Estée Lauder (/ˈɛsteɪ ˈlɔːdər/ EST-ay LAW-dər; born Josephine Esther Mentzer; July 1, 1908[1] – April 24, 2004) was an American businesswoman.

[13] Her New York Times obituary observed "she was a New Yorker and not an aristocrat at all", notwithstanding "the mythmaking that is so much of the magic of the beauty industry".

[14] Her "favourite story was that she had been brought up by her Viennese mother in fashionable Flushing, Long Island, in a sumptuous home with stables, a chauffeured car and an Italian nurse.

"[15] In actuality, her mother Rose emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1898 with her five children at the time to join her first husband, Abraham Rosenthal.

Like most of her eight siblings, she worked at the family's hardware store, where she got her first taste of business, entrepreneurship, and what it takes to be a successful retailer.

Schotz was a chemist, and his company, New Way Laboratories, sold beauty products such as creams, lotions, rouge, and fragrances.

After graduating from Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York, she focused on her uncle's business.

[citation needed] Lauder named one of her uncle's blends Super Rich All-Purpose Cream, and began selling the preparation to her friends.

[19] One day, as she was getting her hair done at the House of Ash Blondes, the salon's owner Florence Morris asked Lauder about her perfect skin.

"[19] Lauder received the Chevalier (Knight) class of the Legion of Honour from the Consul General of France, Gerard Causer, on January 16, 1978.