In 1991, as a riposte to red lipstick, Bobbi Brown, a then 30-something makeup artist, launched her eponymous brand with a handful of nude lipsticks. It marked the world’s introduction to the no-makeup makeup look, the antithesis of the more-is-more aesthetic that reigned in women’s makeup bags long after the 80s had made its exit.
As a jobbing makeup artist, she initially sold it directly to friends and clients and then, fortuitously, met a buyer from Bergdorf Goodman in New York, where it officially launched. Brown expected to sell 100 lipsticks a month. The new brand sold 100 a day. It outperformed all the establishment beauty brands in the store and very quickly other retailers, such as Neiman Marcus, asked to stock the brand across the country. “I wanted women to look like they weren’t really wearing makeup,” Brown said.
