Jones Road Beauty founder Bobbi Brown has said leaving her namesake brand, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, was “a good thing” in an episode of the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast.
The 68-year-old MUA, who established popular brand Bobbi Brown Cosmetics in 1991, claimed the two years before she left the make-up business in 2016 had been “pretty miserable up until then” during an episode which aired on 9 April.
After selling Bobbi Brown Cosmetics to the Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) in 1995 for a reported US$74.5m, Brown stayed with the group for the next 22 years, developing products and helming the business.
However, at the time of selling, Brown had signed a 25-year non-compete clause, which would leave her unable to launch another make-up brand until October 2020.
Talking on the podcast about her last two years with Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Brown said: “Look, nothing is easy. Business is not easy. Relationships are not easy.
“When [ELC Chairman Emeritus] Leonard Lauder was in charge, I always had him.
“I could always just call Leonard, and he would say, ‘OK, we will figure this out’.
“So, he was really my mentor. But that stopped happening.”
Speaking about her departure from Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Brown alleged on the podcast that she had been brought into a meeting with ELC following a 25th anniversary celebration event for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics in the UK.
She allegedly claimed that an ELC executive told her the business was “cancelling [her] work contract”, and added: “I said [to her], ‘you are firing me’. She said, ‘no, we are not firing you, we have a new offer for you’.”
Brown said she refused to read the offer, which she allegedly claimed was later revealed to state that she would remain the face of the business but would be removed from the day-to-day operations, and walked out of the meeting.
Cosmetics Business has contacted ELC for a comment.
Brown continued: “When I walked into that elevator and pressed the button, it was the 42nd floor.
“I have never felt so much relief because all the things I was angsty and worried about because I felt the brand falling apart for different reasons went away until I got to the bottom [of the elevator].
“And I was like, uh oh, now what?”
After Brown departed ELC, she launched Evolution 18, a line of beauty and wellness ingestibles to complement her certification as a health coach.
She then returned to the cosmetics arena in October 2020 with colour cosmetics brand Jones Road Beauty.
The initial launch range was said to comprise ‘clean’, high-grade formulations for women to achieve a ‘no make-up make-up’ look.
Following this, Jones Road Beauty has expanded into other categories, such as fragrance, with the brand’s first scent, The Shower Fragrance, launching in October 2023.
The launch of its second “unconventional” scent, BKLYN, came in September 2025.
More recently, Jones Road Beauty launched a completely nameless product in January.
Called ‘Working Name: Gel Tint’, the launch was a tint-bronzer-blush hybrid gel formula which claims to tint skin with a luminous and soft finish – in shades Dusty Rose and Sunkissed.
Grede, a British businesswoman and co-founder of fashion brand Good American, launched her podcast in May 2025, focused on discussions around entrepreneurship and business.
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