Polish Genius : Maksymilian Faktorowicz / MaxFactor

Another part of the stars' Polish roots concerns, in its own way, not only one person, but the entire cosmetics brand now known around the world - what secret does Max Factor hide? Maksymilian Faktorowicz, born in 1872 in Zduńska Wola, dreamed of an acting career since childhood - his first job was in a theater in Łódź and consisted of selling sweets and nuts in the theater in Łódź, he was only seven years old at the time. Learning the first medical and cosmetic recipes thanks to my subsequent work as a pharmacist's assistant, and then learning the first secrets of makeup as a wigmaker's assistant, turned out to be a huge help for the future. This pushed him to take further action, namely to take up employment with the famous make-up artist Anton from Berlin, and later to travel to Moscow, where at the Grand Theater opera house he did the make-up and hair styling of the most respected opera faces of the time. Such a winding career path led by Faktorowicz finally led him to set up his own shop on the outskirts of Moscow. This allowed him to sell products of his own production - even custom-made wigs, all kinds of creams and perfumes. Word about his talents spread so quickly that even Tsar Nicholas II's uncle, Alexander Nikolaevich, hearing about his capabilities, ordered him to provide these services. In this way, Maximilian completely lost his freedom. After he permanently settled outside, seeing him alone would seem impossible, since he could not leave his place of residence without guards. All these sacrifices were associated with generous remuneration - his earnings were among the highest in the entire country. However, he did not feel that all the splendor surrounding him compensated for his loneliness, and working in the store and temporarily talking to customers did not fill the void he felt because of it. This was until a certain Estera Róża became one of his clients. Their love blossomed more and more with each of her visits, and the only way to enjoy each other was to disappear into the back room for an hour, because that way the guards wouldn't be able to see what was going on there, nor would they have time to get suspicious. Unfortunately, this solution was only possible once a week. Despite such rare meetings, their romance did not seem to fade away, which is why they married secretly (it had to be kept secret because court employees were not allowed to marry) and even conceived three children in later years. Maksymilian did not feel satisfied enough with his career, and living far from his family did not give him peace, so he decided to follow in the footsteps of his brother and uncle and finally go to America. Fortunately for him, he received help for this purpose from his only friendly general, who told him that he had seen the make-up artist looking very sick and recommended that a doctor be sent for him. In this way, Faktorowicz faced one of the most significant characterizations of his life, because he had to present himself appropriately to the symptoms that were supposedly bothering him. Despite hard wandering and an extremely arduous journey, the family finally reached their destination. This did not mean the end of the problems they had to face: the first partner of a famous cosmetologist deceived him and ran away with the money, he struggled to combine work with fatherly duties, after opening a hairdressing salon, his half-brother opened a competing salon right next door (later he also created problems due to numerous connections with the mafia), and all this was closed by the problem of the language barrier that was bothering Maks. However, thanks to great determination and enthusiasm, after escaping from St. Louis to Los Angeles, he managed to create the power we know today - Max Factor and Company. Faktorowicz found the perfect opportunity for himself in the circles of stage make-up, because at one time it consisted of a layer three millimeters thick and a large amount of powder, which made it difficult to move the face and effectively show emotions. In order to master the correct reflection of facial expressions, he decided to create the first real stage background. After this breakthrough, his career took off again and he could afford to take up wigmaking again, but this did not mean the end of testing cosmetic novelties, the best examples of which were: he designed the first foundation in a tube or artificial eyelashes made of natural hair.

The rest is history, most of us know at least one spectacular item from the Max Factor collection, and maybe even have it on our shelves?