Clio2 has a highly rec’d diary that lays out the latest actions of Ronald Lauder encouraging our demented President to acquire Greenland. The Lauder family have been malevolent actors in funding the GOP and right wing causes for decades. Allegedly because of the GOP’s “pro-business” policies (aka taxes are for the little people). As Estée Lauder and her family were quietly pouring tens of millions of dollars into the Republican National Committee, Estee was billed in the media as a feminist icon—a trailblazing businesswoman who built her fortune giving newly independent working women products they wanted. What Estee, her husband and sons have also been giving the women who made them billionaires is a GOP power structure that includes entrenched, misogynistic coalition partners that literally want women to be uneducated, married off young to controlling husbands, and continuously pregnant or nursing a newborn. But the tax breaks, and apparently minerals in Greenland, are worth it.
I have been a skincare product, makeup and perfume afficiando since I was a young teen. My mother and aunt were suckers for the EL “Free Gift With Purchase” promotions the company runs several times a year. My aunt and mom would pass on the brightly colored cosmetic bags filled with the samples they didn’t want to my sister and me. Youth Dew, EL’s first perfume launched in 1956, was a favorite of my late mom’s. I think of her whenever I get a whiff of it. Clinique products have been a mainstay in my medicine cabinet for years.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade I decided I would no longer contribute even my peon level of money into a fortune controlled by men who do things that directly harm women. I began replacing tried and true products like Clinique Lash Doubling Mascara and Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner with different options. What I soon discovered is that replacing products became a game of whack-a-mole because for the past 20 years, instead of launching new product lines, Estée Lauder has been buying small, independent companies that develop cult followings. Too Faced’s Better Than Sex mascara became my new fave, and then EL bought the company (insert cursing emoji face here). Aveda relaunches their Sap Moss line of shampoo and conditioner and damn! Owned by EL.
Since the last time I have checked, EL has added The Ordinary (another damn!), Bumble and Bumble, and Dr Jart+ to their portfolio. Awhile back EL bought then sold Stila, so there is hope they may offload other brands in the future. While I’m sure very few women here on Kos (or in the general public) would drop $500 on “Miracle Broth” containing LaMer or $100 on a small Jo Malone scented candle, most product lines are aimed at the middle class masses. The Ordinary is priced for those on a budget.
While the Lauder family has shunned the attention grabbing partisan antics of Bezos, Zuckerberg, Andreessen and the other tech bros, it’s good to see more attention being paid to their malign influence in the Trump administration. I doubt Ron Lauder and his nephew, William P. Lauder who last August donated $500,000 to a SuperPAC supporting Andrew Cuomo for NYC mayor, will behave as obnoxiously, or be as directly destructive to our country as Elon Musk, thereby committing corporate suicide. But like Musk, the Lauder’s name is entwined with the company they lead and their products, like Tesla cars and robots, are not necessities in life. Nor do they provide a service that is a huge convenience to people like Amazon. Estée Lauder products are boycott-able on a large scale IF the word gets out to the women in America who buy EL products that the money they spend is turned around to harm them by the company’s controlling shareholders. Below is the list of current brands owned by Estée Lauder. Please join me!
Aerin
Aramis
Aveda
Balmain Beauty
Bumble and Bumble
Clinique
Dauphin Paris
Deciem
Dr Jart+
Frederic Malle
Estee Lauder
Glam Glow
Jo Malone London
Kilian Paris
La Mer
Lab Series
Le Labo
MAC
Niod
Origins
Smashbox
The Ordinary
Tom Ford
Too Faced
