- 26 minutes ago
Marilyn Monroe is a beauty icon but in researching her skincare and makeup routines Mi-Anne finds that she's a much more complex figure than that.
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00:00Hey guys, it's me Anne and this is Beauty With Me.
00:02You might notice we're in a little bit of a different location.
00:05That is because today's episode is not an ordinary one.
00:07I've been thinking about adopting the beauty routines of iconic women throughout history
00:11for some time now, the first of which is Marilyn Monroe.
00:17Marilyn Monroe has been the object of constant fascination for over half a century now, but
00:21I'll be honest when I say that I didn't really know much about her before I started
00:25researching this video.
00:26I thought of Marilyn as nothing more than a beacon of old Hollywood glamour, but I'll
00:30tell you right now that I was so wrong.
00:32I decided to adopt her routine and try it out for myself, but I first had to figure out what
00:37Marilyn's approach to beauty was.
00:39I talked to a couple of people, the first of which are the folks over at Erno Laszlo.
00:47Erno Laszlo was a Hungarian dermatologist known for his bespoke treatments and products.
00:51Hollywood elite like Audrey Hepburn, Jackie O, and of course Marilyn Monroe were all loyal
00:56patients.
00:57Sadly, the Erno Laszlo Institute is no longer open, but the brand partners with an NYC salon
01:02called Jaderm, and I spoke with Christy Watson, the chief marketing director at Erno Laszlo,
01:07to learn more about what Marilyn would have done on the day-to-day.
01:09I was reading this prescription and it's crazy how much detail he goes into.
01:15He had a morning ritual, he had an evening ritual if you were going out, he had an evening
01:20ritual for when you came home.
01:21He was customizing products for her.
01:23She had her appendix removed and she had a big scar on her stomach.
01:26So he produced, it's known today as Formula 3-9, but Marilyn Monroe's formulation was Formula
01:323-7.
01:33It feels to me like she really trusted the doctor with her skin.
01:37So in addition to obviously following this very strict routine, Marilyn also came in to
01:42the Erno Laszlo Institute.
01:43What kind of treatments would she undergo?
01:45She probably got a full-on treatment facial.
01:48The double cleanse probably happened.
01:50He definitely did high frequency, which we have photos doing.
01:53Again, the doctor was really ahead of his time.
01:55He believed in, you know, inner beauty, empowering women.
01:59So by understanding you as a person and, you know, what keeps you up at night, what your
02:05concerns are.
02:06We have a quote from Marilyn, stated, that says Dr. Erno Laszlo not only soothed my skin,
02:11he soothed my soul.
02:12Do you think she was really insecure about her skin?
02:15I think she was insecure as a person.
02:17Like, forget skin care.
02:19The woman had 11 foster families, so we all know how that could actually really play on
02:25your psyche a little bit.
02:26Yeah, I think the question I'm grappling with on Marilyn and her approach to beauty is whether
02:30or not she actually did find joy in it.
02:32It is kind of this paradoxical thing where, yes, she did, but she was still like riddled
02:36with insecurity.
02:37We ask this question a lot in the brand.
02:39Does Marilyn empower women?
02:40Her approach on life, her approach, or does Marilyn make them sad?
02:44But she's iconic.
02:46Clearly, Marilyn had a complex relationship with beauty, one that's not unlike what many
02:50of us have today.
02:51Is it a mask?
02:52Is it a confidence booster?
02:53Or is it both?
02:54I couldn't do this story justice without learning more about Marilyn herself.
02:58So I called Dr. Lois Banner, a professor emerita at the University of Southern California and
03:03the author of Marilyn, The Passion and the Paradox, a biography on the star.
03:06She has become an icon.
03:08It has a lot to do with her early death.
03:11It has a lot to do with the number of photos that were taken of her.
03:16There are literally thousands of photos taken.
03:18Death at an early age, that generally makes an icon in American culture.
03:24They're frozen in time and their beauty remains.
03:27Now, she was considering cosmetic surgery again before she died.
03:31And she did get it once before.
03:33A couple of things.
03:34First of all, they pushed her hairline back with electrolysis and they did that to all the
03:39major stars.
03:40She had a bump on her nose.
03:42They never entirely got rid of it.
03:44She and her makeup artists, especially Whitey Snyder, they spent a great deal of time covering
03:50that bump up on her nose because they hadn't gotten it off.
03:53And the third thing that was done to her was that they put some kind of plate in her lower
03:57jaw that would bring her chin up, but that wasn't completely successful either.
04:05She spent hours before the mirror and with massage artists trying to keep the
04:11double chin from showing.
04:12Whitey Snyder said she knew many makeup tricks that not even the best makeup artists knew.
04:18When she first came to Hollywood, she'd hung out with the makeup artists, them and the
04:22publicists when she was still just in her early 20s and in Hollywood.
04:26She went to them to find out what she ought to do with herself and they told her.
04:31She liked to put on a masquerade so when she was in good shape, she would take great care
04:36with the makeup she was wearing.
04:38Mostly, the commentators say she was perfect and she had many flaws, many.
04:43That's why she's so fascinating.
04:45In her way, she is a real woman with an unbelievable ambition.
04:52After watching countless tutorials and interviewing Dr. Banner and Christy,
04:56it was time to put Marilyn's routine to the test.
04:58Marilyn's skincare routine was intense, with different processes from morning, evening,
05:02and going out.
05:03Fortunately for me, a handful of the products she used are still available from the brand,
05:07but sadly, many of them are not, so I did my best to mimic what I could.
05:11According to Marilyn's original skincare prescription from Erno Laszlo,
05:15her cleansing routine started with a basin of warm water,
05:17which she used to cleanse her skin using cleansing oils and bar soaps.
05:22She was instructed to make a lather with the soap and cleanse her face,
05:26washing it off with no less than 30 splashes of water.
05:31Marilyn was all about dewy, glowy skin and was known to use anything from Nivea face cream,
05:36to Erno Laszlo's cream, to Vaseline, all over her face before foundation.
05:40Marilyn must have had pretty dry skin because the products she used are really rich.
05:45My favorite, though, was the bar soap, which is surprisingly gentle and hydrating
05:49and didn't leave my skin feeling tight or dry.
05:51Once my skin was prepped, I moved on to makeup.
05:54Using bits and pieces from Banner's book, as well as makeup artist Lisa Eldridge's book,
05:58Face Paint, I tried my best to recreate a look that Marilyn and her makeup artist,
06:02Alan Whitey Snyder, would have done.
06:04I went for a more full coverage foundation,
06:07one that still looks like skin but is able to cover effectively.
06:10According to Dr. Banner, Marilyn had facial hair she would have wanted to obscure,
06:13so I think a fuller coverage foundation would have been her go-to.
06:16Then, once my base was on, I followed Eldridge's lead
06:19and dusted a frosty, white shadow all over my lid and onto my brow bone.
06:24Some taupe shadow was then buffed into the crease for definition.
06:28Marilyn was the queen of sexy, sultry eye makeup
06:31and fluttery eyelashes were a mainstay in her look.
06:34She wore half sets on the outer third of her eye to create an elongated shape
06:38and followed up with brown eyeliner in a slightly winged out shape.
06:50Now here comes the tricky part.
06:51According to Eldridge, to create the illusion of an intensely full upper lash line,
06:55Marilyn's makeup artist Snyder would draw a faux shadow using brown eyeshadow on the star's bottom lash line.
07:02It took me a few tries, but I was really surprised at how real this looks, especially in photos.
07:07The technique of tracing brown shadow on your lower lash line,
07:10then extending it slightly to create a shadow-like effect,
07:13does make it look like your eyelashes are larger than life.
07:21That wasn't the only trick Marilyn had up her sleeve though.
07:24After filling in my eyebrows, I went in with some matte contour powder,
07:28which Marilyn wore under her cheekbones and down the sides of her nose.
07:31Marilyn had a couple of plastic surgeries in her lifetime.
07:34According to Dr. Banner though, her nose surgery wasn't all that successful,
07:38so Marilyn turned to contour powder to give her nose the illusion of a higher bridge,
07:42not unlike the techniques makeup artists and their celebrity clients do today.
07:46Once my face was contoured, I moved on to blush and highlighter.
07:48I applied blush to the apples of my cheeks, a touch of my forehead and my nose,
07:52and then dusted some highlighter on the high points of my cheeks.
07:57Then comes the fun part, Marilyn's iconic red lip.
08:01But Marilyn didn't just apply it straight from the bullet and call it a day.
08:03She often traced her lip line with a slightly deeper red lip liner
08:07and layered lipstick over top to create the illusion of fuller and juicier lips.
08:11Marilyn wore a number of different red shades in her lifetime,
08:14but Guerlain's Diabolique was one of her favorites.
08:16The shades still exist in the brand's Kiss Kiss range,
08:19but under a different name, Red Insolence.
08:32And there you have it, Marilyn's iconic look.
08:34I finished it off with a bit of brown eyeliner to mimic Marilyn's iconic beauty mark,
08:38and I was good to go.
08:39All right.
09:12Through the research for this video, I started to see just how much of an impact Marilyn
09:16Monroe has had on the beauty industry.
09:18Countless products are named after her, dozens of tutorials, crowd the internet, and even
09:23at Christie's auction of Marilyn's belongings in 99, her makeup bag sold for hundreds of
09:27thousands of dollars.
09:29Marilyn was a true beauty girl at heart.
09:31Her skincare and makeup knowledge alone proved that she was super ahead of her time, but she
09:36wasn't without her insecurities.
09:38Marilyn clearly had a complicated approach to beauty, and it's something that I still
09:42grapple with to this day.
09:44Ultimately though, Marilyn Monroe was real, and she was just like you or I.
09:48I'm reminded of something Banner told me during our conversation, that despite Marilyn's
09:53flaws, she was one of the most courageous and ambitious women of her time.
09:56And that is something we can all strive for.