Pure Estée!

Born in the United States to Jewish immigrants, Estée Lauder (1906-2004), and the company she founded with her husband, Joseph, stand at the pinnacle of the American beauty industry. A manufacturer and marketer of prestige skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair-care products, the Estée Lauder Company has over 27 brands, among which we will find La Mer, Bobbi Brown, Smashbox, Jo Malone, MAC, Clinique, Aveda, Aramis, Tom Ford Beauty and Lab Series for Men. Now run by a board that includes Estée’s son, the company continues to thrive and expand, eight years after her death. This year, the company launches the Tory Burch fragrance. So, of course, with a global beauty brand of this magnitude, one can’t help but take notice when the signature brand, Estée Lauder Cosmetics, flexes its muscles (facial and lip?), and holds an event.

Held at the Rockwell Tent, the event marked EL’s creative makeup director Tom Pecheux’s latest product line — the 2013’s PureColor. Lipsticks, eye shadows, blush and nail lacquers were all placed on show with an event that partnered Ballet Philippines with models who showcased the versatility and diversity of the new shades and colors. The models wore Jun Escario gowns, and the event was a successful blend of pushing a product, while entertaining guests and giving them a fun night, via numbers from Ballet Philippines and DJanes for the after-party.

In Estée Lauder’s own words, “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard!” Ever the consummate businesswoman, Estée would promote beauty and pushed for technological advances, but always with an eye out for the “sale,” recognizing that success would be the best motivator for improving one’s product lines, and having the resources to realize that.

In 1998, Time magazine cited Estée Lauder as the only woman on its list of the 20 Most Influential Business Geniuses of the 20th Century. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. From up there in beauty heaven, the likes of Estée and Coco Chanel are most likely gazing down at us, proud of just how much their visions tapped into the dreams and aspirations of women all over the world. In my family alone, my late mother was one of the first champions of Clinique; thanks to her being a regular patient of Clinique’s founding creative director, New York dermatologist Dr. Norman Orentreich — this in the late 1970s.

Adversity academy

Individuals thrust into situations of high adversity, fraught with danger, are what propel these three novels’ exceptional writing. One is set during the Italian Renaissance period, exposing the bloodlust underneath the achievements of art and culture. Then we have a novel set during World War II, but with a female Berliner as our protagonist. Finally, a searing glimpse into modern Israel, and what it means to be a young woman living there.

The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis (available at National Book Store) Politics and a serial murder mystery bring two Renaissance icons, Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli, into the forefront of this extensively researched novel. Pope Alexander, a Borgia who “bought” the papacy, has two sons, with one son murdered under mysterious circumstances. When Diamata, a courtesan, falls under suspicion of conspiring with mercenaries to bring about said son’s death, the Pope sends her to Imola to discover who really killed the favored son. However, much more than the Duke’s death becomes the focus of this novel, as witchcraft, allegiances and disloyalty and an examination of a time when politics was ruled by conquest, fill the pages.

City of Women by David Gillham (available at National Book Store) Life in Berlin during World War II, when every able-bodied man was either trapped in a bitter, losing struggle on the Russian front, or stationed in the Axis-occupied countries, meant a city populated predominantly by women. Gillham’s novel incisively explores the bonds of family, the temptation of love and lust and the challenges to conscience given the Jewish situation, that befall one woman living in Berlin while her soldier husband is fighting in Russia. An affair with a Jew, and a dangerous friendship with a young woman, who both seem to be enmeshed in clandestine activities protecting the Jews left in Berlin, trigger the plot line of this absorbing novel.

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu (available at National Book Store) Modern Israel, and the young women who populate it are placed in the piercing spotlight of Boianjiu in this loosely structured, episodic novel. Amidst incipient danger at every street corner and the prevalent mood of paranoia, three young girls — Yael, Lea and Avishag — attempt to find some version of normalcy, while turning into adults. Dream-like, surreal sequences are interspersed with vicious reality, and the “better them than me” attitude that characterizes life where military training, and serving the country, are givens, even for every woman. Debunks the clichéd image of the Israeli warrior woman and how the true picture is much more complex.