Dean Factor Seeks Buyer for Los Angeles Estate

A cosmetics mogul and his wife are testing prices in the Los Angeles luxury housing market instead of lipstick shades. 

Dean Factor, co-founder of Smashbox Cosmetics, and his wife Shannon are listing their roughly 8.5-acre estate in Sullivan Canyon for $48.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Factors spent more than a decade rebuilding the property from the ground up before opting to sell. 

The couple bought the then-dilapidated site at 1900 Old Ranch Road in 2011 for $8 million. At the time, the existing house contained asbestos, the landscaping had dried out and the grounds had effectively become an unofficial dog park, Shannon Factor told the Journal. The Factors salvaged hardware and fixtures from the original home before replacing it with a roughly 17,000-square-foot residence designed around a rustic California ranch aesthetic. 

The home drew inspiration from legacy California properties like the San Ysidro Ranch and Will Rogers’ Pacific Palisades estate, Shannon Factor said. The finished product leans heavily into the wellness real estate trend that has become a staple at the high end of the market, complete with advanced air and water filtration systems, solar infrastructure, a private well, infrared sauna, an ozone-treated pool, a gym, yoga and massage room, and an elevator. Outside, there’s a private lake, fruit orchards, medicinal herb gardens and enough land for the family to keep chickens, ducks, honeybees and tortoises over the years.

The listing lands as the Los Angeles luxury market grapples with Measure ULA, the city’s so-called mansion tax, which has slowed deal volume above the tax threshold. The city has collected more than $1 billion in revenue for affordable housing and homelessness prevention efforts. Earlier this month, the city got the go-ahead to spend its first major tranche of Measure ULA dollars with Mayor Karen Bass’ signature on the inaugural Homes for L.A. Notice of Funding Availability deploying $351 million of Measure ULA funds raised. 

Dean Factor, whose great-grandfather founded the Max Factor brand, sold Smashbox Cosmetics to Estée Lauder in 2010. He is now a private investor. The Sullivan Canyon home would be his latest residential disposition after selling his Malibu mansion in 2023 for $37.5 million. 

— Chris Malone Méndez

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