Max Factor

NAME Max Factor (born Maksymilian Faktorowicz)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Pioneer of modern cosmetics, founder of Max Factor & Company, and creator of makeup products specifically for the film industry. He popularized the term "make-up" and was responsible for inventing products that allowed actors to look natural on screen, transforming both Hollywood and global beauty standards.

BIRTH Born September 15, 1877, in Zduńska Wola, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (now part of Poland).

FAMILY BACKGROUND Max Factor, born Maksymilian Faktorowicz, came from a large Jewish family.  His parents were Abraham Yosek (or Abraham Faktorowicz) and Cyrla (Cecylia) Wrocławska. The family was poor, and Max was one of ten children, raised in a tight-knit Jewish community that valued tradition and resilience. His mother died when he was very young, leaving his father to support the children by working as a grocer, rabbi, or textile mill worker, depending on the source

CHILDHOOD Max Factor's childhood was marked by poverty and the necessity to work from an early age to help support his family. He began working at age seven, selling sweets and oranges in the lobby of a theater in Łódź, which exposed him to the world of performance and sparked his interest in the arts. 

By age eight, he was assisting a dentist and pharmacist, where he started experimenting with creams and perfumes. At nine, he began an apprenticeship with a local wig maker and cosmetician, gaining skills that would shape his future career. Despite the family's financial struggles, these early experiences gave Max a strong foundation in both business and the technical aspects of cosmetics. (1)

EDUCATION He did not receive formal education due to family financial constraints. Instead, his education was practical and hands-on, acquired through early work experiences and apprenticeships. By age nine, his apprenticeship with a wig maker in Łódź provided him with valuable training in hairstyling and cosmetics. 

His skills and ambition led him to work for Anton's of Berlin, a leading hairstylist and cosmetics creator, and by age fourteen, he was working at Korpo, a Moscow wig maker and cosmetician to the Imperial Russian Grand Opera. His time in the Imperial Russian Army's Hospital Corps further developed his understanding of chemistry and practical science, which he later applied to his cosmetic innovations. (2)

CAREER RECORD Apprentice to a wig maker and cosmetician in Łódź 

Worked at Anton's of Berlin, a leading hairstylist and cosmetics creator

Worked at Korpo in Moscow, wig maker and cosmetician to the Imperial Russian Grand Opera 

1895-1898 Served in the Imperial Russian Army Hospital Corps 

1898 Opened his own shop in Ryazan, selling handmade rouges, creams, fragrances, and wigs (early career).

1904 Emigrated to the United States 

1904 Sold rouges and creams at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis 

1909 Founded Max Factor & Company in Los Angeles to provide wigs and makeup to the film industry 

APPEARANCE Photographs show him as a stocky man, typically bald or with closely cropped hair. He often wore a neatly groomed mustache and was known for presenting himself in a tidy and professional manner, befitting his status as a leading beauty entrepreneur and innovator in Hollywood.

From Nasiprzodkowie

FASHION Max Factor typically wore formal clothing, such as suits, which reflected both the seriousness of his craft and the standards of early 20th-century business culture. This polished appearance helped reinforce his image as a trusted expert among Hollywood’s elite and his growing public clientele. 

His attention to presentation extended beyond himself: he was deeply invested in the aesthetics of his clients, using his own inventions—like the Beauty Calibrator—to measure and enhance facial features with scientific precision.

Max Factor introduced cosmetics to the public in the 1920s, insisting that every girl could look like a movie star by using Max Factor make-up.

It was Max Factor who coined the noun "makeup."

CHARACTER Max Factor was innovative, resilient, and entrepreneurial. He was known for his perseverance, adaptability, and dedication to his craft.

SPEAKING VOICE  He spoke English with a noticeable Eastern European accent, especially in his early years in America

RELATIONSHIPS Max Factor married Esther Rosa (Lizzie) Fabrikowicz in 1898, likely in Poland or the Russian Empire, before emigrating to the United States. The marriage was stable and loving. Max and Esther had four children together including Francis Factor (August 18, 1904 – June 7, 1996), also known as Max Factor Jr., who ecame president of the Max Factor Cosmetics empire. The marriage ended tragically when Esther died of a brain hemorrhage in March 1906.

Max Factor married Huma "Helen" Sradkowska on August 15, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri, after the death of his first wife. Although they had a son, Louis, in 1907, the relationship quickly deteriorated and ended in divorce after a prolonged court battle. Max Factor was awarded custody of all his children.

In January 1908, Max Factor married Jennie Cook, also in St. Louis, Missouri, before moving to Los Angeles later that year. They had a son, Sidney, together and Jennie remained his wife until his death

MONEY AND FAME Max Factor became wealthy and famous through his Hollywood clientele and the success of his makeup innovations. He was recognized as the leading authority on cosmetics for film and was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1929. 

CREATION OF MAX FACTOR EMPIRE If you’ve ever wondered who made Hollywood look like Hollywood, the answer is a charming Polish wigmaker named Maksymilian Faktorowicz, which, you have to admit, is quite a lot of name to fit on a business card. Thankfully, he shortened it to Max Factor, a name that would eventually become as integral to glamour as sequins and scandal.

Max began his career in the respectable but itchy business of wigmaking and cosmetics. His early clients were no less than Russian aristocrats and theater performers—people who had both money and a keen interest in looking less like themselves.

In 1904, likely fed up with czars, snow, and tsarist customs officials, Max packed up and moved to the United States, where he endured a brief but generally dismal stint in St. Louis—home at the time to the World's Fair, a scandalous amount of humidity, and very few silent film stars. Sensing that his talents might be better received somewhere sunnier, he headed west. Los Angeles, in 1908, was still finding its cinematic feet, and Max Factor, wonderfully, found his purpose.

By 1909, he had opened Max Factor & Company, a modest operation that supplied wigs and theatrical makeup to actors who spent most of their time squinting into arc lights and being dramatically kidnapped in silent films. His timing was perfect. The movie business was expanding faster than a hot dog stand outside a studio gate, and these early actors needed help—lots of it. Theatrical makeup, as it turned out, was wholly unsuited to film. Under studio lights, it cracked, slid, and sometimes made actors look as if they’d been embalmed.

In 1914, Max solved this with something called “Flexible Greasepaint,” which was, surprisingly, neither an exercise product nor a jazz band, but a creamy, pliable makeup available in twelve subtle shades. It was a revelation. For the first time, actors could emote and have eyebrows. Audiences thrilled. Directors wept with gratitude. Max Factor became a legend.

By the 1920s, his client list read like a roll call of the Hollywood Walk of Fame before the cement was dry: Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford. He didn’t just sell them makeup—he crafted their identities, sculpted their cheekbones, invented the notion of the “signature look,” and, while he was at it, casually introduced the term “make-up” to the wider world. Before that, “make-up” was a backstage expression whispered in dressing rooms. After Max, it was on billboards.

As business boomed, his sons Davis and Frank joined in, which helped Max factor in (sorry) more scale. By 1927, the company was distributing products nationwide, cleverly roping in Hollywood stars to endorse the brand. These stars were paid modest sums, but their likenesses were splashed everywhere, reinforcing the deeply American idea that if Joan Crawford could have perfect skin, so could you.

And Max wasn’t done. He introduced Color Harmony face powder in 1918 (which promised to match your skin tone instead of randomly tinting you peach), waterproof makeup in 1926 (vital for both synchronized swimmers and weepy actresses), and even invented lip gloss and pancake makeup, which, despite sounding like breakfast, changed how women—and actors—looked in color films.

By the 1930s, Max Factor was as much a fixture in Hollywood as the Hollywood sign itself, though significantly more useful. His influence spilled beyond the film lot, seeping into drugstores and department store counters, bringing a dash of stardust to the general population.

He died in 1938, having essentially invented the modern beauty industry, and his company stayed in the family until 1973, when it was sold for a very unglamorous but wildly impressive $500 million. Not bad for a guy who started with wigs and royal Russians.

FOOD AND DRINK Max Factor’s eating and drinking habits remain undocumented in the historical record.

MUSIC AND ARTS Max Factor’s career and personal interests were deeply rooted in the arts, especially theater and film. From a young age, he was exposed to the performing arts—he worked selling sweets in a theater lobby as a child, which sparked his fascination with stagecraft and performance. He began his professional life as a wig maker and cosmetician for theater and opera in Poland and Russia, serving the Russian Grand Opera and even the royal family.

Upon moving to the United States, Factor’s artistic focus shifted to Hollywood, where he became a pioneering figure in film makeup. He worked closely with actors, directors, and studios, creating iconic looks for stars and helping to shape the visual language of early cinema. His innovations in makeup were not just technical but also artistic—he designed signature styles for stars like Jean Harlow and Joan Crawford, using his understanding of aesthetics, color, and visual impact. (3)

LITERATURE Max Factor did not author any books. The most notable books about his life and work—such as Max Factor: The Man Who Changed the Faces of the World by Fred E. Basten, were written by others not by Factor himself

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Max Factor's devotion to developing new cosmetic products, experimenting with scientific devices like the Beauty Calibrator (a machine for measuring facial proportions), and customizing looks for Hollywood stars were both his passion and his primary hobby

SCIENCE AND MATHS Max Factor’s innovations in cosmetics weren’t just strokes of artistic genius—they were triumphs of chemistry and practical science. At a time when the film industry was inventing itself on the fly, Factor brought a laboratory mindset to beauty, using experimentation and engineering to solve the very real technical problems faced by actors, directors, and makeup artists. The result was nothing short of revolutionary: he didn’t just make people look better—he redefined what was possible with makeup.

Picture by ChatGBT

His earliest breakthroughs came from rethinking the foundations of makeup chemistry. Traditional theatrical greasepaint was thick, stiff, and ill-suited to the scorching lights and sensitive lenses of early film studios. In 1914, Factor reformulated it into something radically different: Flexible Greasepaint. This creamier, thinner product used oil-based emulsions and refined pigments to create a smooth, durable layer that moved with the skin and photographed beautifully. It took a careful balancing of viscosity, adhesion, and light reflectivity—an early example of Factor’s deep dive into cosmetic materials science.

Later, with the arrival of color films, Factor faced a new problem: greasepaint no longer worked. He responded with Pancake Makeup, a solid cake foundation made from talc, pigments, and binders. This powder-based formulation was durable under studio lights and gave consistent coverage under Technicolor’s vivid (and sometimes unforgiving) glare. The product had to not only resist melting but also provide a visually natural skin tone—a challenge in pigment chemistry that he met with precision.

Years earlier, in 1918, he had already tackled the issue of shade diversity with Color Harmony Face Powder. He used a blend of titanium dioxide and iron oxides to calibrate 12 nuanced tones, each designed to match different complexions while appearing natural on monochrome film. It was one of the first attempts at inclusivity in commercial makeup and another sign of Factor’s commitment to science serving art.

As film technology advanced, so did Factor’s formulations. The shift to Technicolor meant that makeup had to do more than sit well—it had to behave under intense lighting and avoid throwing odd hues. Factor developed specialized, non-reflective pigments that ensured skin tones stayed true to life. When television arrived, Factor adapted again. Hi-Fi Fluid Make-Up, launched in 1955, used silicones and micronized particles to diffuse light, softening the appearance of skin on camera. It was essentially high-definition makeup decades before HD even existed.

Factor didn’t stop at what went into the products—he applied science to how they were used. His "Beauty Calibrator," a vaguely alarming metal device that measured facial proportions, was designed to guide makeup application by analyzing symmetry and structure. The idea was to tailor each look to the individual’s features, using geometry and proportion as artistic tools.

His practical ingenuity also extended to durability and hygiene. He pioneered waterproof cosmetics by experimenting with waxes and polymers, inventing mascara and lipsticks that could withstand long shoots and everyday wear. In 1922, he introduced collapsible metal tubes for greasepaint, replacing unhygienic sticks with a cleaner, more practical solution. It was material science with a beauty twist.

At the heart of it all, Max Factor’s work was about problem-solving—scientifically, creatively, and relentlessly. He brought method to makeup, blending chemistry, physics, and ergonomics into every product. He turned cosmetics from a niche theatrical craft into a precision-driven industry and left behind not just a brand, but a blueprint for modern beauty.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Max Factor’s guiding philosophy centered on the transformative power of cosmetics and the belief that beauty was accessible to everyone—not just the elite or movie stars. He famously held that “any woman could look incredible given the right tools and make-up artistry skills.” This democratizing vision shaped his business and innovations, as he worked to put professional-grade products into the hands of ordinary women, empowering them to express their individuality and confidence. (4)

He believed that beauty was not about perfection but about enhancing one’s unique features. Factor’s invention of the Beauty Calibrator—a device designed to measure facial proportions—reflected his scientific approach to beauty. Yet, he reportedly claimed he “never found perfection,” suggesting a philosophical stance that beauty is subjective, personal, and always improvable rather than an absolute ideal. (5)

Max Factor demonstrating his Beauty Calibrator in 1935.

While he was born into a Jewish family and experienced the hardships and discrimination common to Jews in Eastern Europe at the time, Factor's public life and legacy are defined by his work in cosmetics and his philosophy of empowerment through beauty, rather than religious doctrine or theological reflection.

POLITICS Max Factor emigrated from Russia to the United States in part due to increasing anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia.

SCANDAL No major scandals reported, though Max Factor experienced personal and business setbacks, such as a partner stealing his stock and profits at the 1904 World’s Fair.

MILITARY RECORD FCTOR Max Factor served in the Hospital Corps of the Imperial Russian Army during his compulsory military service (ages 18–22). He spent most of his military service working in military hospitals, where he assisted doctors and medical staff. This environment exposed him to practical medical procedures and furthered his understanding of chemistry, as he continued to study and experiment with chemical compounds used in both medicine and cosmetics.

Max Factor later reflected that, although he did not enjoy the military setting, the experience taught him valuable lessons that he would apply in his later career as a cosmetic chemist and entrepreneur

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS In the last decade of his life, Max Factor traveled frequently around the world to oversee and expand his company’s business. These constant business trips, combined with the pressures of managing a growing cosmetics empire, likely placed significant stress on his health.

In 1938, while on a business trip in Paris with his son, Factor received a threatening extortion note, which caused him considerable distress. He returned to the United States immediately, and shortly after his return, he died of a heart attack at the age of 66. 

HOMES Max Factor was born in Zduńska Wola, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), and lived in Łódź during his youth. He later moved to Moscow, Russia, where he worked for the Imperial Russian Grand Opera and established his own shop in Ryazan before emigrating to America.

Upon arriving in the United States in 1904, Max Factor and his family settled in St. Louis, Missouri. He lived and worked there for several years, running a small cosmetics and wig shop before relocating to California.

In 1908, Factor moved to Los Angeles, drawn by the emerging film industry. He lived in the Los Angeles area for the rest of his life, eventually settling in Beverly Hills, California, where he died in 1938.

In 1928, Max Factor purchased the building at 1666 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood, California. This building, remodeled in 1935, housed his famous salon, make-up studio, and manufacturing facilities. It became a Hollywood landmark known as the "Jewel Box of the Cosmetic World" and is now home to the Hollywood Museum. 

TRAVEL In 1904, facing increasing anti-Jewish persecution in the Russian Empire, Max Factor decided to emigrate to the United States with his family. The journey involved a carefully planned escape, including a rest cure at Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) or, by another account, a dramatic escape through the woods to a waiting ship. The family traveled in steerage class aboard the S.S. Moltke III and arrived at Ellis Island on February 25, 1904.(2)

After arriving in New York, Factor and his family traveled by train to St. Louis, Missouri, where his brother and uncle were already living and where he would participate in the 1904 World’s Fair.

As his company grew, Max Factor traveled internationally to oversee business operations and expand his brand. By the 1930s, he was a prominent figure in the global cosmetics industry, requiring frequent trips between Europe and the United States to manage partnerships, manufacturing, and distribution. 

DEATH Max Factor died on August 30, 1938, at the age of 60 in Beverly Hills, California. His death followed a distressing incident during a business trip in Europe: while in Paris with his son Davis, Factor received a threatening extortion note. The Paris police attempted to catch the extortionist using a decoy, but no one appeared at the arranged meeting. Deeply shaken by the threat and on the advice of a local doctor, Factor returned to the United States. Upon arrival, he took to his bed and died shortly thereafter.

Max Factor was originally interred in the Beth Olam Mausoleum at Hollywood Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever Cemetery) in Los Angeles, which included a dedicated Jewish burial ground for the local Jewish community. The Beth Olam Mausoleum was a prominent resting place for many Jewish figures in Los Angeles.

Many years after his death, due to water damage in the mausoleum that discolored the walls, Factor's heirs decided to move his remains, along with those of other family members, to Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. Hillside Memorial Park is a well-known Jewish cemetery and is now his final resting place. (7)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA He is commemorated with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and his name remains synonymous with Hollywood glamour and innovation in cosmetics

Max Factor is mentioned in the classic song "Hooray for Hollywood".

ACHIEVEMENTS Invented the first makeup for film (1914).

Founded Max Factor & Company, which became a global cosmetics brand.

Popularized the term "make-up" and brought Hollywood beauty to the masses.

Received an honorary Academy Award in 1929 for his contributions to the film industry.

Sources (1) Nasiprzodkowie (2) Hollywood Walk Of Fame (3) By Panthea Vine (4) COTY (5) Maxfactor.com (6) Museum of  the Jewish People (7) Find a Grave