"The pursuit of beauty is honorable," Lauder used to say. And she clearly believed that the business of beauty was just as honorable. No one but a believer could have given so much of herself in becoming an internationally respected strategist in the age-old struggle against wrinkles, sags, bags and blemishes. Her weapons in that effort were creams, powders, ointments, potions and muds, many containing top-secret emollients. And if they did not do the trick, she had an array of scents, equally secret in their constitution, that might befog a man's vision of a woman aging.
Her efforts resulted in the establishment of a company estimated to be worth about $5 billion when it went public in 1995, and she was given the title of founding chairwoman. In 2003, it had 21,500 employees and an estimated worth of about $10 billion. Its products are sold in more than 130 countries across five continents.
Est?e Lauder Companies was not formally established until 1946, but its roots go back to the 1920s, with facial creams concocted over a gas stove in a modest kitchen by Lauder's uncle, John Schotz. It was nurtured financially and technically years later by Arnold L. van Ameringen, a Dutch-born industrialist. The company grew exponentially in the 1950s with the introduction of a bath oil called Youth-Dew.
"I love my product," Lauder once said. "I love to touch the creams, smell them, look at them, carry them with me. A person has to love her harvest if she's to expect others to love it."
Lauder also loved to touch her customers. During the period when she was building her business, she invariably showed up at stores where her products were being introduced and, with no provocation at all, whipped out a jar and rubbed its contents on the wrist or face of a prospective customer so that her skin would acquire "a gentle glow."
Although the mythmaking that is so much of the magic of the beauty industry led many women to believe that Lauder was born in Europe to an aristocratic family, she was a New Yorker and not an aristocrat at all. Josephine Esther Mentzer was born at home in Corona, Queens, on July 1, 1908, according to several biographies, although her family believes it may have been two years earlier.
She was the daughter of Max Mentzer, a hardware man who was the proprietor of a hay and seed store, and Rose Schotz Rosenthal Mentzer, a woman who was very interested in beauty regimens.
Her marriage to Joseph Lauder foundered, and they were divorced in 1939. Their separation lasted until 1942, when Est?e told her friends that Lauder was a very nice man and that "I don't know why I broke off with him." They remarried that December and remained together until his death in 1982.
She is survived by her sons, Leonard, the chairman of the company, and Ronald, chairman of Clinique Laboratories; four grandchildren, including William, who will become chief executive of the Est?e Lauder Companies on July 1; and six great-grandchildren.
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