Life is beautiful at Estée Lauder. The maker of the eponymous cosmetics line and an impressive list of brands including Clinique, MAC, Aveda, Bumble and Bumble, and Bobbi Brown, looks to be in all the right places. Geographically diverse, the company stands to benefit as the emerging world urbanises, the middle class grows and more women join the workforce. Developing markets accounted for nearly 12 per cent of sales in fiscal 2013, which ended June 30 and was reported last week. In China, in spite of a softening economy, sales rose nearly 20 per cent.

As a maker of prestige beauty products, Estée Lauder also serves wealthier consumers. Last year overall sales rose 6 per cent, two percentage points more than the high-end beauty market worldwide. But Creme de la Mer, Jo Malone and Tom Ford, Estée Lauder’s luxury brands, together grew 20 per cent.

Skincare, the company’s biggest segment, contributing 44 per cent of its $10bn of sales last year, is also a big opportunity, particularly in Asia. In China, for instance, 94 per cent of women use skincare products, the company said. But most of them are of a rather unglamorous sort, which has the western beauty giants mobilising to sell luxury skin products hoping to replicate the success of luxury clothes, handbags and so on. On Friday, L’Oréal, the world’s biggest cosmetics producer by sales, offered to buy Magic Holdings International, a Chinese company specialising in facial masks.