MAC Cosmetics

A small Toronto colour line, founded by two men with salon training, became Estee Lauder's largest acquisition in 1998 and still generates more than a billion dollars in revenue a year. Frank Toskin and Frank Angelo launched Mac, short for make-up artist cosmetics, in 1984 out of a Toronto studio. The pair had a specific thesis. Professional make-up artists buying colour wholesale for editorial shoots were using studio brands most consumers had never heard of, and those brands were priced for professionals not retail customers. Mac inverted that. They sold direct to professionals at near wholesale prices through a loyalty programme called the Procard. And let those artists pull consumers into retail stores by recommending the same colours clients had just seen used on their own skin.