Estee Lauder Cosmetics Go Holistic

Is Estee Lauder getting hip? Or has America’s queen of cosmetics and fragrance gone bonkers?

With her newest company--botanically based Origins--launched last week at Nordstrom, 82-year-old Lauder is breaking beauty business rules. No fancy packaging. No fancy names or ingredients. In fact, Origins includes several products with non-cosmetic names and unexpected uses.

Stress Buffer, for instance, is a gel designed to be rubbed on the kidney region and the solar plexus (just finding your solar plexus is a challenge for most people). Energy Boost, a blend of vetiver (a fragrant East Indian grass), cinnamon and lavender, is said to “keep nerves from knotting.” There’s even Peace of Mind, a natural headache reliever containing basil, rosemary and peppermint, to rub on the temples.

The point, says Lauder’s 30-year-old grandson, William--who heads the new company--is “a more holistic approach to looking your best--beauty from the inside out.”

There’s an environment-friendly message for every product. Recycling bins for used bottles, caps and boxes are positioned at every cosmetics counter that carries the line. A consumer dictionary is always on hand in stores to explain the uses of natural ingredients and essences like ylang ylang, myrtle and great mugwort--herbs said to be natural relaxants.

The accompanying cosmetics line is more conventional, but all the colors are earth-toned. There’s not a fuchsia lipstick or blue eye shadow in the lot. Another Origins touch is the pressed powder, embossed with a mantra: “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” To that end, like many of today’s cosmetics, nothing is safety-tested on animals. Origins goes one step further. None of the products contains ingredients derived from animals--that means no lanolin, collagen or other animal proteins, and no fur brushes.

Joe Gubernick, the Lauder scientist who developed the collection, reasons, “From a scientific viewpoint, it doesn’t really make any significant difference that we use no animal-derived ingredients, but it makes people feel better.”

Origins has its share of conventional skin-care products, but even they sound like they emerged from a ‘60s sensitivity seminar. These creams and lotions don’t address oily, normal or dry skin, but rather skin that “acts” oily, dry, confused, sensitive or mature. The premise is that all skin is “normal” and can be troubled at times.

The products are carried at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, but the West Coast launch was more significant, Leonard Lauder says. “People on the West Coast are far more environmentally aware than anywhere else in the country.”

Ann Spikula, a shopper who lives in Santa Monica, was in Nordstrom at the Westside Pavilion on Sunday, sniffing the various Origins elixirs. She said the environmentally friendly approach didn’t attract her, but the prices did. No Origins skin care product costs more than $25. “I’m going to buy this one called ‘Peace of Mind’--it’s only $10,” said Spikula. “If it works, that’s a bargain.”