Our History - Mary Kay | Official Site (2024)

• Armed with her life savings and a desire to change the future for women, Mary Kay Ash founds Beauty by Mary Kay with her children, Ben, Marilyn and Richard, on September 13, 1963.

• Along with a new opportunity,Beauty by Mary Kayushers in a new approach to skin care with the Basic Treatment Set. It includes four skin care products and a foundation. The first glamour products include a pink palette with five eye and lip colors, blush, mascara, and an eyebrow and eyeliner pencil.

• Mary Kay Ash begins an annual tradition of recognizing women’s accomplishments in entrepreneurship while providing inspiration and business education for the coming year. She calls it Seminar. The company’s first Seminar is held in the Company warehouse.
• In the 1960s, most American bathrooms were white. So pink was chosen for the Company's packaging to give women beauty products they could keep conveniently on their bathroom counters.
• After learning that many men were using their wives’ skincare products, Mary Kay becomes one of the first cosmetics companies to introduce a complete line of skincare products for men, which she calls “Mr. K.”

• The first Independent Sales Director's debut and the first Queen of Sales is crowned.
• The first Independent Sales Director Suit, a two-piece black wool knit suit with a Texan-style cowboy hat, gets the program off to a fashionable start.

• trading on the over-the-counter market and using the proceeds from the IPO to fund its expansion and the addition of manufacturing and distribution facilities.
• Mary Kay acquires Goodier Inc. and changes its name to Cosmetic Creations Inc. This firm produced a significant portion of Mary Kay® products and became the Company's first manufacturing facility on Regal Row in Dallas.
• Mary Kay Ash decides to give herself a special present by ordering a custom pink Cadillac (the color of her lip and eye palette), albeit against protestations at the car dealership.
• The Company introduces Cinderella gifts - luxury rewards women would love to have but would never buy for themselves. It all begins with the Golden Goblet award which is conceived by Mary Kay as a way to recognize exceptional productivity. Today, Cinderella gifts symbolize success for independent sales force members worldwide.

Mary Kay is the first to introduce the "career car" concept in the marketing world, making the pink Cadillac an iconic and synonymous symbol with the Mary Kay brand. The first five Cadillacs (Coupe de Ville) are awarded at the 1969 Seminar. General Motors later named the color Mary Kay Pink Pearl, and the exclusive shade is only available for Mary Kay. This iconic symbol of success continues to inspire women to this day.

• The Company opens a manufacturing facility in Dallas, Texas, and calls it Cosmetic Creations.
• The first diamond bumblebee pins are awarded at Seminar to recognize determined women who soared to new heights as Independent Beauty Consultants. A bumblebee does not know that it “cannot” fly because its wings are too weak to hold its body weight. The diamond bumblebee symbolizes someone who has “flown to the top.”

• Mary Kay Ash and her son Richard create the National Sales Director career path level, the pinnacle of success and leadership in the independent sales force.
• Mary Kay Inc. opens in Australia, its first international subsidiary and first market in the Asia Pacific region.

Mary Kay's fleet of pink trucks debuts in the U.S. servicing the Western and Southern branches and becoming instantly recognizable sights on the nation's highways.

• Mary Kay Inc. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as MKY and becomes the first company on the NYSE chaired by a woman.
• The Direct Selling Association presents Mary Kay Ash with the Hall of Fame Award. The Horatio Alger Distinguished American Citizen Award is presented to Mary Kay Ash to celebrate her achievements and to honor how she overcame adversity early in her career.

• The first annual Miss Go-Give® Award is presented at Seminar as a memorial to National Sales Director Sue Vickers, who was known for her selfless spirit. It is the highest honor bestowed at the Seminar. It recognizes the Independent Sales Director who best demonstrates the kind of unselfish devotion in helping others that epitomizes the Golden Rule philosophy.
• Mary Kay opens in Canada.

• The Company introduces its first skin care products formulated for different skin types.
• Mary Kay opens its first market in Latin America, Argentina.

• Mary Kay Ash’s autobiography, Mary Kay, debuts, published by Harper & Row. To date, it has sold more than 2 million copies. In 2003, in honor of the Company’s 40th anniversary, the book is re-released as Miracles Happen: The Life and Timeless Principles of the Founder of Mary Kay Inc.

• Mary Kay On People Management debuts in bookstores across the U.S.A. and within weeks, the book makes New York Times best-seller list for non-fiction in the #4 spot. In 2008, the book is re-released as The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America’s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur presenting the iconic Founder’s original message on leading people.

• Mary Kay Inc. returns to private family ownership.
• The Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) facility opens in Dallas, Texas at 158 feet wide, 340 feet long and eight stories tall. It is completely automated and is referred to as a “machine, not a building.”

• Mary Kay opens its first European market in Germany.
• Mary Kay and several other successful, entrepreneurial businesswomen are honored by President Reagan. Mary Kay receives an invitation to the White House to attend a briefing by the President and senior administration officials on 1987 business and economic plans important to the entrepreneurial environment and economic growth.

Mary Kay establishes its first environmental program, a corporate recycling program for paper, plastic, glass and aluminum.

• The award-winning Mary Kay Museum opens in Dallas, Texas to celebrate the Company's 30th anniversary.
• Mary Kay Inc. receives the first Fashion and the Environment Award (in the beauty and fragrance category) given jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and The Fashion Group International. The awards are presented to apparel or fashion-related companies firmly committed to environmentally responsible business practices.

• The Mary Kay Building opens as the new global headquarters in Addison, Texas.
• Mary Kay® Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover launches, which is up until today, the company’s number 1 bestseller.
• Mary Kay opens in China, which eventually becomes one of the Company's largest markets.
• Mary Kay’s third book, You Can Have It All: Lifetime Wisdom From America’s Foremost Woman Entrepreneur, is re-released becoming a best seller. It reaches the No. 1 spot on the Wall Street Journal's best-seller list for non-fiction and general interest titles. It also debuts at No. 2 on The New York Times Book Review for advice, how-to and miscellaneous titles and No. 10 on USA Today's list of the top 150 best-selling titles.

Mary Kay InTouch® goes live to connect Independent Beauty Consultants with online business-building tools and education.

Mary Kay Ash, who brought to life her dream of empowering women around the world, passes away on November 22, Thanksgiving Day (her favorite holiday). Her son and co-founder, Richard R. Rogers, continued her dream as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

Mary Kay Inc. celebrates its 40th anniversary with over 1 million independent sales force members in more than 30 markets worldwide.

• Pink Changing Lives® launches, using product sales to support women and children around the world. Since 2008, Mary Kay’s global Pink Changing Lives cause empowerment program has impacted more than six million women and their families by partnering with over 3,000 organizations around the world, donating millions of dollars.
• Mary Kay and non-profit Break the Cycle promote the online dating petition, www.enddatingviolence.com. The petition asks U.S. lawmakers to make violence prevention education part of every public high school’s curriculum. Texas and Rhode Island become the first two states to require the teen dating violence prevention curriculum as a statewide statute in their public schools.
• The Company launches “Green Manufacturing,” targeting the environment and efficiency focusing on eliminating waste, water conservation, energy, and focusing on recycling the sludge from its water treatment facility. The sludge is made of pigments, oils and other ingredients pulled out of wastewater. Combined with manure, sludge produces natural gas and fertilizer. For the year, the effort recycles more than 600 tons of sludge.

Mary Kay Inc. plants 200,000 trees in the Bitterroot National Forest a part of the Pink Doing Green® initiative.

The TimeWise Repair® Volu-Firm® Set launches and becomes the most successful product launch in Company history to-date.

• The Company commemorates its 50th anniversary with a global makeover contest, donating nearly $500,000 in grants to more than 150 charities worldwide.
• The Company earns the Guinness World Records title for “Largest Makeup Painting.” Measuring 76 feet long by 8 feet high (23.2 m by 2.4 m), the painting is created entirely out of Mary Kay makeup products and hangs in the global headquarters today created by artists from Dallas-based Eyecon Studios, along with art students from The University of North Texas, who spent more than 1,000 hours over two and a half weeks painting the finished piece.

• Mary Kay Inc. marks its 55th anniversary by opening Richard R. Rogers Manufacturing/R&D Center (R3) in Lewisville, Texas. The high-science LEED Silver-Certified facility produces skin care products, color cosmetics and fragrances for brand lovers worldwide.
• Mary Kay partners with Arbor Day Foundation to plant its 1 millionth tree at R3 as part of the Pink Doing Green® initiative.

• Mary Kay launches the TimeWise3D® Foundations, created by capturing the authentic tones of women from around the world using Mary Kay's exclusive IntelliMatch® Technology.
• Mary Kay MirrorMe® Virtual Makeover App launches. This award-winning twist on augmented reality allows women to easily create and try on makeup looks without having to lift a brush or upload a photo.

• Reputation Institute names Mary Kay CEO David Holl among the top ten most reputable CEOs in the world. The Reputation Institute, a leading provider of reputation measurement, measured the reputation of more than 140 global CEOs and canvassed more than 230,000 individual ratings among the informed public.
• Mary Kay announces the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator, a multi-partner initiative designed to inspire, educate, and empower women entrepreneurs around the world. With no qualifying barriers to participation, the ground-breaking initiative is a strategic collaboration developed in consultation with six United Nations agencies: UN Women, United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP), International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC), UN Global Compact (UNGC), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• Mary Kay ranks #42 on the 2019 Global Workplace 100 released by Reputation Institute. It is the largest reputation study of its kind.
• Forbes’s annual “Best Employers for Diversity” list ranks Mary Kay #150 out of 500.
• Forbes’s annual “Best Midsize Employers” list ranks Mary Kay #97 out of 500.
• Mary Kay becomes a signatory of the UN Global Compact’s 10 principles. The Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact are derived from: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
• Mary Kay becomes a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles which are a set of principles for businesses offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace, and community.
• Mary Kay Inc. becomes a founding member of the Evergreen Alliance and announces its long-term commitment alongside other founding members to support the Arbor Day Foundation to reach its goal of planting 100 million trees and inspiring 5 million tree planters by 2022.

• Mary Kay Inc. commits nearly $10 Million to global COVID-19 support. It also manufactures and donates hand sanitizer to support frontline workers around the world, 20 healthcare systems, 800+ hospitals, 600 domestic violence shelters, 280 international organizations, and 1.5 million frontline responders. Mary Kay Inc. and The Mary Kay Ash Foundation also donate $100,000 to Together For Her to fight Gender-based Violence during COVID-19. Deborah Gibbins, the Mary Kay Chief Operating Officer joined the World Economic Forum’s COVID Action Platform.
• Mary Kay Inc. is listed as one of “America’s Best Employers for Diversity” by Forbes Magazine.
• Mary Kay Inc. is named as one of the Top Purpose-Driven Brands on the Purpose Power Index by Reputation Institute and StrawberryFrog.
• Mary Kay executive produces a documentary about conservationists in the Gulf of Mexico “Guardians of the Gulf,” whose aim is to tackle problems like overfishing, habitat damage, and bycatch—the incidental capture of non-target species during commercial fishing.

• Mary Kay Inc. releases its sustainability strategy called “Enriching Lives Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow” outlining its commitments to business excellence, social impact, product stewardship, women’s empowerment, and responsible manufacturing.
• Mary Kay Inc. is listed on America's Best Mid-Sized Employers 2021 list by Forbes (MK ranks at #128).
• Mary Kay launches Suite 13, an innovative virtual beauty experience that leverages the use of virtual reality to digitize Mary Kay's first virtual pop-up showroom.
• Mary Kay Inc. joins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as a member of its Network, as part of the company’s commitment to becoming a more sustainable, circular business. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a UK-based charity that develops and promotes the idea of a circular economy, based on the principles of eliminating waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.
• Mary Kay Inc. commits to two crucial causes in protecting the world’s waterways: the CEO Water Mandate and the United Nations Global Compact’s Sustainable Ocean Principles. The CEO Water Mandate is a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General and the UN Global Compact, implemented in partnership with the Pacific Institute. The Mandate mobilizes a critical mass of business leaders to address global water challenges through corporate water stewardship, in partnership with the United Nations, governments, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders.