Procter & Gamble is phasing out the Hollywood associated Max Factor cosmetics brand from the United States in the first quarter of 2010, as the brand P&G has owned for the last 18 years has a limited market share in the country. Max Factor is the number 2 cosmetics brand overseas, in the leading markets such as the U.K. and Russia, and that is where it will continue to be sold, but will be withdrawn from the drug stores all across the United States and branches of Wal-Mart where P&G concentrated its efforts.

By pulling Max Factor from the U.S., P&G says that it hopes to focus its extra resources elsewhere primarily on its more successful CoverGirl brand, which has increased its U.S. market share for the past seven years, and is in a head-to-head competition with L'Oreal rival Maybelline. "This is the right decision to further strengthen our cosmetics business because it allows us to focus our U.S. resources on continuing the growth of the No. 1 brand in the region, CoverGirl," says Virginia Drosos, president of Global Female Beauty at P&G. According to P&G, Max factor is sold in only an estimated 8,000 stores all across the U.S., whereas the CoverGirl brand is being sold in more than 50,000 stores.

Max Factor company was founded by a Polish-Jewish makeup artist Maximilian Factorowicz, who had worked for the Russian Royal Ballet in pre-revolutionary Russia. Factorowicz (Factor) started the company after immigrating to the United States in 1904, where he founded an eponymous makeup and perfume concession at the World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. In January 1909, he opened a theatrical makeup shop in Los Angeles, where he created and packaged the first greasepaint in the form of a cream. Max Factor has been regarded by many as the father of modern cosmetics.

A famous makeup artist and his company stand behind a number of innovations such as coining the term "makeup", based on the verb, "to make up" (one's face); lip gloss in 1930; Pan-Cake Makeup, forerunner of all modern cake makeup in 1937, first used by early Hollywood movie stars; and the first "waterproof" makeup in 1971. The man is also credited with the idea of matching makeup to a person's natural coloring and also with popularizing the use of makeup by women across the country at the end of the Great Depression.

Jean Harlow, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and many other of the major early Hollywood movie actresses were regular customers of the Max Factor beauty salon which was located near Hollywood Boulevard. In recent years, Madonna, Carmen Electra and Gisele Bundchen have all appeared as the faces of Max Factor.

P&G bought the brand from Revlon for $1.5 billion in 1991.

Tags: Skin Care

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