Estée Lauder (businesswoman)
Estée Lauder (/ˈɛsteɪ ˈlɔːdər/ EST-ay LAW-dər; née Josephine Esther Mentzer; July 1, 1908[1] – April 24, 2004) was an American businesswoman.[2][3][4] She co-founded her eponymous cosmetics company with her husband, Joseph Lauter (later Lauder).[5] Lauder was the only woman on Time magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century.[6]
Estée Lauder
April 24, 2004 (aged 95)
Businesswoman
Co-founder of The Estée Lauder Companies
- William P. Lauder (grandson)
- Aerin Lauder (granddaughter)
- Jane Lauder (granddaughter)
Career[edit]
Lauder named one of her uncle's blends Super Rich All-Purpose Cream, and began selling the preparation to her friends.[8]: 115 She sold creams like Six-In-One cold cream and Dr. Schotz's Viennese Cream to beauty shops, beach clubs and resorts.[19] One day, as she was getting her hair done at the House of Ash Blondes, the salon's owner Florence Morris asked Lauder about her perfect skin. Soon, Estée returned to the beauty parlor to hand out four of her uncle's creams and demonstrate their use. Morris was so impressed that she asked Lauder to sell her products at Morris's new salon.[8]: 116
In 1953, Lauder introduced her first fragrance, Youth-Dew, a bath oil that doubled as a perfume. Instead of using French perfumes by the drop behind each ear, women began using Youth-Dew by the bottle in their bath water. In the first year, it sold 50,000 bottles; by 1984, the figure had risen to 150 million.[20]
Lauder was a subject of a 1985 TV documentary, Estée Lauder: The Sweet Smell of Success. Explaining her success, she said, "I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard."[19]
Awards and honors[edit]
Lauder received the Chevalier (Knight) class of the Legion of Honour from the Consul General of France, Gerard Causer, on January 16, 1978. She was the first woman to receive this honor.[21]
She was inducted to the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1988. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004.
Personal life[edit]
Estée met Joseph Lauter when she was in her early twenties. On January 15, 1930, they married. Their surname was later changed from Lauter to Lauder.[5] Their first child, Leonard, was born March 19, 1933.[8]: 115 [22] The couple separated then divorced in 1939 and she moved to Florida, but they remarried in 1942.[19] Their second son, Ronald, was born in 1944. Estée and Joseph Lauder remained married until his death in 1983, and she later regretted her divorce, saying that she married young and assumed that she had missed out on life but soon found out that she had the "sweetest husband in the world".[23]
Leonard became the chief executive of Estée Lauder[24] and then chairman of the board.[25] Ronald was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration and was U.S. Ambassador to Austria in 1986–87.[26] As of 2021, he is the president of the World Jewish Congress.
Death[edit]
Lauder died of cardiopulmonary arrest on April 24, 2004, aged 95,[27] at her home in Manhattan.[27]