Cosmetics capitalist Estée Lauder (Josephine Esther Mentzer) died at 95 on this date, 24 april, in 2004. She was born to Hungarian immigrants who ran a hardware store, and she became interested in cosmetics through the work of her uncle, a chemist who developed beauty products and fragrances. In 1953, she introduced her first fragrance, Youth Dew, a bath oil and perfume that sold 50,000 bottles in its first year and 150 million by 1984. She co-founded her eponymous company in 1946 with her husband Joseph Lauder (whom she divorced and then remarried); today it has 42,000 employees and nearly $12 billion in annual net sales.
Yakymour 