Lauder co-founded cosmetics company The Estée Lauder Companies with her husband, Joseph Lauder, in 1946.

Her fragrance Youth-Dew (1953), a bath oil that doubled as a perfume, became one of the company's first major successes.

• In 1998, she was the only woman named to Time's list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century.

• She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004.

• Her sons, Leonard Lauder and Ronald Lauder, later led the company.