Estée Lauder starts her business with four groundbreaking skin care products--Crème Pack, Cleansing Oil, Super-Rich All Purpose Crème and Skin Lotion—which she sold in beauty salons and hotels in the New York area.

Estée personally samples her products to make a sale. Today, High-Touch still distinguishes our service. "It’s that rare touch, that person-to-person contact, that leaves the deepest impression,” she said.

Estée Lauder Cosmetics Co. officially launches. Estée and her husband, Joseph Lauder, cook up their creams on gas burners in a former restaurant at 1 West 64th Street in Manhattan.

With great demand from Estée’s customers, Saks orders $800 worth of her products. Within two days they sold out. The Company rang up sales of about $50,000; profits were nil.

Estée Lauder pioneers a revolutionary marketing idea, Gift with Purchase, giving customers a small sample of cream-based face powder with their beauty purchase, a concept now commonplace in the cosmetics industry.

Estée Lauder pioneers a revolutionary marketing idea, Gift with Purchase, giving customers a small sample of cream-based face powder with their beauty purchase, a concept now commonplace in the cosmetics industry.

On Jan. 1, Estée Lauder launches in Neiman Marcus in Dallas with a radio ad proclaiming, “Start the New Year with a New Face.” Consumers lined up after hearing Estée’s promises of the latest European beauty secrets.

Estée Lauder and her chief chemist create a face cream made from an entire egg. Estoderme Youth-Dew Crème stole the heart of Harper’s Bazaar’s editor-in-chief and sealed its success.

Perfume wasn’t used daily or bought by a woman for herself, so Estée creates Youth Dew, a bath oil that doubled as a fragrance. It took the industry by storm; women could smell intoxicating without feeling guilty.

Estée justifies the value of $115 Re-Nutriv, then the priciest skin cream. “Why do you spend so much for a Picasso? The linen costs $2.75, each jar of paint, $1.75. You’re paying for creativity and experience.”

Evelyn Lauder weds Leonard Lauder, joins the family business and uses her teaching skills to start education programs for beauty advisors on how to consult, analyze and sell. These programs are still in force.

Estée Lauder lands its first overseas account, Harrods in London, after years of wooing its owner, influential British beauty editors and the store’s cosmetics’ buyer. Today foreign sales are 62% of the business.

Estée realizes the importance of descriptive lipstick names. Another company used Love That Red; Estée’s choice, Coral Red. Her other winners: Flirtation Pink, Rose Wood, Duchess Crimson, all “honest descriptions.”

The Company introduces the first full line of men’s fragrance and grooming products. Named Aramis after an exotic Turkish root originally used for aphrodisiac qualities, the brand cost $250,000 to develop.

The Company opens its first factory overseas, in Oevel, Belgium, allowing its international expansion to flourish. “This lady is bringing a beautiful scent to our land,” a Belgium representative said.

The Company opens a facility in Melville, N.Y., for Research and Development and manufacturing facilities.

Clinique, the first dermatologist-created, prestige beauty brand, launches with 117 products. Struggling for a name, Evelyn Lauder was inspired by “Clinique Aesthetique” signs in Paris for a type of beauty salon.

Clinique’s question and answer board encourages consumer interaction and provides skin analysis. It’s one of the first uses of technology to match individual differences with appropriate beauty products.

Clinique hires renowned photographer Irving Penn to shoot its now-famous “Twice a day” ad, which first ran in The New York Times. From the start, Clinique has featured its products as heroes and doesn’t use models.

Ronald Lauder and a French scientist divide skin, hair and eye color into groups to create customized cosmetics. The new brand, Prescriptives, also gives the Company more real estate in department stores.

Estée Lauder invents Night Repair, an innovative serum that revolutionized skin care. It’s the first cosmetics company to develop an anti-aging product that repairs skin during the nighttime hours.

Estée Lauder’s Beautiful fragrance, created from 2,000 fresh flowers, debuts in a market dominated by heavy scents. It hit the top 10 almost immediately and still remains a bestselling U.S. prestige fragrance.

Estée Lauder welcomes Raisa Gorbachev to her Fifth Avenue office in New York City and expresses her dream of having a shop in the Soviet Union. A year later the first Estée Lauder perfumery opens in Moscow.

Origins, the first wellness brand in U.S. department stores, is developed by William Lauder and others. Its symbol of two intertwined trees represents the power of nature and the proof of science.

Evelyn Lauder and SELF ’s Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Penney create the Pink Ribbon to bring attention to breast cancer. The Company’s BCA Campaign distributes 1.5 million Pink Ribbons at 2,500 Estée Lauder counters.

The Company begins fragrance licensing with fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. Later, Kiton, Donna Karen, Michael Kors, Sean John, Missoni, Daisy Fuentes, Coach, Tom Ford and Ermenegildo Zegna follow.

Estée Lauder and Clinique launch in Shanghai, China, at Isetan. Today, the Company sells eleven brands in this fast-growing emerging market.

The Company buys a majority interest in M•A•C Cosmetics, based in Toronto, Canada, marking the start of a decade of acquisitions. Subsequent purchases include La Mer, Bobbi Brown, Jo Malone, Darphin and Smashbox.

M•A•C creates the M•A•C AIDS Fund to serve people of all ages, races and sexes affected by HIV and AIDS. It’s raised more than $220 million selling VIVA GLAM lipsticks, with RuPaul and Lady Gaga as spokespersons.

On November 17, The Estée Lauder Companies goes public on the New York Stock Exchange at $26.00 a share ($13.00 post split). At day’s end the stock stood at $34.50 ($17.25 post split), a 33 percent gain.

The Company launches its first e-commerce sites, for Clinique and Bobbi Brown.

The Company acquires its first hair care brand, Aveda. Subsequent hair care acquisitions include Bumble and bumble and Ojon.

BeautyBank, a think tank, is formed to develop brands and products for alternative distribution channels worldwide. Its first brands, American Beauty and Flirt!, launch in Kohl’s Department Stores in the U.S.

The Company embarks on a long-term strategy to gain market share, build on its strengths and become more efficient. Skin care, the Asia/Pacific region and North American department stores are priorities.

Clinique unveils “Service As You Like It” at Bloomingdale’s New York flagship, with browsing baskets, express replenishment and computer skin care analysis. The open space reshapes the traditional beauty counter.

The first Bumble and bumble Styling Bar opens at Bloomingdale’s 59th St., offering “no wash, no appointment" services and referrals to salon networks.

The Estée Lauder brand introduces a new version of its iconic, blockbuster product to huge success globally. The technological breakthrough, which continuously synchronizes skin repair, is patented until 2017.

Clinique’s Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector becomes the brand’s bestselling product within a year’s time, illustrating the Company’s new philosophy of fewer but bigger innovations.

Origins opens its first counter in mainland China, launching exclusively at Parkson Department Store, becoming the Company’s ninth brand in the market.

Aramis and Designer Fragrances introduces pureDKNY, “a scent with a conscience,” that is promoted on a unique platform of sustainability.

Smashbox Cosmetics, a Hollywood-based, photo studio-inspired makeup brand, founded by the great grandsons of cosmetics pioneer Max Factor, joins the portfolio.

The Estée Lauder brand signs three foreign spokesmodels: Liu Wen from China, Constance Jablonski from France and Joan Smalls from Puerto Rico, bringing it broader, global appeal.

The Company unveils a new Innovation Center in Shanghai, China. The R&D center enables us to further develop products tailored to the specific needs of Chinese and Asian skin and be locally relevant.