Cover Girl

One of Eggleston Bracey’s favorite things to do as a teenager in Chicago was to visit the local Walgreens, where she and her girlfriends would spend their allowance on the latest lip-gloss or eyeliner. “When I felt good about how I was presenting myself, I always felt more confident,” she says. “When you look good, you feel good, like there’s nothing you can’t do.”

That’s a mantra that Eggleston Bracey has maintained throughout her career as one of the country’s top beauty executives. As part of an industry-changing merger completed last fall between Coty and Procter & Gamble’s specialty beauty brands, she now oversees a $4-billion portfolio at the combined company, which includes CoverGirl, Rirnmel London, Sally Hansen, Clairol and other well-known labels.

She also recently made the move to New York City from Geneva, Switzerland, where she lived with her husband, Des, and two children since 2009. The new position comes after spending 25 years at P&G, where at 33 she became its first female African-American general manager. While there, Eggleston Bracey traveled the globe to expand CoverGirl and Max Factor in more than 80 markets, resulting in more than $2 billion in retail sales. “The key to growing brands that have existed for some time is identifying what in their heritage makes them unique in the marketplace and connecting that with the cultural relevance of today,” she says.

There’s no better example of that than the successful revamp of CoverGirl’s easy, breezy image, which began a decade ago by signing a wider variety of celebrity faces: Queen Latifah, Ellen DeGeneres, Pink and Zendaya have been among the line’s unconventional choices. Eggleston Bracey says the shift was motivated by consumers who wanted to see a range of ethnicities, ages and body types in its campaigns, as well as more relatable spokespeople. “We really reframed what a cover model was,” she says. “At the time there was no one in the industry doing that, so it was an untapped opportunity.” In October CoverGirl took another bold step and hired its first male CoverGirl, a 17-year-old beauty video blogger named James Charles. “More and more, the world around us is about celebrating your individuality,” she says.

As an engineering sciences major, Eggleston Bracey never expected to be a leader in the cosmetics world. P&G recruited her as an undergraduate for its household division, where she marketed products such as Febreze. She enjoyed her job, but after eight years a manager encouraged her to pursue a field she really loved. Six months later she joined the beauty side of the business. “I realized I could contribute even more in an area where I had a stronger intuition and a stronger passion,” she says.

Moving forward, one of her goals is to make beauty more accessible, in ways that include digital tools such as Rimmel’s new Get the Look app, which she describes as “Shazam, but for makeup.” Overall, she hopes that her work inspires people to express themselves and embrace what makes them unique. “It’s about liberating the diversity of beauty,” says Eggleston Bracey. “No one wants to be cookie cutter.”

Heather Salerno is a freelance writer based in the New York City area.