Norma Jeane Mortenson ( better known as Marilyn Monroe) had a very iconic makeup look. Aside from the signature red lip, the top-heavy eyes and the beauty spot, Marilyn had some extremely purposeful techniques put into her makeup look by makeup artist "Whitey".
For Marilyn's base, Whitey used a thick layer of either nivea cream or vaseline. You can only assume Marilyn's skin was extremely dry for this to be necessary. As well as heavily hydrating the skin and protecting it by creating a barrier between the makeup, this created a very dewy glow. Marilyn knew that glow meant youth and so she liked to have lots of it.
Whitey always tried to create a more heart-shaped look, and so he applied highlighter in the centre of Marilyn's face, the forehead and the cheekbones. He applied blusher blending upwards, and just above the eyebrow. The only major contouring was on Marilyn's nose, which she was very self conscious about, even after surgery.
Marilyn's eyebrows were very high-arched and quite bold. Contrary to popular belief, Marilyn's eyeliner was a brown pencil and not a black liquid. She wore winged eyeliner on top and white eyeliner in the waterline. To widen and whiten the eyes, a dot of red lipstick was applied in the inner corner. She wore a heavy half set of lashes on the outer corners to create a more flirty look. Underneath the winged liner, was a line of white eyeliner. Beneath that, was a fake shadow of the false eyelashes, created with a dark powder or brown liner. This gave the illusion of bigger top lashes.
Finally, the lips. Whitey would apply layer upon layer of liner, lipstick and gloss. It is rumoured that Marilyn sometimes wore pink lipstick as it was the only colour that would show up as red on film.
Who's your biggest makeup inspiration?
Alice.