This post is about how one can recreate Marilyn Monroe’s iconic makeup look.
About Marilyn Monroe:
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer. She was well-known for playing comic “blonde bombshell” characters and became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s. Her full name was Norma Jeane Mortenson.
Marilyn Monroe’s Makeup Artist:
Allan “Whitey” Snyder was her personal makeup artist and they both really shared a very good bond. He was her makeup artist for the whole of her career. There was the point when Marilyn Monroe even said if I die before you, you have to do my makeup for my funeral. It’s something he did for her.
Skin Prep:
Marilyn Monroe was very keen on protecting her skin. Her favourite product for skincare was Nivea Vaselline. She use to put a very thick layer of vaseline before applying foundation on her face. This helped her to get that dewy fresh glow on her skin. She never likes to over-powder or mattify her skin. She wanted her skin to look more clean and fresh.
Eyes:
The eye look that Marilyn Monroe liked was more sexy and well-defined eyes. She used white colour all over her eyelid to really open up her eyes. Next, she used to layer it with luminous white colour to open up the corners of her eyes.
Lashes:
Marilyn Monroe always wore a half set of lashes to really get that almond-looking shape of her eyes.
Eyeliner:
She used a brown liner on the upper lash line, just a thin line till the outer corner of her eyes up and out. She also used to draw the brown line on the lower lash line. It was drawn to create a shadow on her lashes. This was done to make her lashes look more natural.
Shading and enhancing eyes:
She also liked doing a little bit of shading on the crease line to make the eye look more defined. To further enhance her eyes white pencil was used on the water line and red colour was used on the inner corner of her eyes to brighten them up.
Eyebrow:
She drew a very arched eyebrow so that her eyes look wide and very much open.
Contour and Highlighting:
Another important thing about Marilyn Monroe’s makeup was shading and highlighting. Shading was done below the cheekbones, jaw lines and nose to make her face look sharper from all angles. Highlighter was used along the side of the nose to give her a much flatter and wider appearance of her face. It was also used down the centre of her nose and the centre of her forehead.
Blush:
Blush was used on the cheekbones and just above the eyebrows to make her look younger and fresh. She used to put some blush on the nose too.
Lips:
Marilyn’s lip makeup was legendary. At times she uses 5 different layers of one colour. Red lip colour and on top of it, white colour was used in the lower lip to make her lips pop out even more.
Thank you for reading my article, I hope you found it useful in some ways.
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