Book Review - Max Factor, The Man Who Changed the Faces of the World

Max Factor

The Man Who Changed the Faces of the World

This book tells the story of Max Faktor who was born in Poland and worked as a beautician and wigmaker to the Russian Imperial Family in the 1900s. He brought his expertise to America after he fled Russia with his family.

Max Factor was a magician with hair and cosmetics and brought make-up to the average woman, who previously thought only stage performers and prostitutes painted their faces.

The book contains numerous stories of how Max's transformations of actors and actresses helped them to become huge stars including Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Rudolph Valentino and Rita Hayworth. In 1930, his transformation of Jean Harlow from a natural blonde to a platinum blonde launched a national craze.

 It also tells of his genius in developing new technologies in makeup to keep up with the changes in the movie making industry. In 1926 he developed water-proof makeup as it was needed for a spy film Mare Nostrum. This was later used in hundreds of productions including those starring Esther Williams. Bette Davis and Claudette Colbert actually refused to appear in Technicolour films as the public considered them a novelty and the Panchromatic makeup used in black and white films was unflattering on colour film. After several years of research, Max and his son developed the now famous Pan-Cake makeup, which the stars loved so much it kept disappearing from the dressing rooms!

This is an extraordinary story of how one man changed the face of Hollywood and the average woman and I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in makeup, pinup or vintage glamour and Hollywood movie stars.

Let me know if you have any favourite biographies of pinups, burlesque or Hollywood movie stars, as I am always on the lookout for a great read!