this book.

In some point of my life I became known as the wholeness to Harvard

person. What caused that was a situation in my life where I came

from a lot of adversity. My parents... I was raised in York

city. People call it a ghetto. -- New York City. My parents had an

intense drug addiction. It spills over into every aspect of our lives

together and it's common -- culminated in me living homeless in

the city and I had to find a way out. -- spilt. -- it. After having

failed and dropped out and having nothing going with my education I

decided to go back to school. I kept a secret from my teachers in high

school that I was homeless. I was doing homework in the subway and

sleeping on the street. Absolutely fixated on this idea of finding a

way out and making a better life. I did not think I would get to

Harvard. That came as a surprise. When I saw it was possible to change

my life I knew I had a story to share with other people. I always

kept journals and loved to write so I wrote a book and Mrs Brown said,

you have quite a story, would you like to be in a book that is the

keystone of our brand, Pretty Powerful. What was it like when you

first met? Incredible. I was like the brown... I thought it was a

different one. -- Bobby Brown. I thought, she wrote a book? In my

survival I did not know much about her. It was incredible when I met

her because, I mean, in my journey now I do a lot of beating. Islet to

inspire people. You meet people who inspire. -- speaking. -- I look to.

You come to see she made her success because of the person she is, not

because of commerce and finance. She is a quality person who is

incredibly kind of. See asked me to be in the book and

they asked if it was OK if I was seven months pregnant. I came in and

there she was and we ended up with all these cute belly shots and all

these great pictures and it was only half-an-hour before she invited me

to her house for Thanksgiving. I'm the godmother of your child. What

can I do for you? I'm your new family. Bobbi Brown embraces people

and makes them feel at home. I think that she is one of those rare people

you meet when she always leaves you better than when you found her. The

industry that you are so popular in is filled with many people who could

be described as prima donnas, very difficult people to work with, and

yet you are notably a very nice person, very patient, and you work

with everyone. How do you manage? I have been really lucky in my life. I

have had some really great role models. Whether it is my parents,

grubbing up... I was raised in Chicago, in the middle of the

country. I was raised to be a nice, respectful person. I watched my

grandfather built his car business on his smart and respectful

personality. And I was lucky enough when it came into the industry to

work on some of the best of the business. Some of the top

photographers, they are nice people. They are confident and they are

nice. And I saw that when there are a lot of people who are not so nice,

it really comes from being insecure. And the good news about

seeing people who act like that when you don't want it like that, it is a

great model of how not to be. I always believed that being nice and

kind is a much better way of being. And by the way, I get exactly what I

want with niceness. What has Bobbi Brown giving you that you are

passing on to other people? Well, that is a great question. One of the

main words that stands up to me with her is the word inclusive. I grew up

with so much poverty. When you grew up with the kind of adversity that I

grew up in... My parents are drug addicts and all of this struggle. I

think you can feel separate from society. And here I am, coming into

different environments that are new to me. From homeless to Harvard. I

can carry a feeling of not belonging. And she brings a feeling

of you actually do deserve a seat at the table. You are more than welcome

here. And then also to really help me see that I'm contributing

something. When I see Bobbi working with people, even if I see her

walking around her studio and speaking to other people, she seems

to find some small way to acknowledge what the person just

did, leaves them more empowered and help you see the value you are

bringing. It just makes you feel like, maybe I do belong here. It is

understandable about the challenges that I have to. I don't mean to

diminish that. There were days when I didn't eat. I was starving. Young

people grow hungry in this world. I know that it is not easy. I know

that we can get depressed. That is very real stuff. Those obstacles are

not just because people are spoiled or something. That is real. I don't

mean to diminish that. I only mean to say that if you are in a place in

your life where you want to move forward, you will be best served by

putting one foot in front of the other. There will always be

something you can't do. When my mother died when I was 16 and I had

to bury her and live on the streets, I could not bring her back. I did

not even have a home for myself at the time. I did not know when my

next meal was coming from. But I had to say, OK, what is the next thing I

can do? And if I focus on what I can do, I can empower myself from there

because that will give me pride. That responsibility it takes will

give me pride. And I can move forward just for the possibility.

And when you started out, your plan was to sell 100 lipsticks in a

months but you were able to sell those in a day. Was that surprising

for you? I knew that my lipsticks would have appealed to women I

knew. I never understood what it was to have a business plan. We thought

it would be amazing if we could sell 100 in the first months and we sold

that in the first day. That was pretty exciting. But then what comes

with that is the war is not enough lipstick at the end of the month. So

it was pretty neat to start that we. -- start that way. How did you make

this brand is so huge? I believe I started a revolution and that

revolution was to tell women they are actually beautiful the way they

are. And for the past 24 years, that is what I have been doing. I started

creating lipstick that worked with the colour of women's lips and

worked with their skintone. That was new. And when I started adding

products, I used my vision, which was foundation that looks like skin,

blush there is a national -- natural colour of a woman's cheek when you

can jet, eyeshadow that works with your skintone. To me, it was not

revolutionary, it was common sense. But I do think it is change the way

women look and make up. And how do you inspire your staff? What

inspires me more than anything is meeting women and I have been lucky

enough to meet women globally from country to country, many in New

York, many as I travel, and honestly, what inspires me is

hearing their stories, from where they have come and where they want

to go. They inspire me and I love being part of the inspiration for

them. When you walk around the saloon, how do you feel? Honestly,

I'm usually so busy I don't have time to look at the details, so when

I'm finally here I look at the details and I notice the things that

need to be fixed. That is just the way my eye operates. I never stop

and think about the other things but sometimes I come in and I'm very

pleased and I see how visually nice it looks. Other times I come in here

and I say that I wish I would have done that or that doesn't extend --

doesn't make sense. How does it feel letting go of a company that you

describe of as your fourth child? I don't let go of anything. That is my

problem. I don't let go and I'm more involved today than I think I was on

the first day and I'm very involved. For me, it is about having a team

that you inspire and that work together to create the company that

you know it can be. And it is a challenge. I won't say it is not.

When your company is that big, it is a challenge. And when I travel,

often see things that I don't like to see. But sometimes I see things

that I'm very surprised seeing. It is part of the business. Where do

you see yourself in 20 years? In 20 years, I see myself with my

grandchildren doing yoga in the morning and spending a couple of

hours per day working with my team. And good luck with the rest of it.

Thank you. 20 years goes so quickly. Thank you so much. My pleasure.

Thank you again. Not quite as cold a start to the day

as we had during yesterday but Tuesday will be a day of sunshine

and blustery showers across the UK.