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"     Photo: Courtesy of Molton Brown    Molton Brown may now be a worldwide luxury name, but the iconic British brand still feels like a homegrown favorite to its fans who have been snapping up its beauty wares since it first began mixing them by hand in 1973 in a small London atelier. Perhaps this is because Molton Brown still creates 90 percent of its skincare, body care, haircare, men&amp;#039;s grooming products, and fragrances in England, maintaining its obsession with the craftsmanship that goes into every concoction and package. It is also a result of the team leading the brand into its next decade of growth. CEO Amy Nelson-Bennett is every bit the playful Brit, despite being born in Wisconsin. She sat down with ELLE.com to talk about the brand&amp;#039;s fortieth anniversary, riding motorcycles in Prada, and why locals take being called quirky as a compliment.   Molton Brown turns 40 this year. How is the brand celebrating this amazing milestone? For the fortieth anniversary, we wanted to do something really special. We tapped Giles Deacon, who is so quintessentially British, to design the bottles and a snuff lid for our candles. It&amp;#039;s such a cool marriage of traditional London and new London. Molton Brown is now sold in more than 70 countries. How do you keep the brand from losing its intimate connection to its roots? People used to line up outside the first shop when it opened in the &amp;#039;70s to get the homemade hair products. We&amp;#039;re still very much a small operation; in fact, our factory is right across the street from the garage that our goods used to be mixed in decades ago. What&amp;#039;s the one Molton Brown product that you just can&amp;#039;t live without? I&amp;#039;m not a huge makeup person, but I do love skincare. I have really dry skin, too, so I stock up on [Molton Brown] body oils.  Do you have any other favorite beauty products? Fragrance is undoubtedly my favorite beauty product. I&amp;#039;m forever on the waiting list for Nasomatto Afgano. I also love Chanel Beige, Herm\u00E8s Un Jardin Sur le Toit, Serge Lutens Ambre, and Bond No. 9 Bleecker Street. I have to be careful when I&amp;#039;m in Japan on business because there is still a stigma that scents are masking an unpleasant odor. I usually wear something very light while I&amp;#039;m there, like the Bleecker Street. What&amp;#039;s your biggest beauty indulgence? I&amp;#039;d say my biggest beauty indulgence is coloring my hair. I change the color every five weeks. Next I&amp;#039;m going strawberry blonde. I mainly do business with men, and I think my chameleon color always shocks them. Other than my hair, I put all my time into skincare. I thought I was low-maintenance, but after writing all my steps down, I realized I am a full-on beauty junkie. Also, I don&amp;#039;t get my nails done because it will just chip immediately and there&amp;#039;s nothing tackier than a chipped manicure. Instead, I splurge and get my toes done with an absurd color. I&amp;#039;m really into this neon orange right now. Where do you like to shop when it comes to your wardrobe? I think Net-a-Porter would consider me a highly valuable customer. Since I travel so much, I keep a bag packed here in the office. I love brands like Vivienne Westwood, T by Alexander Wang, Joseph, and James Perse because their pieces pack so easily. I also hoard shoes\u2014I&amp;#039;d have to say Prada are my favorite\u2014and even wear them on the motorcycle. You ride a motorcycle? You get a lot of funny looks when you&amp;#039;re wearing a body suit and then some shiny designer heels on a motorcycle. But it&amp;#039;s high praise to be considered quirky in London. If it&amp;#039;s raining, I make sure to wear heels with a little traction on the bottom. Those are more rugged, aren&amp;#039;t they? The best part of wearing the helmet is that I don&amp;#039;t have to pay for blowouts because the helmet gives me some massive volume. I&amp;#039;m really into this kind of Joan Jett shag hair right now, so I&amp;#039;ve been having to use a little spray to make it look less like rubbish after I take the helmet off.  Photo: Courtesy of Molton Brown  Photo: Courtesy of Taylor Barringer "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/beauty/news/a25721/beauty-chat-amy-nelson-bennett/?src=rss>