The Glowdown: Bobbi Brown Shares the Beauty Secrets We All Want to Know

Welcome to The Glowdown, the series where we dive into the beauty secrets of our favourite celebrities as they get real about their routines and non-negotiables exclusively with us. Join them as they sit in our beauty hot seat and we fire off a round of quick questions, giving you never-before-shared insight into the products they can't live without, their secrets to getting red carpet–ready, beauty pet peeves, and the genius tips they've picked up along the way. This is no-holds-barred beauty at its finest.

This month, we sat down with Bobbi Brown. The professional makeup artist became a household name with her eponymous beauty brand, and her most recent venture, Jones Road Beauty, is not to be missed. The industry icon is known and loved for her simple, natural and minimal approach to makeup, and we asked her all about her top tips and tricks, her biggest beauty no-no and the best advice she's received throughout her career.

1. Which makeup product gives you the biggest mood-boost?
Our Miracle Balm is truly magic—it works wonders on the face but also on the lips, neck and body. I even use it as eyeshadow and to smooth flyaway hairs. Au Naturel and Tawny are my personal go-to [shades] for the perfect amount of moisture, colour and glow.

2. If you could steal someone else’s makeup bag, whose would it be?
I’d love to steal the makeup bag from someone who works for Hermès Beauty because the bag itself is going to be stunning.

3. You’ve got a spot. Are you team pop it or team leave it alone?
Leave it and cover it correctly with the Jones Road Beauty The Face Pencil.

4. You only have one product to use for the rest of your life—what is it?
Jones Road Beauty Miracle Balm.

5. What’s the best piece of beauty advice that you have ever received?
As a young makeup artist, a top professional told me that when lining the eyes, make sure the top and bottom lines meet, as it elongates the eyes.

6. It’s a bad hair day. What do you do?
Go for a blowout.

7. What's your signature fragrance?
Jones Road Beauty Shower.

8. Strong lip or a strong eye?
Strong eye.

9. You’re having your nails done. What’s your go-to colour?
Geranium by Essie.

10. What's your beauty philosophy in a sentence?
Beauty to me is someone who is confident in their own skin and who uses natural makeup that makes them look like themselves on their very best day.

11. What's your favourite lipstick colour?
The colour that’s closest to the colour of my lips.

12. What’s your biggest beauty no-no?
It’s a toss-up between contour and bad filler.

13. Candles, reed diffusers or nothing at all?
Candles.

14. If you could share one piece of beauty advice, what would it be?
Don’t "microscope" yourself in a mirror. Look at yourself in good lighting, find your perfect moisturiser and smile.

15. What beauty product do you recommend to everyone?
Jones Road Beauty The Mascara.

16. Name one beauty product that is always in your handbag
Jones Road Beauty Miracle Balm in Tawny.

17. Are you team dewy or matte?
Definitely team dewy.

18. The greatest drugstore product for under £10?
Q-Tips or Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Soap in Peppermint.

19. Describe your brows:
Over-plucked in the '90s and now restored thanks to brow pencil and brow gel, because I still love a strong brow.

20. Your worst hairstyle (or hair moment) ever…
I once cut my hair into a long bob and then did a really bad perm. I looked like Gilda Radner’s character on Saturday Night Live, Rosanna Rosanna Dana.

21. You have to wear your hair crimped or blue eyeshadow for the rest of your life. Which do you choose?
Definitely crimped hair—I’d just put it up in a bun all the time.

22. Makeup primer: love it or hate it?
If you follow a skincare routine that works for you and you’re properly hydrating your skin before you start your makeup, there is no reason for primer.

23. Confession time–how often do you clean your makeup brushes?
I usually clean them as I go and one of my makeup artists cleans the brushes in my kit regularly.

24. What beauty rule do you always break?
Most days, I walk around without a stitch of makeup on or I do my makeup in the car.

25. Would you rather have ultra-skinny brows or bleached brows?
I’d rather have bleached brows because then I could fill them in perfectly and brush them on with brow gel.

26. Which celebrity’s hair would you love to steal?
Penélope Cruz's.

27. Which era of beauty inspires you most?
Definitely the '90s.

28. Eyelash curlers: love them or hate them?
Love them, however, if you don’t have an eyelash curler, you can still get a bright-eyed look just by using your finger. Apply your mascara as you normally do then use your index finger to push your lashes upward. Hold for a moment and release. Let your lashes air out and they will stay curled.

29. Best beauty hack?
Jones Road Miracle Balm. As soon as you put it on, you instantly look better.

Shop Bobbi Brown's Favourite Beauty Products: