Beauty Industry United States

In a deal combining the smell of greasepaint and the color of money, consumer products giant Procter & Gamble agreed to spend $1.14 billion on Revlon's historic Max Factor & Co. as well as Revlon's German cosmetics subsidiary, the two companies announced Wednesday.

Being a girl is so much trouble. It always has been. Ask any female who's ever slept in curlers or ironed her wavy hair straight. While women have long tried to improve on nature, in the last few years spas and salons around the country have seen an influx of progressively younger clients seeking services their mothers didn't indulge in until they were out of college and able to support their own beauty budgets.

You are totally in th e ir hands . . . you can't believe they would ever do you wrong. I had a guy who fried my hair with horrible perms for years but it took on e real haircut from hell for me to leave and then it was awful because by then we were such friends. --Mimi Bacon, entrepreneur Intimidated by your hairdresser? Hate your color/cut/perm/style, but afraid to say so? Thinking of changing your phone number/address/job/physical appearance so you can go to someone new?

Thanks to technological improvements and massive marketing efforts, picking a skin lotion--whether for your face, body or hands--is no simple task. In fact, it's beginning to make pantyhose selection (regular? control top? industrial-strength control top?) look like a walk in the park. When you're eyeball-to-skin-lotion-labels, it can get confusing. Do you need the fingers-only formula? A special lotion for legs and feet? The advanced formula or the extra relief lotion?

Consumer products powerhouse Procter & Gamble Co. will acquire Noxell Corp., maker of skin-care goods and cosmetics, in a stock-swap deal valued at $1.3 billion, both companies announced Friday. Under terms of a definitive agreement approved by the boards of both companies, P&G will add Noxell's Cover Girl and Clarion makeup lines and Noxzema skin cream to its already bulging portfolio of leading consumer products and foods. The announcement sent Noxell soaring $10 to $31.

Faberge Inc. said Friday that it has agreed to sell its beauty products and toiletries businesses--which include the Elizabeth Arden, Brut and Aqua Net lines--to international consumer products giant Unilever Group for $1.55 billion in cash. The deal is another in a long line of acquisitions in the cosmetics industry and one that would give Unilever, a British-Dutch company, a much greater presence in the United States.

Avon Products, the target of takeover speculation in recent months, said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its Parfums Stern fragrance unit for $210 million in cash to a company affiliated with Sanofi, a French concern that markets upscale perfumes and beauty products. Parfums Stern handles fragrances, including Oscar de la Renta, Perry Ellis, Uninhibited by Cher and Deneuve.

It would be easy to assign some kind of symbolism to the fate of fashion designer Carolyne Roehm and her husband, Henry Kravis, the king of Wall Street acquisitors. As the Gatsbys of their time, they epitomized the roaring '80s and the newly moneyed set known as Manhattan's "Nouvelle Society." They had the homes: four, including the $5.5-million Park Avenue apartment and the pre-Revolutionary Connecticut getaway with the $7-million barn.

Consumer products giant Unilever Group on Thursday agreed to buy the personal care lines of Faberge--which include Elizabeth Arden, Brut and Aqua Net--for $1.55 billion. The agreement revives a similar deal between the companies that fell apart three months ago. The proposed acquisition also would be the latest in a string of beauty product purchases by Unilever, a British-Dutch company that makes everything from Lipton Tea to Wisk detergent.

Faces, like fashion, change with the times. Eyebrows have gone from the pencil-thin arches worn by Garbo in the '30s to the caterpillar size made popular by Brooke Shields in the '80s. Lips swelled from the Kewpie doll pout of '20s movie star Clara Bow to the bee-stung smackers of '80s movie star Kim Basinger. The face of the '90s is shaping up to be a curious collage of features from the past.

Marie Schmidt of Arcadia cringes when she sees her monthly department store bills in the mailbox. Schmidt isn't worried about making payments. She is worried about getting sick from fragrance strips that some stores include with their bills. "I start sneezing and my nose starts running the minute I smell them," says Schmidt, whose respiratory system goes on red alert at the least whiff of scented products. "It's sort of like cigarette smoking," she complains. "They are invading my privacy."

Cathy Donaldson stands in the makeup department of her neighborhood Newberry's, looking at the racks of cosmetics designed to complement her cocoa brown complexion and shaking her head. "There are no foundation shades that work for me," says Donaldson, a 35-year-old parimutuels clerk at Hollywood Park. "Sure, I might find something if I went to the department store, but on my budget it doesn't make sense to spend a fortune on makeup." Donaldson pauses and then corrects herself.

Are you one of those cosmetics collectors who'd test every new invention on the market--if only you could afford to? You have a better chance than ever now that some cosmetic companies are copying a selection of high-brow items for a considerably lower price. The copycat concept isn't entirely new. Fragrances promising, "If you like Giorgio, you'll love Primo," have been in stores for decades. But lately, there are a lot more of them.

Faces, like fashion, change with the times. Eyebrows have gone from the pencil-thin arches worn by Garbo in the '30s to the caterpillar size made popular by Brooke Shields in the '80s. Lips swelled from the Kewpie doll pout of '20s movie star Clara Bow to the bee-stung smackers of '80s movie star Kim Basinger. The face of the '90s is shaping up to be a curious collage of features from the past.

You are totally in th e ir hands . . . you can't believe they would ever do you wrong. I had a guy who fried my hair with horrible perms for years but it took on e real haircut from hell for me to leave and then it was awful because by then we were such friends. --Mimi Bacon, entrepreneur Intimidated by your hairdresser? Hate your color/cut/perm/style, but afraid to say so? Thinking of changing your phone number/address/job/physical appearance so you can go to someone new?

It would be easy to assign some kind of symbolism to the fate of fashion designer Carolyne Roehm and her husband, Henry Kravis, the king of Wall Street acquisitors. As the Gatsbys of their time, they epitomized the roaring '80s and the newly moneyed set known as Manhattan's "Nouvelle Society." They had the homes: four, including the $5.5-million Park Avenue apartment and the pre-Revolutionary Connecticut getaway with the $7-million barn.

Marie Schmidt of Arcadia cringes when she sees her monthly department store bills in the mailbox. Schmidt isn't worried about making payments. She is worried about getting sick from fragrance strips that some stores include with their bills. "I start sneezing and my nose starts running the minute I smell them," says Schmidt, whose respiratory system goes on red alert at the least whiff of scented products. "It's sort of like cigarette smoking," she complains. "They are invading my privacy."

Add a heady dose of muguet or C-16 Aldehyde to a mixture of ethyl alcohol and 150 or so secret ingredients. Perhaps a pheromone or two. Mix well, and what do you have? To some, a fragrant elixir to spritz behind the ear or slather over the body for the scent du jour . (The average person applies 12 aroma products a day.) But others say the same fragrance may pose a health threat to people who are sensitive or allergic to scents.

If you've got teen-agers, check their choice of hair gel. They may be helping to style a hot little L.A. stock story. DEP Corp., a Rancho Dominguez-based producer of hair-care products and other toiletries, on Tuesday reported a huge jump in quarterly earnings--sending its stock flying. DEP said its profit rose to $1.04 million, or 18 cents a share, in the quarter ended April 30, from a depressed $116,000, or 2 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue came to $27.06 million, up 10%.