“I don’t know anything about skincare. I’m the consumer,” says Millie Bobby Brown. She answers my skepticism of an 18 year old with a skincare line. With the market flooded with celebrity beauty lines, when a new brand pops up, you have to ask why?
Florence by Mills turns three in August and Brown has no plans to stop this growing empire. Between acting, running a beauty brand, and being a teenager, she sits down to talk about skincare, social media, and stranger things.
Brown expands Florence by Mills with an anti-acne “Clear the Way” collection featuring a clarifying face wash and mud mask to help deeply cleanse your skin. Like many teenagers with fluctuating hormones, acne is a problem. While attending red carpet events, she wondered why she had pimples. “I’m definitely a victim of my skin,” Brown admits, reflecting on the annoying acne that inadvertently accompanies her during some of her most important (and public) moments. Skincare has been a journey for the British teenager. She explains, “I was going to red carpets and walking out thinking, ‘Why did this pimple suddenly appear?’ and ‘Why doesn’t my skin like this foundation these people put on me?’ The relationship with your skin is personal and a journey to find out what your skin likes and needs (and what it doesn’t). Brown has learned that you can’t hide your skin: “I wanted to put on more makeup to cover it up, but you have to embrace it and listen to your skin,” she advises.
Clarifying face wash contains one of beauty’s buzzwords: niacinamide, to help control oil. It also contains salicylic, glycolic and lactic acids to help minimize pores while smoothing fine lines and texture. The Clarifying Mud Mask focuses on unclogging and shrinking pores with charcoal and salicylic acid to draw out all impurities. The formula includes kaolin clay to exfoliate and essential oils of lavender and tea tree to soothe the skin.
“I was looking for a skincare and beauty company that would select ingredients and products that were right for my skin,” Brown says, admitting she’s spent 2022 learning about new skincare trends. and to understand their skin, its problems and how to solve them. . This shows in its products because Brown is aware of making them “clean” and cruelty-free without ingredients like silicone and SLS/SLES. However, for Brown, it’s not what’s in the products, but how they make you feel. She has a laissez-faire approach to beauty and believes that it is up to everyone to interpret it.
In the age of filters, allowing people to have invisible pores and the smoothest skin, I ask Brown about how social media affects him. She quickly brushes me off, stating, “I try to stay off social media as much as possible.” The call suddenly seems heavy. We’re not talking directly to the elephant hovering above us, but you can feel it. Brown has faced some strange negativity from the internet that isn’t the same as her co-stars or other actors her age. Whether it’s backlash for the texts between her and Drake or criticism for her clothes, one can skim through the headlines and see them littered with a weird cynicism. Who is a strange thing indeed, given that she is literally a child. In 2018, she took a public hiatus from social media and, in Beyoncé fashion, closed off the world to her personal life and swore her accounts would only be used to promote her work. The 18th is a time of transition for many. I cringe in horror that her 54.3 million followers might feel free to comment. “I think what people forget [is] that because my work is in the public eye, that doesn’t mean everything has to be in the public eye. It’s about me going through things personally and wanting to keep it personal,” she reveals, almost slightly irritated at why she has to explain herself. I agree with her, admitting that I haven’t posted in about three months. She relaxes a little: “Sometimes I need a mental break. It’s a very strained relationship with social media – sometimes it’s great, sometimes not. My goal is to make it a happy, positive place where people can go to be hugged. As she talks about how she wants the internet to work, it’s obvious she’s creating a space that may not currently exist in her world.
When she’s not building her beauty empire or battling online bullies, she’s focusing on her primary job: acting. At the time of our conversation, she is in the car, leaving the set of Damselthe fantastic new Netflix feature she stars in and executive production. However, with a new season of stranger things looking for binge-watching, Brown applauds her castmates, who she grew up with over the past four seasons. As she recounts what happens behind the scenes, she reveals a fun fact: “Everything [us] are amazing singers. The Duffer Brothers have announced that Season 5 will be released in 2024 and will culminate the Stranger Things series. So will we have a musical episode? A Broadway production? Brown laughs and jokes, “stranger things on Broadway is coming soon.
Danielle James is an award-winning entrepreneur, fashion and beauty journalist, and co-founder of Safe Space, a show that encourages viewers to have difficult conversations with people in their respective lives. She has signings with Allure, Essence, Nylon, The Grio, Huffington Post, and more, with expertise in retail, fashion, and beauty. Danielle enjoys writing about new trends and is committed to making beauty and fashion accessible to everyone. She is the founder of Model Citizen, a sustainable fashion company that encourages peer-to-peer clothing sharing and supports emerging designers. When not working, Ms. James enjoys having brunch, travelling, volunteering and spending time with friends and family.