Business

Estée Lauder

Sold her chemist uncle's face creams at beach clubs; built the company on free samples.

Born: 1908 · Queens, New York, US
Roots: Hungarian-Jewish immigrant parents
Family: Middle class; The family lived above her father's hardware store in Corona, Queens.
Education: Newtown High School; no university
Started with: An uncle's face cream; Her chemist uncle's homemade skin creams, which she sold at salons and beach clubs.
Affiliations & societies: None documented.; Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1924 · age 16
The uncle's lab
Learns to make creams from her chemist uncle John Schotz; sells to classmates and salon customers.
1946 · age 38
Founds the company
With her husband Joseph, cooking batches on a restaurant stove.
1948 · age 40
Saks Fifth Avenue$800 order
The first department-store order sells out in two days.
1953 · age 45
Youth-Dew
A bath oil doubling as perfume; turns the company into a mass business.
1960 · age 52
Free samples
The gift-with-purchase model she pushed becomes industry standard.
1998 · age 90
Time's business geniuses list
The only woman on its 20-name 20th-century list.

Sources

Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.