Who owns M·A·C?
M·A·C is owned by Estée Lauder (the United States, NYSE: EL), which has owned the brand since 1994.[1]
Evidence: The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-08-19, SEC EDGAR, 19 August 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. verified
- Owned since
- Owner HQ
- 🇺🇸 United States, New York
- Origin
- 🇨🇦 Canada, Toronto
- Founded
- 1984
- Category
- Personal care & beauty › Cosmetics & fragrance › Makeup
- Parent ticker
- NYSE: EL
- Trademark registrant
- ESTEE LAUDER COSMETICS LTD. (USPTO)
- Last verified
- · 2 sources
About M·A·C
M·A·C was founded in Toronto in 1984 by a photographer and a salon owner who wanted makeup that photographed well under studio lights, since existing products looked wrong on film. Estée Lauder acquired control in 1994 and full ownership in 1998, and the brand funds an AIDS charity from lipstick sales.
Trademark record for M·A·C
The USPTO record for the M·A·C mark lists ESTEE LAUDER COSMETICS LTD. as the owner of record (serial number 78581906). A trademark is often held by a group company rather than the listed parent, so the registrant's name can differ from the owner named above.[2]
Ownership timeline of M·A·C
- 1994 – present Estée Lauder [1] verified
Where M·A·C sits in Estée Lauder
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Estée Lauder ownership tree →
See the full Estée Lauder brand portfolio (13) →
Other brands owned by Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder controls 13 brands on Brandtree, 13 of them in personal care & beauty.
Also in personal care & beauty
- AERIN (2012)
- Aveda (1978)
- Bobbi Brown (1991)
- Clinique (1968)
- Darphin (1958)
- Estée Lauder (1946)
- Jo Malone London (1990)
- La Mer (1965)
- Origins (1990)
- The Ordinary (2016)
- Tom Ford Beauty (2006)
- Too Faced (1998)
Other brands in makeup, and who owns them
The 43 brands in makeup on Brandtree belong to 22 owners. The largest is L'Oréal, with 5; Estée Lauder has 3.
About the owner: Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder is a publicly listed company headquartered in New York, United States, founded in 1946. Brandtree records 13 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: EL.
The Estée Lauder Companies was founded in New York in 1946 by Estée and Joseph Lauder. It sells prestige beauty through department stores, travel retail and specialty channels, and the Lauder family retains voting control.
Estée Lauder: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇨🇦 M·A·C and other Canadian brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 178 brands that began in Canada. 45 of them (25%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, M·A·C among them.
- Quo Beauty — Loblaw 🇨🇦
- Air Canada — Air Canada 🇨🇦
- Air Transat — Transat 🇨🇦
- Alexis de Portneuf — Saputo 🇨🇦
- Algoma Central — Algoma Central 🇨🇦
- Algoma Tubes — Tenaris 🇱🇺
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of M·A·C?
The parent company of M·A·C is Estée Lauder, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is M·A·C Canadian or American?
M·A·C originated in Canada in 1984, but it is owned today by Estée Lauder, which is headquartered in the United States. So M·A·C is a Canadian-origin brand under American ownership.
Since when has Estée Lauder owned M·A·C?
Estée Lauder has owned M·A·C since 1994.
Is M·A·C still owned by Estée Lauder?
Yes. As of 4 October 2026, M·A·C is still owned by Estée Lauder. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (2) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-08-19 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 10-K, published 19 August 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.
- [2] USPTO: MAC, serial 78581906 — United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark registry; retrieved 4 October 2026.
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