L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt has died aged 94, marking the end of an era for the first lady of the beauty industry.

Bettencourt’s passing was confirmed yesterday by her daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, who said in an email statement, “In this painful moment for us, I would like to reiterate, on behalf of our family, our entire commitment and loyalty to L’Oréal and to renew my confidence in its President Jean-Paul Agon and his teams worldwide.”

The Bettencourt family has a 33 percent stake in the French beauty powerhouse, with Liliane said to have amassed a $39.5 billion fortune by the time of her death, making her the richest woman in the world.

Jean Paul Agon has released a statement, which read, “We all had a great admiration for Liliane Bettencourt, who always looked after L’Oréal, the company and its employees, and was very attached to its success and development.”

The daughter of chemist and L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, Bettencourt stepped down from the L’Oréal board in 2012 with her shareholding having been under guardianship since 2011 when she was deemed unfit to oversee them herself.