The FIDM Museum is home to a robust collection of fragrance and beauty objects, from luxuriously packaged Lucien Lelong lipsticks to the suggestive glass bottle of Schiaparelli’s Shocking perfume. One name in particular among our signature scents remains relevant in today’s cosmetics industry: Estée Lauder. In honor of International Fragrance Day, we are sharing a selection of our charming Estée Lauder mini perfume compacts – tiny, collectible trinkets filled with solid scent. Introduced in 1967, production of these one-of-a-kind compacts are now an annual holiday tradition for the company.

Perfume compact
c. 1993-1997
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.2

Estée Lauder (1908 – 2004) was a celebrated business woman and beauty connoisseur, receiving both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Legion of Honour in recognition of her contributions to the industry. Born to Hungarian immigrants in New York, she got her start in the beauty industry by selling a line of cold creams produced by her uncle, a chemist.[1] She launched her own line of cosmetics in the early 1930s – formulating her first products by hand in her kitchen – and began selling the Estée Lauder brand at concession counters in Bonwit Teller and later Saks Fifth Avenue. Estée and her husband, Joe Lauder, became business partners and officially registered their company in 1946.[2] A hardworking and talented professional, Lauder had an innate sense of what women wanted and needed in their cosmetics. She took the personal approach to marketing, and attributed her success in sales to satisfied customers spreading the word about their favorite products.[3]

Lauder’s company truly took off with the introduction of her first fragrance, Youth Dew, in 1953. She knew that women typically received perfume as a gift once or twice a year, and rarely purchased scents for themselves. So Lauder created a new product: an affordable yet indulgent bath oil that a woman could buy easily for herself at the cosmetics counter. The bath oil was concentrated so the scent would last all day – no need for a separate perfume.[4] It was an ingenious creation that made perfume accessible, from the price point to the understated packaging.[5] The fragrance was a runaway success, and put the Estée Lauder brand at the top of the industry.

Perfume compact
c. 1968
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.18

In the competitive world of cosmetics, companies constantly introduce new, original products to capture the attention of the consumer. Such is the case with solid perfumes; a fresh take on fragrance packaging, mini compacts were yet another way to seduce a buyer into picking up a new scent. Estée Lauder presented her solid fragrance compact filled with Youth Dew in 1967, and her peers Helena Rubenstein, Revlon, Max Factor, Avon, and others sold their own versions of this novelty.[6] Customers loved Lauder’s whimsical compacts that resembled charms on a bracelet – tiny animals, hearts, shoes, and other clever designs were plated in gold or silver and adorned with sparkling crystals. Small enough to remain affordable, customers found the compacts irresistible. A new line is still released every year, and collecting them has become a tradition for loyalists to the brand.

A self-made success with admirable business acumen, Estée Lauder truly wanted every woman who used her products to feel beautiful. To Lauder, building her company was never a question, it was a matter of taking action: “I was unstoppable, so great was my faith in what I sold.” [7]

Perfume compact
c. 1996-1997
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.1

Perfume compact
c. 1992-1995
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.3

Perfume compact
c. 1996
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.8

Perfume compact
c. 1996
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.6

Perfume compact
c. 1993
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.19

Perfume compact
c. 1993
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.10

Perfume compact
c. 1997
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.5

Perfume compact
c. 1995-2000
Gift of the Annette Green Museum at the Fragrance Foundation
F2005.860.676A-D

[1] “Estée Lauder,” Bloomsbury Business Library – Business Thinkers & Management Giants, 2007, pg 24.

[2] Linda Peterson, “Estée Lauder,” Biography (June 2000, Vol. 4, Issue 6) pg 76-82.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Roja Dove, The Essence of Perfume (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2008) 134.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Judy Penz Sheluk, “A Companct Collection with Character,” Antiques & Collecting Magazine (February 2004, Vol. 108, Issue 12) pg 34-38.

[7] Peterson, “Estée Lauder,” Biography .