Advantage Life Is Buying Cosmetics Firm

LAGUNA HILLS — Advantage Life Products Inc. said Monday it is buying a maker of lipstick and hair coloring that until now has only plugged the cosmetics on TV infomercials.

The price for New York’s Lasting Cosmetics Inc. is 1.33 million shares of Advantage Life stock. That stock closed at $1.09 Monday--down six cents a share--so the deal would be worth at least $1.45 million.

A letter of intent Advantage has signed calls for it to pay more stock--it won’t say how much--depending on how much Lasting Cosmetics earns.

Lasting Cosmetics makes a smudge-proof lipstick called Lasting Kiss that is plugged by former “MASH” TV actress Loretta Swit in infomercials--the program-length commercials seen mostly on late-night cable television.

Advantage Life will take the lipstick into discount stores and pharmacies next month. The lipstick has been generating sales of $700,000 a month from the TV ads, Advantage Life said.

Lasting Cosmetics’ Secret Color hair coloring, which just last week started appearing in infomercials by movie actress Faye Dunaway, is expected to generate first-year sales of $10 million when it hits stores next year, Advantage Life said.

With the additional 1.33 million shares, Advantage Life will have 7.7 million shares outstanding.

The company said last week that it recently sold most of its CigArrest business to a Pennsylvania infomercial company. The stop-smoking pills will be banned at the end of the year by the federal Food and Drug Administration as long as they contain lobeline sulfate. The FDA says that the compound has not been shown effective in stopping smoking.