uh-oh…bad news for Max Factor fans!
I haven’t tried other stuff, but I love LOVE Max Factor’s mascaras. Funny thing is, if you read the article, it is quite true. I can totally relate to it. I learned about Max Factor when I was in Korea while I was talking about makeup with with my Korean friends and this Japanese girl who tagged along. Max Factor is def. more appreciated in Asia, and it would make total sense for MF to focus more on the global market if that’s where most of the revenue is derived.

If you look at Japanese magazines, the most used US-mascaras seem to be MAX FACTOR mascaras and the intense XXL® Volume + Length Washable Microfiber Mascara from Maybelline (or not? this is just based on my shallow observation)

Anyway, aside of all the babbling, MF is pulling out of the US market.. NEXT YEAR!
I should start piling up back-ups before 2010 comes and I have to buy MF overseas with a ridiculous price =/

———- Here’s the article in whole ——————–

P&G phasing out Max Factor in US

By DAN SEWELL – 3 days ago

CINCINNATI (AP) — The Procter & Gamble Co. plans to phase out U.S. distribution of the century-old Max Factor makeup brand, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Cincinnati-based consumer products maker said it plans to keep selling Max Factor overseas, where its sales have been strongest, even after it ends U.S. sales of Max Factor products in early 2010.

Spokeswoman Anitra Marsh said sales of CoverGirl makeup have risen the past eight years and are nearing $1 billion a year, while Max Factor sales, which total $1.2 billion a year globally, have been better overseas.

The two brands are sold widely by U.S. drugstores and other large retailers and online.

Max Factor was founded by a Russian immigrant who had worked as a makeup artist for the Royal Ballet in pre-revolutionary Russia, according to Procter and Gamble’s Web site. After moving to the United States in 1904, Factor opened an eponymous makeup and perfume concession at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Mo. In January 1909, he founded a Los Angeles theatrical makeup shop where he developed and packaged the first greasepaint in cream form, according to the site.

P&G credits Factor with the idea of matching makeup to a person’s natural coloring and with inventing cake makeup, first for movie actors, and then popularizing the use of makeup by women across the country at the end of the Great Depression.

P&G acquired the brand from Revlon Inc. in 1991.

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the link : http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEpM100yievS3bpvB7NXtbeKzO5AD98K4VUG3