Bobbi Brown opens Jones Road cosmetics in Montclair

Bobbi Brown is back.

Twenty-six years after selling her eponymous cosmetics business to Estee Lauder, the maveneuse opened a retail store in Montclair called Jones Road.

The 1,000-square-foot flagship store, offering Brown’s direct-to-consumer cosmetics line Jones Road, opened Tuesday in a new office building on the corner of Walnut and Grove streets owned by her husband, real estate investor Steven Plofker .

Brown, a 30-year Montclair resident and author of nine best-selling books, was at the store this week, greeting customers who were lining up outside and working with staff. Like them, she sported a black t-shirt with white lettering that echoed the brand’s clean and understated aesthetic.

She calls the line “the ultimate no-makeup makeup” and said she follows “even stricter guidelines than those set by the EU to remove more than 2,700 potentially harmful ingredients.” Face pencils, skin balm, sparkle eye shadows and other products have so far only been available online.

In creating the line, Brown said she took inspiration from her own beauty routine, which “has really changed” over the years.

“I didn’t like heavy makeup. I think women look best when they have luminosity and freshness, not matte foundation. It doesn’t work on older women, nor does it work on older women. any age, really. ”

During the pandemic, she said, people got used to wearing less makeup, using it more to look “fresher and feel better” than to try to transform their appearance.

She started Jones Road a year ago, twenty-five years to the day after her non-compete agreement with Estee Lauder expired. consumer brands.

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Brown said she brings three decades of industry experience to Jones Road that she didn’t have when Bobbi Brown Cosmetics launched. “I know so much more about everything from product formulation to starting a new business,” she says. She says it’s liberating to no longer depend on department stores to sell products.

Montclair’s store will be a “think tank” on makeup, she said, where her team can meet customers face to face and hear and see what products they want next, and organize events and workshops. .

She will walk in and out of the store, not so much to interact with customers as to support her staff, a business tenet she cites as key to the success of The George, the 31-room boutique hotel on North Mountain Avenue. which she owns with Plofker.

If the online success of Jones Road and its other business ventures is any indication, the staff at Brown’s retail store will be busy. Forty products will be offered, and one of them, the award-winning Miracle Balm, has been a huge success, with a waiting list that has reached 10,000 names.

“It’s definitely our number one product; it’s flying out the door,” she said. “It’s a shade, moisturizer, lip and cheek product or something that you wear when you’re not wearing makeup and just want to look a little better. in no other line. ”

Miracle Balm was a “happy accident,” she said – a sample from the lab that wasn’t what she was looking for. “But I put my hands in it and tried it on and I’m like, oh my god, it’s magic.”

Brown credits her “owner”, her husband of 33 years, for making her physical presence a reality.

“[Steve] came to me and said, ‘I have a store for you, come and see it.’ I looked and said to myself: “It’s too small! But now I see, it’s perfect. ”

The location, a short walk from Brown’s office at 18 Label Studios, her film and photography studio, and event space, ended up being a big draw to her.

“The store is in a fantastic location within walking distance and has great organic traffic thanks to The Corner, Van Hook Cheese and the many other amazing businesses on Walnut Street,” she said. “And Montclair is where our clients are. They understand and appreciate what clean beauty means, and they might also know that I live here in the city.”

Go: 111 Grove Street, Montclair. jonesroadbeauty.com. No phone yet, email: [email protected]

Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Julia Martin is the 2021 recipient of the New Jersey Society for Professional Journalists David Carr Award for her coverage of Montclair for NorthJersey.com.

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Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TheWriteJulia