Bobbi Brown On Her 'Invigorating' Career Shift and How She's Shaking Up the Wellness Industry

The renowned makeup mogul opens up about her latest venture in the wellness sphere — a new line of affordable beauty supplements at Walmart

Photo: Morgane Lay

Bobbi Brown has been a pioneer in the beauty industry for nearly three decades, providing women with the tools to achieve a healthy, natural look from the inside out with her eponymous makeup and skincare line, range of instructive (and gorgeous) coffee table books and more recently, her collection of ingestible beauty supplements, Evolution_18.

Brown’s beauty empire has expanded exponentially since the days of her mailing out her first lipsticks in manila envelopes in 1990. And now the bona fide beauty mogul has set her sights on conquering a new sphere: wellness. But Brown, 61, will be the first to tell you, the genre is nothing new to her.

“My aesthetic with beauty is health is everything,” the renowned makeup artist tells PEOPLE, stressing that “If you don’t feel good, you are not going to look good.”

Gallery Books

Brown is one of 63 people featured in New York Times bestselling author Sara Bliss’ new book Take the Leap; Change Your Career, Change Your Life, which offers hard-earned advice and inspiration from real people who made major career shifts. When Brown announced that she was leaving her namesake brand Bobbi Brown Cosmetics (owned by The Estée Lauder Companies) after 25 years in 2016, she wasn’t quite sure what would come next.

“It was just time for me to start all over again and create the things that make me happy,” Brown tells PEOPLE of her decision to leave. “It was not a singular moment, it was a gradual build up. It was a couple years of frustration,” she explains, adding that she realized she wasn’t “really in charge anymore.”

“So sometimes, you have to start over.”

So Brown did just that, and began focusing on her longstanding passion for wellness. She quickly established herself as a dynamic figure in the industry, launching lifestyle brand Beauty Evolution, writing wellness content and curating her travel and beauty must-haves for JustBobbi.com, designing wellness-inspired hotel The George and starting the podcast Long Story Short.

Brown even became a certified health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition — despite some doubt from her own family that she’d get through her program due to her busy schedule. “I don’t have tons of free time as you can imagine,” she says. “My husband and my three sons said, ‘Oh mom, you’ll never do it,” she admits. “But I did it. Doubt me and I will show you.”

And now, Brown’s evolution has led her to develop a new line of affordable, beauty-inspired supplements in partnership with Walmart, available now in-store, and online April 5. (The line is a beauty-focused extension of her initial Evolution_18 launch.) Can’t wait? Shop the collection on Bobbi’s site.

Jon Patterson for EVOLUTION_18

“We made it really simple, easy to understand and affordable,” she says of the new formulas, which target beauty concerns from within to help promote healthy hair, skin and nails. Products like Beauty Bubbles: Hydration, Beauty Collagen Powder and Beauty Gummies claim to improve skin’s elasticity, lock in hydration and fight signs of aging — and to top it all off, they’re tasty.

“The probiotic that dissolves on your tongue, it tastes like a Sweetart,” Brown shares. Her personal favorite product from the line? “Who doesn’t love a gummy?” she asks, joking that “the problem is you should only eat the amount recommended.”

Brown has long believed that what you put into your body is even more important than what you put on it when it comes to achieving that natural glow she’s famous for championing. “If someone is not taking care of themselves … You just can’t fake your way out of not being healthy, no matter what,” she says. “I always called it ‘beauty food,’ because I realized early on that if you put in fruits and vegetables, water and healthy oils into your body instead of cigarettes and donuts, you’re going barely need any makeup,” she says.

“For me beauty is not looking like a Barbie doll, it’s not looking like a model on a runway,” Brown says. “It’s very holistic, and I hope people will start realizing that beauty is not this unattainable thing that’s out there. It is attainable, it doesn’t matter that you don’t look like Gigi Hadid. It matters that you look like the best version of yourself.”

And while Brown has been helping women to live and look healthier from a wellness angle, she’s also gone back to her roots as a makeup artist. “I’m creating a new kit and it’s really fun and it’s invigorating,” she shares. “I think that’s the main word, is being invigorated and excited about what you’re doing.” Beyond that, when it comes to her advice for others looking to Take the Leap in their career, Brown has two words: “Be practical.”

“If you can’t give up your day job, you know, they call it a side hustle … You just have to be open and take a little bit of chance, but most important you have to be practical,” she says. “And don’t spend more than you make.”