SM: At what moment did you feel you had made it as a makeup artist?
Brown: When I landed my first Vogue cover with Naomi Campbell [seven years after I moved to New York].

SM: How and why did you start Bobbi Brown Cosmetics?
Brown: I started with a simple idea: to create a lipstick that looked like my lips, only better. I met a chemist during a magazine photo shoot and told him my idea. He made the lipstick (Brown #4) based on my description and from there, we created nine other lipstick shades. We launched Bobbi Brown Cosmetics in 1991 [at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City]. We projected we’d sell 100 lipsticks the first month and sold 100 the first day!

SM: What are some of the personal and professional challenges you’ve faced during pursuing your dream?
Brown: We had some roadblocks early on when we were trying to get our lipsticks into a store. By chance, I met the cosmetic buyer of Bergdorf Goodman at a cocktail party. I told the buyer about my line and she loved it so much that she called me the next day and told me they'd take us. Ten simple lipsticks on a table with other accessories on the floor of New York's premier store—it seemed too good to be true. We were moving full speed ahead with production when I got a call from the buyer with the bad news that Bergdorf couldn't take us that season because they had too much stuff. I was doing a Saks Fifth Avenue shoot when I got the call, so I told everyone there about my plan. Even though they were the creative art directors and not the buyers, they immediately told me to bring the line to Saks. I called Bergdorf back and told them Saks was interested. Bergdorf called back one hour later and told me it was a go. I believe that you should never take no for an answer.