Cosmetics mogul Daria Myers says that to combat the stress of college, students may want to take a natural approach.
Myers -- president of Origins Natural Resources Inc. and general manager of the Origins cosmetics line -- spoke to an audience of over 200 students yesterday about lessons she learned in the business world. All audience members received free Origins products.
Myers described her story as "how a little girl from Queens started a multi-million dollar company." To begin the lecture, she advised audience members to pick out their favorite Origins products from a gift bag and apply them to their necks, ears and temples to reduce stress.
"It is my cure-all," Myers said, "Even when you're giving a lecture and you're a little nervous, you put it on your heart and it takes away the flutters."
Myers spoke about her rise to the top from a cosmetics counter in a Bloomingdale's department store. She said that although she didn't earn a business degree, she learned how to run a business through unorthodox methods.
"I am not someone who went to a business school or even an Ivy League school, so I'm thrilled to be here," Myers said.
Creativity and passion for cosmetics are the key to keeping her ideas innovative and appealing to her audience, Myers said. Her mentors are the founders of cosmetics company Estee Lauder Companies Inc. and its subsidiary Clinique, who she said took risks and traveled the world in order to build their businesses.
Myers described how she created several fragrances and beauty lines and related her experience working with the Soviet government to improve cosmetics lines for women during the Cold War. Through these experiences, she said the she developed a new sense of beauty that has driven her work at Origins.
"Beauty is looking wonderful because you feel wonderful," Myers said.
She said she developed the platform of Origins on her own when she realized that all of the cosmetics lines offered at department stores were "names you couldn't pronounce" that made outrageous promises and used chemicals.
Origins, launched in 1990, aims at going against this trend, Myers said. All of its products use powerful plant oils instead of artificial chemicals.
The products have names like "Have a Nice Day," and steps are taken to ensure that people can walk into an Origins store and immediately begin getting a feel for the line, Myers said.
She added that she let doesn't running Origins get in the way of having fun.
"At Origins, we don't take ourselves too seriously," she said.
Many students found the lecture relevant because they were attempting to cope with midterms.
College Senior Ashley Steinberg, a member of the Women in Leadership Series, which hosted the event, was pleased with the lecture.
"She wants to expose undergraduates, both women and men, to the opportunity of finding a fulfilling, enjoyable career," Steinberg said.
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