American cofounder of a large fragrance and cosmetics company.

Josephine Esther Mentzer learned her first marketing lessons as a child in her father's hardware store: assertive selling, perfectionism, quality products, and, above all, attention to outward appearance. Drawn to fashion and beauty at an early age, she learned the secrets of making lotions and skin creams from an uncle, a European skin specialist who came to stay with her family at the outbreak of World War I. She apprenticed herself to her uncle as he worked with natural ingredients and helped him to develop new products.

She married Joseph Lauter (last name later changed to Lauder), whom she divorced in 1939 and remarried in 1942. Together they founded Estée Lauder, Inc., in 1946. Their first six beauty products included skin treatments, a rouge, and a makeup base. When no agency would handle their small $50,000 advertising budget, the Lauders spent the money on samples, which they gave away at fashion shows and in mailings. Their strategy succeeded. From a company employing five persons and grossing $850,000 in sales in 1958, Estée Lauder, Inc., grew to employ 1,000 and earn $100 million in sales by 1973.

The company maintained a policy of emphasizing skin care and protection while selling its products only through department and specialty stores rather than less prestigious outlets. Its best-known products have included Youth-Dew fragrance and bath oils, added in 1953; Aramis men's products, begun in 1964; Clinique allergy-tested cosmetics, first developed in 1968; Prescriptives cosmetics, founded in 1979; and Origins natural cosmetics, introduced in 1990. In the 1990s the Estée Lauder Companies Inc. acquired a number of beauty-related companies, including Bobbi Brown essentials, Aveda, Make-Up Art Cosmetics (M∙A∙C), and Stila.

The company began selling cosmetics and fragrances internationally in the 1960s, and by the early 21st century Estée Lauder products were sold in more than 130 countries. With net sales of more than $3.5 billion, Estée Lauder, Inc., outsold all other department store cosmetic lines in the 1990s. The company went public in November 1995 and by 2004 was worth about $10 billion.

Among their philanthropic endeavors, the Lauders funded the construction of three adventure playgrounds in New York City's Central Park. In 1978 Estée Lauder was honoured by the French government for her contributions to restoring the Palace of Versailles. In 1985 she published an autobiography, Estée: A Success Story. It described some of her basic strategies: opening the Estée Lauder counter at each new store in person, offering free promotional items, and remaining personally involved with the company.