Journalist Mary Lisa Gavenas’ new book details cosmetics titan Mary Kay’s rags-to-riches story.

Born in Hot Wells, Tex., Mary Kay Ash overcame early hardship to build a billion-dollar empire.

Her company, Beauty by Mary Kay, went public in 1968, a first for a woman-chaired firm on NYSE.

A new biography of Mary Kay — the big-haired, bleach-blonde and perpetually pink-clad cosmetics titan — reads more like a juicy Judith Krantz novel.

In “ Selling Opportunity ” (Viking), journalist Mary Lisa Gavenas tells her rags-to-riches story.

With Dolly Parton’s hyper-feminine pluck and the glitzy showmanship of Liberace — a friend of hers — she created one of the biggest direct-selling companies in the world.

“It’s a Texan tall tale of second chances and self-invention,” Gavenas writes.

A new book tells the rags-to-riches story of cosmetics mogul Mary Kay.

Born in 1918 in Hot Wells, Tex., Mary Kay Ash was the fourth and final child born of Alexander Wagner and Lula Hastings, poor itinerant farmers who had lived…