Estee Lauder (1908 - 2004)

"There are no ugly women - only women who don't care
or who don't believe they are attractive"
- Estee Lauder

Cosmetics pioneer Estee Lauder, whose pots of potions and tubs of moisturizers have turned the clock back for millions of faces across the globe, has died. She was 97. Estee who helped launch product kines that included Estee Lauder, Clinique, Aramis, Prescriptives and Origins, died of cardiopulmonary arrest at her Manhattan home.

In 1998, Lauder was the only woman on Time magazine's list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the century. In explaining her success the cosmetics queen once 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."

Born Josephine Esther Mentzer in the working-class Corona section of Queens, Lauder began selling face creams that her uncle John Schotz, a chemist, mixed in a makeshit laboratory in a stable behind the family house. Her company placed 349 in the 2003 ranking in the Fortune 500 list of the nation's largest companies. The current worth of her company is $10 billion.

(Courtesy: Associated Press)

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