Anita Roddick, the entrepreneur who turned organic soap and skin care products into mass-market luxuries through her global Body Shop stores, died Monday of a brain hemorrhage at St. Richard's Hospital in Chichester, England. She was 64.

Roddick, whom Queen Elizabeth made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003, took more pride in her social activism than her business acumen. Body Shop products were not tested on animals and the company made a point of saying so.

The company also supported environmental causes, favored organically grown ingredients, and often used fair-trade suppliers—those who paid a living wage to growers of the herbs and vegetables that went into Body Shop products—even if that meant paying above-market rates.

Roddick opened the first Body Shop in Brighton, England, in 1976, and expanded abroad, to Brussels, just two years later. The company said on its web site that it now has more than 2,100 stores in 55 countries.

While it competed in what is called the beauty industry, Roddick took great pains to distance herself from what she saw as its worst practices. "I hate the beauty industry," she once famously said. "It is a monster selling unattainable dreams. It lies. It cheats. It exploits women."

Rather than promise youth and beauty, Body Shop focused on health.

L'Oreal Group, the big French cosmetics company, bought Body Shop in 2006. As part of the sale, The Body Shop is managed independently.

In an online tribute to Roddick, Body Shop chairman Adrian Bellamy said he was "deeply shocked and saddened" by her death.

"It is no exaggeration to say that she changed the world of business with her campaigns for social and environmental responsibility," he wrote.

After stepping back from active management of Body Shop in the late 1990s, Ms. Roddick wrote several books, including Business as Unusual: My Entrepreneurial Journey and Take It Personally: How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World.

She is survived by her husband, Gordon, and two daughters.