Is beauty healthful? Is health beautiful? Evelyn Lauder has been answering "yes" to both questions for more than 20 years. In 1989, Lauder, senior corporate vice president of the Estée Lauder Companies, was inspired by a video produced by Look Good…Feel Better, an organization that gives women undergoing cancer treatments makeovers and advice on skin care, wigs and other appearance-related consequences of treatment. And so in the early '90s, she started the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, which has since distributed more than 100 million of its famous pink ribbons and raised over $29 million for breast cancer research through its Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

She also still works with the Look Good…Feel Better campaign. "We get letters from women who write, 'I've never used cosmetics before I had cancer. Now I look better with cancer than I did before,'" she says. The simple act of taking care of your appearance can be a healing experience. "By looking good, she feels better, and that can help her heal psychologically," Lauder says.

The equation works in reverse as well, Lauder says. "When you see a healthy person, with the whites of her eyes really white, and roses in her cheeks from exercising, that's beautiful," she says. She encourages women to take care of their bodies as an essential part of their beauty routine: Exercise regularly, eat vegetables, control portion sizes, maintain a healthy body weight, don't smoke and get good sleep. ("I wish I would listen to that last one myself more often," she says.) Encouraging the habits that lead to both health and beauty is one reason she was inspired to write her cookbook, In Great Taste: Fresh, Simple Recipes for Eating and Living Well. "More people are cooking now, and it's less expensive to start from scratch," she says. "Takeout is far more expensive. And eating at home is healthier. When I eat out, I gain weight."

Evelyn Lauder (right) with Elizabeth Hurley, spokesmodel for the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign. (Image courtesy of Estee Lauder Corporation.)

Related Links:

• Real Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer
• 4 Best Ways to Protect Yourself from Breast Cancer
• The Resilience Gene