On September 21, 2017, the world woke up to the news that Liliane Betterncourt, the richest woman in the world has passed away. She died peacefully overnight at a ripe age of 94.

Bettencourt is the heiress to cosmetics firm L’Oreal. With an estimated 2017 net worth of 33bn euros (£30bn; $40bn), she was the world’s richest woman.

Her father, Eugène Schueller, founded a hair dye company in 1909, which then turned into the L’Oreal group. It is now the world’s largest cosmetics company.

She left the company’s board in 2012 and was rarely seen in public afterwards, but remained in the news because of a high-profile exploitation case following her dementia diagnosis.

In a statement, the company’s chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon said: “We all had a deep admiration for Liliane Bettencourt who has always watched over L’Oreal, the company and its employees, and who was very attached to its success and development.

“She personally contributed a lot to its success for very many years. A great woman of beauty has left us and we will never forget her”

“She would have been 95 on October 21. My mother left peacefully,” her daughter, Mrs Bettencourt-Meyers said in a statement.”

Last year Ms Bettencourt was ranked the richest woman in the world with a fortune of $39.5bn (£29bn), by Forbes magazine. It made her the world’s 14th richest person.