Estée Lauder, born Josephine Esther Mentzer in New York, co-founded the fragrance and cosmetics giant, Estée Lauder, Inc., in 1946.
Her early lessons in assertive selling and promotion of quality products came from her father’s hardware store.
Her inclination towards beauty was further fueled when she learned lotion and cream production from her uncle, a European skin specialist.
With her husband Joseph Lauter (later changed to Lauder), they launched their business, resorting to giving away samples for promotion when advertising agencies turned them down.
This strategy proved fruitful as the company’s sales skyrocketed over the years. Estée Lauder emphasized selling exclusively through prestigious stores and introduced products like Youth-Dew, Aramis, Clinique and Origins.
The company also acquired various beauty brands and collaborated with fashion icons. Going public in 1995, by the early 21st century, it had net sales nearing $8 billion.
Estée’s contributions extended beyond business; she funded projects in Central Park and contributed to the Palace of Versailles’ restoration.
I have outlined below the most inspiring quotes by Estee Lauder.
Best Estee Lauder Quotes
Risk-taking is the cornerstone of empires. ~ Estee Lauder.
I wanted to see my name in lights, but I was willing to settle for my name on a jar. ~ Estee Lauder.
Beauty is an attitude. ~ Estee Lauder.
People are not often naturally perfect and that’s why God made stockings, shoes and cosmetics. ~ Estee Lauder.
Serenity is pleasant, but it lacks the ecstasy of achievement. ~ Estee Lauder.
Accountants and lawyers make great accountants and lawyers. We need them, but we make the business decisions. ~ Estée Lauder.
Most good ideas sparkle in simplicity, so much so that everyone wonders why no one ever did that before. ~ Estee Lauder.
Our life isn’t how much we can take out, but how much we can put in. ~ Estee Lauder.
I knew that women would not buy cosmetics in garish containers that offended their bathroom décor. I wanted them to be proud to display my products. ~ Estee Lauder.
Your face should look as if you cared, and your best friend is your mirror. ~ Estee Lauder.
Top Estee Lauder Quotes
I went into business by accident. ~ Estee Lauder.
Business is there if you go after it. ~ Estee Lauder.
I’d make every woman who stopped to look. I would show her that a three-minute makeup could change her life. ~ Estee Lauder.
You can use this wonderful all-purpose cream in the morning or in the evening. No going crazy with four separate creams! ~ Estée Lauder.
We did everything ourselves. We stayed up all night for nights on end, snatching sleep in fits and starts. ~ Estee Lauder.
Business doesn’t have a sex. ~ Estee Lauder.
I’d love to make up your face and show you a cream that will make it so lovely to touch. ~ Estee Lauder.
Whatever you give comes back to you. ~ Estee Lauder.
I didn’t get where I am by thinking about it or dreaming it. I got there by doing it. ~ Estee Lauder.
I worked every day from nine, when I arrived to polish my jars, to six in the evening. I never lunched. ~ Estee Lauder.
Famous Estee Lauder Quotes
I learned early that being a perfectionist and providing quality was the only way to do business. ~ Estee Lauder.
Projecting your mind into a successful situation is the most powerful means to achieve goals. ~ Estee Lauder.
My ambition was to make every woman beautiful, not to make money. ~ Estee Lauder.
There are no homely women, just lazy ones. ~ Estee Lauder.
If you can’t smell it, you can’t sell it. ~ Estee Lauder.
I was unstoppable, so great was my faith in what I sold. ~ Estee Lauder.
Our competition used many models to speak for them. We decided to personify our products in the vision of one woman – the same model. ~ Estee Lauder.
You cannot nurture global brands and keep them consistently relevant, unless you immerse yourself in local cultures. This means you cannot run the business from an office in a single city. You have to be out in the markets, staying close to the customer. ~ Estee Lauder.
I believed in my product. I loved my product. I loved to touch the creams, smell them, look at them, carry them with me. A person has to love her harvest if she’s to expect others to love it. And beauty was such a bountiful harvest. ~ Estee Lauder.
Popular Estee Lauder Quotes
People do make their luck by daring to follow their instincts, taking risks, and embracing every possibility. ~ Estee Lauder.
I am what you would call a stern taskmaster. I expect perfection. And then a little more perfection when perfection is offered. ~ Estee Lauder.
I’d risk the rent, but if it worked, I would start the business I always dreamed about. Risk-taking is the cornerstone of empires. ~ Estee Lauder.
One simply cannot start from zero. If you want to start your own business, save some money or know someone who can lend you some. You may not need a huge amount, but those first bills must be covered – and then some. When I began, business practice was based on CBD – Cash Before Delivery – not COD [Cash On Delivery]. The same holds true in many cases today. ~ Estee Lauder.
In every life there is a moment – an event or a realization – that changes that life irrevocably. If the change is to be a happy one, one must be able to recognize the moment and seize it without delay. ~ Estee Lauder.
Look for a sweet person. Forget rich. ~ Estee Lauder.
When you’re angry, never put it in writing. It’s like carving anger in stone. That makes implacable enemies. ~ Estee Lauder.
I’ve tried not to sacrifice things for success. I never did anything that could hurt my children. I was always there for breakfast and dinner with them, and when I could I made it myself – and I didn’t believe in any of that frozen food stuff. I was home when they got back from school, and when my husband got in I was always waiting. ~ Estee Lauder.
Great Estee Lauder Quotes
I love to entertain but I never have buffets, because I don’t think it’s nice for people to have to stand around holding plates all night. I always insist on making the first and last courses myself. I won’t even use something store bought like strawberries, it has to be something I’ve obviously taken time and trouble with. ~ Estee Lauder.
I don’t agree with people who say our things are expensive. It’s all in the way you use them, and you need very little. ~ Estee Lauder.
Everyone should eat four times a day, not three times. It gives you more strength and the blood is circulating all the time. All those women who diet dry up their faces and wonder why they get extra wrinkles. ~ Estee Lauder.
If I could start with the finest store in London, all the other great stores would follow. ~ Estee Lauder.
I love Royal Ascot. I get a beautiful new outfit made and I see all my friends. I love the atmosphere, and the horses. ~ Estee Lauder.
I never let anyone see me unless I know I look well, and that’s how I want every woman to think. Every one of us can find the two minutes which is all it takes to look good. ~ Estee Lauder.
I’m a coward and I wouldn’t want an operation, but false eyelashes, wigs, cosmetic surgery, they’re all part of today’s life. ~ Estee Lauder.
Profound Estee Lauder Quotes
What goes first as the skin ages is the eye area, or else shrivelled lips. If you’re having your eyes done then don’t do your neck or forehead. ~ Estee Lauder.
There are no ugly women, only lazyness. There’s something wrong with a woman who doesn’t want to look pretty and attractive. Believe me, there’s no special age for beauty. ~ Estee Lauder.
There’s no special age for beauty. ~ Estee Lauder.
A wrinkle will never entirely disappear, but always remember that a soft wrinkle is better than a hard one! ~ Estee Lauder.
From where you sit, you can probably reach out with comparative ease and touch a life of serenity and peace. You can wait for things to happen and not get too sad when they don’t. That’s fine for some but not for me. Serenity is pleasant, but it lacks the ecstasy of achievement. ~ Estee Lauder.
There is not such thing as bad times, I kept telling myself. There is not such thing as bad business. Business is there if you go after it. ~ Estee Lauder.
First comes the shy wish. Then you must have the heart to have the dream. Then, you work. And work. ~ Estee Lauder.
When a person with experience meets a person with money, pretty soon, the person with the experience will have the money and the person with the money will have the experience. ~ Estee Lauder.
When your first and last courses are magical, what’s in the middle doesn’t count. ~ Estee Lauder.
Start the year with a new face. ~ Estee Lauder.
Inspiring Estee Lauder Quotes
Every one of us can find the two minutes… it takes to look good. ~ Estee Lauder.
I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard. ~ Estee Lauder.
There’s no secret. Why are all brides beautiful? Because on their wedding day they care about how they look. There are no ugly women — only women who don’t care or who don’t believe they’re attractive. ~ Estee Lauder.
If you have a goal, if you want to be successful, if you really want to do it and become another Estée Lauder, you’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to stick to it and you’ve got to believe in what you’re doing. ~ Estee Lauder.
If you put the product into the customer’s hands, it will speak for itself if it’s something of quality. ~ Estee Lauder.
My mother always said any woman is beautiful as long as she thinks she is – and she was very beautiful. ~ Estee Lauder.
Viennese women always wear hats and so do I. It’s a habit I inherited from my mother. Hats are like a picture frame for your face. Even at night I like to wear a veil or a tiny cap on the back of my head. ~ Estee Lauder.
Each businessperson must find a style, that voice that grows clearer and louder with each success and failure. Observing your own and your competitors’ successes and failures makes your inner business voice more sure and vivid. ~ Estee Lauder.
I am a visceral person by nature. I act on instinct, quickly, without pondering possible disaster and without indulging in deep introspection. ~ Estee Lauder.
