10 Amazing Facts You Need to Know About MK

Today all around the world MK consultants and brand lovers everywhere mark the 55th anniversary and founding day of the iconic beauty. It's hard to imagine the billion dollar organization today starting as a far 500 square feet shop in Dallas, Texas featuring only five beauty products.

MK has come such a long way since then and now features more than 200 products and spans 37 countries employing more than 3 million Independent Beauty Consultants. Here are 10 amazing facts about MK.

10 Amazing MK Facts:

1. Mary Kay Ash was born in 1918 in Hot Wells, Texas, and grew up watching her mother work 14-hour days to support the family. Here she learned her “can do” spirited!

2. Her father suffered from tuberculosis. At age three her father was sent away for three years for treatment but remained ill for the remainder of his life.

3. Mary Kay Ash was the youngest of three: Two sisters, Dealia Koch and Daisy Wagner, and
brother Cecil Dewitt Wagner.

4. In 1952 after 13 years at Stanley Home Products; Mary Kay Ash earned a promotion but did not receive it due to gender discrimination. 

5. She began her employment with World Gift in Dallas where she increased the company's turnover by more than 50% in less than a year and quickly rose to become a national training director. However, again she fell victim to gender discrimination and was passed over for a man she trained.

6. Disgusted by this repetition, she left with the intention of writing a book to help career women.

7. While writing her book, she realized that she had created the foundation for a successful business that would finally give women equal opportunities to achieve personal well being and financial success.

8.  Mary Kay Ash started her venture with only $5,000 of life savings.

9. In 1964, Mary Kay Ash held her first sale convention which she called “Seminar” (Sound familiar?!?)

10. However, back then Seminar was held in a warehouse decorated with balloons, and she served Chicken and Jello Salad.


Mary Kay Ash was truly an inspirational woman, and her story should be told more often. In a time when women were not given equal opportunities, she did the impossible because of her grit, determination, and devotion to God.