In art, music, literature, and even fashion, a certain figure can be picked out, held above the rest as one who changed everything. Whether it’s Coco Chanel and the little black dress, or Virginia Woolf and her florist-bound heroine, some people just have that power to shift and influence the world around them. These individuals are less easy to identify in the world of beauty, as they work hidden behind lab coats and locked doors, experimenting in the vain hope that they stumble upon the next Touche Eclat, or Eight-Hour Cream.
One woman who can be regarded justifiably as a revolutionary in the cosmetics field is 52-year old beauty entrepreneur, Bobbi Brown. Growing up in Chicago in the sixties, Brown played and experimented with her mother’s makeup, before going on to study Theatrical Makeup at university. She soon realised that the cosmetics that surrounded her at that time, and with which she was supposed to create beautiful faces in her dream job as a New York makeup artist, were completely inadequate. This was the era of blue eyeshadows, chalky powders, and above all statement red and pink lips. Lipsticks were fuchsia-based and designed to rival the coral blusher defining the cheekbones of the power-suited women of the eighties. Faced with the prospect of working in this field, with only these limited options, Brown began to experiment with new colours and formulations, and in 1991, with the help of a similarly dissatisfied chemist, she created and released a line of ten new lipsticks at Bergdorf Goodman in New York. An immediate success, she moved through the makeup counter, creating subtle tan and brown eye colours, delicate blushers, and perhaps most famously, her incredible range of yellow-pigment foundations.
Since her first success with the Brown Lipstick, the name Bobbi Brown has become synonymous with flattering and easy-to-wear colours and styles, which enhance, rather than mask each woman’s face. Through her seasonal ranges, and comprehensive and unpatronising beauty manuals, she has led women away from the garish, albeit still fun, clown-faces of the eighties, and towards a cleaner and more youthful look.
There will always be a time for red lipstick, and a certain fondness for blue eyeshadow, but women everywhere owe Bobbi Brown a thank you, if only because, as the resolute, but completely wonderful, eighties throwback, Dolly Parton once said, “It takes an awful lot of money to look this cheap”.
Angharad Jones
photo credits: post-gazette.com, ivillage.com, agingbeautifully.com
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