Background

Ethnicity: Estée Lauder came from a family of Jewish immigrants - her mother was Hungarian and her father was Czech. Both her parents had Jewish ancestry.

Estée Lauder was born as Josephine Esther Mentzer in Corona, a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, the United States. Officially her birthday falls on July 1, 1908, but according to other accounts, she was born two years earlier on July 1, 1906.

Estée’s father, Max Mentzer, was a Czechoslovakian from Holice (now in Slovakia). He migrated to the United States in the 1890s. Working first as a custom-tailor, he eventually opened a hardware store beneath their family home in Corona.

Estée’s mother, Rose nee Schotz nee Rosenthal, was a Hungarian from Sátoráljaújhely. She came to the United States in 1898 with her five children to join her then-husband, Abraham Rosenthal. Eventually, in 1905, she married Max Mentzer, ten years younger than her.

Apart from her five children from her previous marriage, she bore Max four more, Estée being the youngest of them. Although christened Josephine, she preferred to be called by her nickname Estee, to which she later added an accent, making it Estée.

In spite of having to manage such a large family, Rose was a gorgeous woman, conscious about her looks, and always used a parasol to protect her skin from ultraviolet rays. As a child, Estée loved to brush her hair, wanting to grow up like her. She was also influenced greatly by her father.

Estée was also very embarrassed about her parents’ way of life that betrayed their migrant status. A petite blonde with lovely skin and a determination to look good, she wanted to be fully American, more importantly, a successful actress, with her name and fame spread all over.

Education

Lauder attended Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York, and much of her childhood was spent trying to make ends meet.

While attending Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Estee also served in her father’s shop. Here she learned the basics of retailing; not only about the importance of perfectionism but also about the outward appearance of merchandise as well as the promotion of quality products.

Career

In 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Estée’s maternal uncle, John Schotz, came to live with them. A chemist by profession, he set up a laboratory in an empty stable behind their house. Named New Way Laboratories, it manufactured creams, lotions, rouge, and perfumes, using natural ingredients.

Always interested in beauty, Estée now began to spend lots of time, watching his uncle at work. By and by, she started helping him in his business, learning from him how to wash her face, or have a facial massage.

Slowly, she started selling the products to her classmates at Newton High School, initially calling them ‘jars of hope’. To prove the effectiveness of her uncle’s products, she also started giving them beauty treatments.

With time, she started giving her uncle’s products specific names like Super Rich All-Purpose Cream, Six-In-One Cold Cream and Dr. Schotz's Viennese Cream, etc. But she went into big-time marketing only after she graduated from school.

One day, Estée Lauder went to have her hair done at a local salon. Impressed by her delicate skin, its owner, Florence Morris, asked the secret behind it. The next day, Estée walked in with four of her uncle’s products. Impressed, Morris asked her to sell the products at her salon.

While she was selling her products at the salon, she had a humiliating experience. One day, she asked a customer from where she had bought the blouse she was wearing, to which the customer replied, it should not matter to Estée for she would never be able to afford that.

Stung by the customer’s behavior, Estée vowed that she would earn so much money that she would be able to buy whatever she wanted. She now doubled her effort, selling her products at salons and clubs. This continued despite her marriage to Joseph Lauter in 1930 and the birth of their eldest child in 1933.

During this initial period, Estée spent the nights working in her kitchen to improve the products, stirring over pots and pans, using natural ingredients. During the day, she visited clients, selling products, giving free make-up demonstrations. She also provided samples to her clients, sure that they would return for more.

Sometime now, knowing that social contacts are essential for the growth of her business, she started reinventing herself. Going to the extent of fabricating her past, she raised herself to the level of her clients. For many years, people knew she belonged to a European noble family.

Slowly she expanded her market, visiting guests at hotels throughout the New York metropolitan area. Although her clientele began to grow, as she later realized, in establishing her career, she neglected her marriage, as a result of which it ended in divorce in 1939.

Shortly after the divorce, she moved to Miami Beach, Florida, taking her son Leonard with her. Here, she set up her office at Roney Plaza, a hotel on Collins Avenue, and began selling her products to wealthy holiday-makers. To spread the word, she also started a novel campaign, Tell a Woman.

In 1942, her son, Leonard, came down with mumps and on getting the news, her ex-husband, Joseph, came to see Leonard. Slowly, the old flame ignited and they remarried in the same year. This time, Joseph left his job to join Estée in her business.

While she was in charge of development and marketing, Joseph started looking after manufacturing and finance. In 1944, they took their first big step and opened their first store in New York.

Soon after their first marriage, the couple had changed their last name from Lauter to Lauder. After years of operating her cosmetics business, Lauder made it official in 1946 by forming the corporation that still bears her name today. She and her husband were the entire company at the time, and they offered only a handful of products. They were also making these items using the kitchen of a former restaurant. The following year, Lauder had a career breakthrough. She landed her first department store order for her cosmetics. Saks Fifth Avenue ordered $800 in her products, which sold out in two days. Lauder also originated the practice of giving a free gift with a purchase marketing strategy around this time.

In 1953, Lauder launched her Youth Dew product. This bath oil also doubled as a perfume and it quickly became a big hit with consumers. The business continued to thrive over the next decade with its expansion to overseas markets and the launches of the men's product line Aramis and the Clinique brand.

As a result of her intense drive and ambition, Lauder became one of the richest self-made women in the world. She ran in elite social circles, attending parties thrown by the likes of Nancy Reagan. Lauder also enjoyed warm relations with such royal figures as Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and actress Grace Kelly, also known as Princess Grace of Monaco.

In 1973, Lauder reduced her role in the company's day-to-day operations. She resigned her post as president but stayed on as the company's chairman of the board. Her oldest son Leonard took over running the family business. Lauder suffered a terrible loss in 1983 with the death of her beloved husband Joseph. In his honor, she established the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lauder shared her journey to high status and wealth in her 1985 autobiography Estée: A Success Story. Privately held for decades, Lauder's company went public in 1995. At the time, the business was valued at about $2 billion.

Although Lauder was no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the company, she continued to be productive, creating two more brands under her direct supervision. In 1979, she introduced the Prescriptives line of cosmetics and in 1990, the Origins, the first wellness brand in the United States department stores.

In recognition of her business and social standing, Lauder was offered the post of ambassador to Luxembourg by President Richard M. Nixon, which she declined.

Achievements

• Lauder was the only woman on Time magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century. In 1967, she was included in the lists of 100 best American entrepreneurs and in 1970 in the list of Ten Outstanding Women in Business in the United States.
  
  In 1968, she received the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Spirit of Achievement Award. On 16 January 1978, she became the first woman to receive the Insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (France).
  
  In 1988, she was inducted to the Junior Achievement United States Business Hall of Fame. In 2004, shortly before her death, Estee Lauder received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. At the time of her death, Forbes magazine estimated the net worth of her family at $5.1 billion in total, ranked among the top 300 richest people in the world.

Views

Lauder's tremendous personal wealth has enabled her to be generous with her donations to various projects and causes. In 1962, she established the Estee and Joseph Lauder Foundation, which has helped fund children's parks in New York City. She has also donated to both the Whitney Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

After the death of her husband, Estée Lauder spent more and more time in philanthropic works. Among others, she set up Joseph T. Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in memory of her husband.

Lauder's motto has always been, "Not by dreaming or hoping for it, but by working for it."

In her 1985 autobiography, Lauder offered the following 15 rules as advice to aspiring entrepreneurs^

1. Find the proper location.

2. When you're angry, never put it in writing.

3. You get more bees with honey.

4. Keep your own image straight in your mind.

5. Keep an eye on the competition.

6. Divide and rule.

7. Learn to say no.

8. Trust your instincts.

9. Act tough.

10. Acknowledge your mistakes

11. Write things down.

12. Hire the best people.

13. Break down barriers.

14. Give credit where credit is due.

15. Train the best sales force.

Quotations: "I didn’t get where I am by thinking about it or dreaming it. I got there by doing it."

"Accountants and lawyers make great accountants and lawyers. We need them, but we make business decisions."

"Serenity is pleasant, but it lacks the ecstasy of achievement."

"Persistence. It’s that certain little spirit that compels you to continue just when you’re at your most tired. It’s that quality that forces you to persevere, find the route around the stone wall. It’s the immovable stubbornness that will not allow you to cave in when everyone says give up."

"From where you sit, you can probably reach out with comparative ease and touch the life of serenity and peace. You can wait for things to happen and not get too sad when they don’t. That’s fine for some but not for me. Serenity is pleasant, but it lacks the ecstasy of achievement."

Personality

Estée Lauder was an iconic American entrepreneur. She was always in the know about fashion trends and founded her namesake brand at a time when Givenchy, Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, and other designers were shaping the latest fashions. She loved New York City and drew inspiration from its sophisticated, vibrant, stylish culture. In the middle of the 20th century, New York was the global center for art, architecture, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Although Estée's heart was in New York, she had homes in the South of France, London, and Palm Beach, among other locales. She traveled the world and loved to visit museums and art galleries, attend fashion shows and learn about her customers and their respective cultures.

When the managers at Galleries Lafayette in Paris refused to stock her products, Mrs. Lauder spilled her Youth Dew ‘accidentally’ on the floor. As the fragrance wafted through customers began to ask where they could get the product. Capitulated, the manager finally placed the order.

She had an intense love of flowers, which served a purpose in everything she created. She found them to be a constant source of inspiration. As she told House & Garden magazine in 1980, "What’s the great secret to vitality? [It] can be derived by surrounding yourself with growing things - plants and flowers."

Estée became friends with some of the most influential celebrities, royalty and artists of her time, and was known for her impeccable style and warm, gracious entertaining. Estée was the quintessential entrepreneur who refused to listen to experts or settle for anything less than the very best. She constantly challenged the status quo and is described as someone you simply couldn’t say no to. She loved beauty with a passion and believed wholeheartedly in its power.

Connections

On January 15, 1930, Estée married Joseph Lauter, a surname that was changed to Lauder shortly after the marriage. During this period, Estée was too preoccupied with establishing her business, as a result of which, their marriage ended in divorce in 1939.

The couple remarried on December 7, 1942, and they remained together until Joseph’s death in 1982. They had two sons; Leonard born in 1933 and Ronald in 1944.

Father:

Max Mentzer

Mother:

Rose Schotz Rosenthal

Spouse:

Joseph Lauder

In the late 1920s, Estée met Joseph Lauter. They were married in 1930 and moved to Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, the couple adopted the surname Lauder, correcting a misspelling that dated back to when Joseph's father emigrated from Austria to the United States.

child:

Leonard Alan Lauder

The eldest son of the eponymous makeup maven, Lauder joined his mother's company in 1958.

Son:

Ronald Lauder

Ronald Lauder is the youngest son of makeup maven Estée Lauder. He became the chairman of Clinique Laboratories in 1994 and still occupies that position today.

Uncle:

John Schotz

Schotz stirred his potions on the kitchen cooker and flogged them locally. His young niece promoted one of them as Super-Rich, All-Purpose Cream (which sounds like the brisk, unexotic labels of her Clinique brand more than half a century later).

Acquaintance:

Frank Sinatra

Acquaintance:

Nancy Reagan

References

• Estée Lauder: Doyenne of Beauty (Titans of Fortune)
• The Estee Lauder Solid Perfume Compact Collection 1967-2001 by Roselyn Gerson (2001-11-01)
• Estee: A Success Story by Estee Lauder (1985-10-12)
• Estee: A Success Story
  1985
• Estée Lauder: Businesswoman and Cosmetics Pioneer (Essential Lives)