Estee Lauder

We know the name from the adverts on television and know that Estee Lauder is associated with beauty --- apart from this --- I didn’t even know that Estee Lauder was actually a woman who started a beauty empire. Who was she as a person? How did she become so popular? How did Estee Lauder become one of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th Century?

Josephine Esther Mentzer was born on 1st July, 1906, in Queens, New York City. Her mother and father were Hungarian-Jewish immigrants and nicknamed their daughter “Estee.” She grew up with eight siblings, graduating from the Newton High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Most of this little lady’s childhood was spent in trying to make ends meet as Estee worked in the family’s hardware store, and it was here that she learnt how to be a successful retailer. Estee dreamed of being an actress with her “name in lights, flowers and handsome men.”

Estee showed interest in beauty at an early age. She would brush her mother’s hair and apply creams to her face. Her uncle was Dr.John Schotz and he was a chemist who had his own company, New Way Laboratories, which made and sold beauty products such as creams, lotions, rouge and fragrances. Being more interested in her uncle’s business than the family business, Estee used to watch her uncle ‘create’ his products, learning from the Dr. how to “wash her face and do facial massages.” After graduating, Estee focused on working with her uncle.

Naming one of her uncle’s blends, “Super Rich All-Purpose Cream”, Estee began to sell the preparation to her friends. She sold creams to beauty shops, beach clubs and resorts, even handing out creams and demonstrating their use at beauty parlours. One in particular, Florence Morris, was so impressed that she asked Estee to sell these products at the salon.

In 1953, Estee introduced her first fragrance, “Youth Dew”, which is a bath oil and perfume. In the first year “Youth Dew” sold 50,000 bottles, by 1984 the figure had risen to 150 million. During the documentary “Estee Lauder: The Sweet Smell of Success”, Estee explained her success: “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.” “Youth Dew” is still sold today, in 2021!

When in her early twenties, Estee met Joseph Lauter and the couple married on 15th January, 1930. The name Lauter was changed to Lauder and Joseph was a businessman in the garment industry. Their first son, Leonard, was born in 1933 and their second son, Ronald, was born in 1944. Estee and Joseph divorced in 1939 but remarried in 1942. When Joseph died in 1982, Estee said of her late husband that he was: “the sweetest husband in the world.” The oldest son, Leonard, became chief executive of the company “Estee Lauder” and then chairman of the board. The younger son, Ronald, was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration and then U.S. Ambassador to Austria (1986-1987). Today, Ronald is the president of the World Jewish Congress.

The company “Estee Lauder” became official in 1946 and is still going strong today. To start off with, Estee and her husband made the creams, etc, in the kitchen of a former restaurant. Estee Lauder made her first department store order from Saks Fifth Avenue, who ordered $800 of products which sold in two days! Estee also originated the practice of giving a free gift with a purchase. The company continued to thrive over the next decade and launched the product lines Aramis and Clinique.

Estee had amazing ambition and ‘intense drive’ which made her one of the richest self-made women in the world. She was associated in elite social circles and attended parties that were given by Nancy Reagan. She also had close friendships with famous women such as Wallis Simpson (Duchess of Windsor) and Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco. The company went public in 1995 and (at the time) was valued at roughly $2 billion.

Estee Lauder died on 24th April, 2004. She was 97 years of age and died of ‘cardiopulmonary arrest’ at her home in Manhattan. In this same year, Estee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Her drive and ambition is an inspiration. Estee did not come from a ‘wealthy’ family and learnt from a young age that hard work has its own reward, building her own company up to become the multi-billion dollar company it is today. What drive and ambition!

(My research comes from Wikipedia and Biography)

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