In May, makeup mogul Bobbi Brown had a decision to make: should she clap back at the TikTok influencers who were misusing her newest product, a moisturizerlike foundation, or should she keep her mouth shut and avoid feeding the outrage cycle?

Brown split the difference. She recorded educational videos about how to properly use the foundation (sparingly, not in fistfuls, as some wayward TikTokers had done) and one joke reel that poked fun at the gobs of product the influencers were using. Naturally, the joke reel went viral, drawing north of 4 million views.

“I was like, ‘Uh oh, am I gonna get canceled?’” Brown said five months later. She mentioned the incident during a makeup master class for her new brand, Jones Road Beauty, in front of a live audience of some three dozen—wait for it—social media beauty influencers. She got laughs in response, because of course Brown was not canceled. “Foundationgate,” as her son Cody Plofker refers to it, has only endeared Brown more to the socialmedia masses.

It’s a new chapter for Brown who, two years ago this month, launched Jones Road, a directtoconsumer beauty line in Brown’s signature minimalist, “nomakeup 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 25year noncompete clause, figuring she’d be happy turning Bobbi Brown Cosmetics into a billiondollar 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 25year noncompete—“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.

0:00 Introducing Bobbi Brown & Jones Road
0:58 Brown's Early Career And Why She Signed A 25Year NonCompete Agreement
3:42 Becoming A Billion Dollar Brand: "I Won't Go Back [To The Way I Did Business]"
5:29 The Power Of Tik Tok And Social Media Marketing
8:55 How To View Yourself In A More Positive Light
10:20 Navigating The Perils Of Social Media On Mental Health
11:35 Reflecting On Career Accomplishments
12:18 How The Feeling Of Empowerment Came With Age
13:19 How Young People Can Slow Down Without Losing Career Momentum
14:47 "I Never Wanted To Give Up" Business Lessons & Legacy

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