Chapter 1: Born for Beauty
The niece of a Hungarian chemist,
Estée was trained in the art of face creams at an early age.

Estée Lauder seemed destined for a life in beauty. Here, discover how she went from dreaming of her name in lights to seeing it on jars of skincare around the world.
You ask my age? I tell you it simply doesn’t matter.

Josephine Esther Mentzer was born in New York City. Her parents, Rose Schotz, a Hungarian beauty,and Max Mentzer, a Czechoslovakian businessman who carried a cane and gloves on Sunday, called herEsty, which was changed to Estee when she enrolled in school. The name stuck, but one early detailwas never officially pinned down: her birth date. "You ask my age? I tell you it simply doesn't matter,'she'd famously say to dodge the question. "Glow," after all-not a number-was the real essence of
beauty, she believed.