“A woman should wear fragrance wherever she expects to be kissed”-Coco Chanel
Laura Reynolds looks at some of the cheapest beauty products available
Whilst this was a large and important part of her career, having worked for the company for more two thirds of her life, there was much more to this woman than make-up. Evelyn Lauder also founded the pink ribbon campaign for Breast Cancer Research in 1992, as a result of a personal experience of breast cancer in the 1980s.
Born in 1936 in Vienna, her family was forced to flee the Nazi regime in 1938, first travelling to Belgium before arriving in England, where her family was separated. Later moving to New York, Evelyn met and married the son of Estée Lauder, sealing her involvement in the family beauty business, which only sold 5 products at this time.
Fast forward a few years, and Evelyn Lauder came up with the equally well respected Clinique brand, an extension to the already flourishing Estée Lauder family.
Whilst beauty products and fragrances were what she was recognised for in her lifetime (and rightly so, having been behind the creation of the world famous “Beautiful” and “Pleasures” Estée Lauder scents), it seems that in the wake of her death, she is being remembered for her charity campaigns, making her own demise as a result of complications of ovarian cancer all the more poignant.
Her charity work began as a collaboration with Alexandra Penney, former editor of Self magazine, and friend of Evelyn. Their aim was to raise awareness of breast cancer. They came up with the pink ribbon symbol, first placing it strategically behind make-up counters across New York City, with Evelyn and her husband Leonard paying for pink ribbons to be given to female customers in department stores to remind them of the importance of breast examinations. The symbol spread across the United States, and is now recognised worldwide.
As a result of this work, the American Congress announced October to be Breast Cancer Awareness month, leading to funds of over £200million being raised for the cause.
Perhaps even less well known was her passion for photography; she had two books of her photographic work published in 1994 and 2002, and also wrote a recipe book.
A lot achieved in one lifetime for someone who had such a difficult start in life.
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