Estée Lauder started with four creams and became cosmetics' second giant
In 1946 Estée Lauder and her husband Joseph sold just four skin products from New York. Two years later Saks Fifth Avenue took them on. Today their company trails only L'Oréal in world cosmetics, owning names from Clinique to La Mer, and its daughter-in-law helped create the pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness.
The first range was a cleansing oil, a skin lotion, an all-purpose cream and a face pack. After the Saks account in 1948, growth stayed domestic for years, until Harrods in London became the first foreign stockist in 1960 and a Hong Kong office followed a year later. Aramis, a men's line, arrived in 1964, and Clinique in 1968, pitched as allergy-tested, fragrance-free and guided by the dermatologist Norman Orentreich. In 1976 Clinique became the first women's cosmetics brand to add a separate men's range.
Expansion abroad owed much to Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner, head of international operations. She took the products into the Soviet Union and China as those markets opened, oversaw a first Soviet location one week after the Berlin Wall fell, and turned a small, unprofitable division into one earning roughly half the company's revenue.
The 1990s turned a family firm into a publicly traded but family-controlled one; shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange on November 16, 1995, at $26 each. Buying sprees defined the era. MAC Cosmetics, acquired in 1998 after an investment four years earlier, joined Bobbi Brown and La Mer, both bought in 1995, and Jo Malone London came in 1999. Designer licensing deals with Tommy Hilfiger and later Tom Ford broadened the fragrance side. The largest deals came later: Too Faced for $1.45 billion in 2016 and the Tom Ford fashion house for $2.8 billion, announced in 2022. In fiscal 2016 net sales reached $11.26 billion.
Evelyn Lauder launched the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign in October 1992 and co-created the pink ribbon with Self magazine; the campaign has since raised over $89 million. The company has had rough patches. In 2001 children were found working at a contracted Origins supplier, and Lauder said it ended the contract. Animal testing required by Chinese law has troubled cruelty-free brands it bought. During the pandemic it cut up to 2,000 jobs, about 3 percent of staff, and closed 10 to 15 percent of its stores.
Source: Estée Lauder Companies
