By Jennifer Weil

PARIS - Jacques Courtin-Clarins, who died Thursday in his home in a Paris
suburb at age 86, was a pioneer in natural beauty products and practices
who promoted the philosophy that feeling good is tantamount to feeling
beautiful.

The impact of Courtin-Clarins, the founder of Group Clarins, reverberated
across the industry.

"I've known and admired Jacques Courtin-Clarins ever since Clarins emerged
on the scene," said Leonard Lauder, chairman of the board of the Estée
Lauder Cos. "He was a remarkable visionary and was able to create a whole
new mode of selling that others have tried to replicate and never
succeeded. We will all miss him."

"This gentleman was one of the leaders of the industry," said Chantal Roos,
president and chief executive officer of YSL Beauté. "He created from
scratch one of the most beautiful brands," she added, explaining
Courtin-Clarins was a pioneer on two fronts - one was natural products and
the other was an unusual adherence to consumers' wishes.

"He made consumer satisfaction a priority," said Roos.

She recalled how, in the early days of his business, Courtin-Clarins would
develop products by polling long lists of customers to find out what they
were thinking. His company was also among the first to include
questionnaires in each of its product's packaging so that, when filled out
and returned to Clarins, they gave direct consumer feedback.

Roos expressed sadness at Courtin-Clarins' passing, but said she is sure
that his sons - Christian, who is the company's president and chief
executive officer, and Olivier, vice president of research and development
- will "continue this successful story."

Indeed, Courtin-Clarins' story was one of hard work and perseverance. He
studied medicine up until the outbreak of World War II, when he worked in
hospitals helping the wounded. Once the war was over, Courtin-Clarins
became a chiropractor and started learning about his patients' skin-care
needs. In 1954, he opened the first Clarins beauty institute, in Paris,
where Courtin-Clarins introduced an innovative massage technique, plus oils
and creams with formulas based on pure plant-based extracts.

"He seriously believed that a woman who feels good is a powerful woman,"
said Jonathan Zrihen, ceo and president of Clarins USA.

In the Seventies, Clarins broadened its distribution outside of pharmacies
to department stores and beauty clinics. The company went public on the
Paris Bourse in 1984.

"I remember when Clarins was put on the stock market, [Courtin-Clarins]
gave shares to every employee, including those working in the factory,"
said Eric Henry, chief operating officer of Beauté Prestige International,
who had worked at Clarins for almost 17 years, including as its senior vice
president for international. "He paid great respect to people."

Alain Grangé Cabane, president of the French Federation des Industries de
la Parfumerie, said of Courtin-Clarins: "I found him very warm and
mischievous. He was always very attentive to others, had a nice smile and
success never went to his head. He was a great figure in our industry."

Many - including Zrihen - consider Courtin-Clarins a visionary.

"Jacques never asked about sales and P&L sheets," said Zrihen. "He only
wanted to know about the consumer and how she was being treated. He always
said that in our work, we shouldn't try to see the consumer in the woman,
but the woman in the consumer. He asked us to devote attention to the
service side of the business - training for him was as important product
development. He had a passion for listening to and respecting the consumer.
He always said, 'Don't promise miracles, promise results.'

"His key to success was simple: Listen to what women want, and give it to
them," continued Zrihen. "He loved listening, he loved beauty and he loved
sharing that. He was such an inspiration to me personally. I think he left
this world very happy. He stayed involved with the company up until the
end. A week ago, he was meeting with Christian and Olivier about new
product innovations. They will keep Clarins as a strong global family
company and a tribute to Jacques. This is a very sad day for the company."

A colleague of Courtin-Clarins' for about 20 years, Joe Horowitz, former
president and ceo of Clarins in the U.S., reminisced, "He was one of the
earliest people who understood that the customer is king. He recognized
that people want to feel special.

"Although he produced products in large quantities, he was one of the first
people to prescribe remedies for the specific needs of consumers,''
Horowitz said. "He also recognized the importance of naturals, and the core
active ingredients in his products have always been naturals. Today, that
sounds old hat, but it certainly wasn't 40 years ago. He always had an
intuitive realization of what consumers wanted. Today, his two sons are
running the business and they have a real interest in carrying on his
philosophy - that would make him proud."

Henry said Courtin-Clarins "was for me a kind of genius, who started the
company by himself. He was a genius not just for product, but for how he
talked to people. He was totally dedicated to beauty for women."

Henry remembered Courtin-Clarins as being involved in every aspect of his
business, from marketing to product development to staff training.

"He followed up on everything," Henry said. "He was in direct contact with
consumers. His is one of the most beautiful stories in the industry."

Courtin-Clarins was also committed to philanthropy.

"Jacques, he had a passion for giving back, as well," said Zrihen. "After
his wife passed away two years ago, he created a foundation in her honor,
and with Christian, he founded the Most Dynamic Women program, which honors
women who make a difference in children's lives. We operate that program in
every country we're in."

Last year, Courtin-Clarins mapped out the history of his company in a book,
"Une Réussite en Beauté ou la Fabuleuse Aventure de Clarins," ("A Beautiful
Success or The Fabulous Adventure of Clarins"). Indeed, his was a
spectacular story. In an industry where family-run companies are rare, his
continues to make a mark.

Clarins' business, which counts more than 6,000 employees worldwide,
includes all beauty categories - treatment, makeup and fragrance. It
generated sales last year of 967.2 million euros, or $1.22 billion at the
average yearly exchange rate. Clarins' skin care products are the
best-selling in Europe, and Angel, the women's fragrance introduced by
Clarins' licensee Thierry Mugler Parfums in 1992, remains a perennial
bestseller, sometimes taking top slot in France - to name a few company
highlights.

Courtin-Clarins' vision of beauty, which he described in his book, remains
the keystone of Clarins' philosophy. He wrote, "In my first beauty clinic,
I was involved with aesthetic treatments related to health problems - scars
from burns, operations, edemas [and] bedsores. I understood more and more
that beauty had an influence on life, happiness, self-confidence.. Women
want to be beautiful."