this is Beauty With Mi. You might notice we're in a little
bit of a different location. That is because today's episode
is not an ordinary one. I've been thinking about adopting the beauty
routines of iconic women throughout history for some time now, the first of
which is Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe has been the object of constant
fascination for over half a century now, but I'll be honest when I say that I didn't
really know much about her before I started
researching this video. I thought of Marilyn as nothing more than
a beacon of old Hollywood glamour, but I'll tell you right now
that I was so wrong. I decided to adopt her routine and try it
out for myself, but I first had to figure out what Marilyn's
approach to beauty was. I talked to a couple of people, the first
of which are the folks over at Erno Laszlo.
Erno Laszlo was a Hungarian dermatologist
known for his bespoke treatments and products. Hollywood elite like Audrey Hepburn, Jackie
O, and of course, Marilyn Monroe were all loyal patients. Sadly, the Erno Laszlo Institute is no longer
open, but the brand partners with an NYC salon called JE'DERM, and I spoke with Kristy Watson,
the Chief Marketing Director at Erno Laszlo, to learn more about what Marilyn
would've done on the day-to-day. I was reading this...
It's amazing. Prescription, and it's crazy how
much detail he goes into. He had a morning ritual, he had an
evening ritual if you were going out, he had an evening ritual
for when you came home. He was customizing products for her.
She had her appendix removed and she had a
big scar on her stomach, so he produced, it's known today as phormula 3-9, but
Marilyn Monroe's formulation was phormula 3-7. It feels to me like she really trusted
the doctor with her skin. So, in addition to obviously following this
very strict routine, Marilyn also came in to the Erno Laszlo Institute. What kind of treatments
would she undergo? She probably got a full-on
treatment facial.
The double-cleanse probably happened. He definitely did high frequency, which
we have photos doing. Again, the doctor was really
ahead of his time. He believed in, you know, inner-beauty, empowering
women, so by understanding you as a person and you know, what keeps you up at night,
what your concerns are...
We have a quote from Marilyn stated, that
says, "Dr. Erno Laszlo not only soothed my skin, he soothed my soul." Do you think she was really
insecure about her skin? I think she was insecure as a person. Like, forget skincare. The woman had eleven foster families, so we
all know how that could actually really play on your psyche a little bit.
Yeah, I think the question I'm grappling with
on Marilyn and her approach to beauty is whether or not she actually did find joy in it. It is kind of this paradoxical thing where... Yes, she did, but she was still
like, riddled with insecurity. We ask this question
a lot in the brand.
Does Marilyn empower women? Her approach on life, her approach... Or
does Marilyn make them sad? But, she's iconic. Clearly, Marilyn had a complex relationship
with beauty, one that's not unlike what many of us have today. Is it a mask? Is a confidence-booster? Or is it both? I couldn't do this story justice without learning
more about Marilyn herself, so I called Dr.
Lois Banner, a professor emerita at the
University of Southern California and the author of Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox,
a biography on the star. She has become an icon; it has a lot
to do with her early death. It has a lot to do with the number of
photos that were taken of her. There were literally thousands
of photos taken.
Death at an early age... That generally makes
an icon in American culture. They're frozen in time, and
they're beauty remains. Now, she was considering cosmetic surgery
again before she died.
And she did get it once before? A couple of things. First of all, they pushed her hairline
back with electrolysis. They did that to all the major stars. She had a bump on her nose.
They never entirely got rid of it. She and her makeup artists, especially Whitey
Snyder, they spent a great deal of time covering that bump up on her nose because
they hadn't gotten it off. And the third thing that was done to her
was that they put some kind of plate in her lower jaw that... Oh, yeah, yeah.
That would bring her chin up, but that wasn't
completely successful either. She spent hours before the mirror and with
massage artists trying to keep the double chin from showing. Whitey Snyder said she knew many makeup tricks
that not even the best makeup artists knew. When she first came to Hollywood, she'd hung
out with the makeup artists them and the publicists when she was still just in
her early twenties and in Hollywood.
She went to them to find out what she ought
to do with herself, and they told her. And she liked to put on a masquerade, so when
she was in good shape, she'd take great care with the makeup she was wearing. Mostly, the commentators say she was perfect,
and she had many flaws, many... That's why she's so fascinating.
In her way, she was a real woman
with an unbelievable ambition. After watching countless tutorials and interviewing
Dr. Banner and Kristy, it was time to put Marilyn's routine to the test. Marilyn's skincare routine was intense, with
different processes for morning, evening, and going out.
Fortunately for me, a handful of the products
she used are still available from the brand, but sadly, many of them are not, so I did
my best to mimic what I could. According to Marilyn's original skincare prescription
from Erno Laszlo, her cleansing routine started with a basin of warm water, which she
used to cleanse her skin using cleansing oils and bar soaps. She was instructed to make a lather with the
soap, and cleanse her face, washing it off with no less than 30 splashes of water. Marilyn was all about dewy, glowy skin, and
was known to use anything from Nivea face cream, to Erno Laszlo's cream to Vaseline
all over her face before foundation.
Marilyn must've had pretty dry skin because
the products she used are really rich. My favorite, though, was the bar soap, which
was surprisingly gentle and hydrating and didn't leave my skin feeling tight or dry. Once my skin was prepped,
I moved on to makeup. Using bits and pieces from Banner's book as
well as makeup artist Lisa Eldridge's book "Face Paint," I tried my best to recreate
a look that Marilyn and her makeup artist, Allan "Whitey" Snyder, would've done.
I went for a more full-coverage foundation,
one that still looks like skin, but is able to cover effectively. According to Dr. Banner, Marilyn had facial
hair she would've wanted to obscure, so I. Think a fuller-coverage foundation
would've been her go-to.
Then, once my base was on, I followed Eldridge's
lead and dusted a frosty white shadow all over my lid and onto my brow bone. Some taupe shadow was then buffed
into the crease for definition. Marilyn was the queen of sexy, sultry eye
makeup, and fluttery eyelashes were a mainstay in her look. She wore half sets on the outer third of her
eye to create an elongated shape, and followed up with brown not black eyeliner in
a slightly winged-out shape.
Now, here comes the tricky part. According to Eldridge, to create the illusion
of an intensely full upper lash line, Marilyn's makeup artist, Snyder, would draw a faux
shadow using brown eyeshadow on the star's bottom lash line. It took me a few tries, but I was really surprised
at how real this looks, especially in photos. The technique of tracing brown shadow on your
lower lash line then extending it slightly to create a shadow-like effect does make it
look like your eyelashes are larger than life.
That wasn't the only trick Marilyn
had up her sleeve, though. After filling in my eyebrows, I went in with
some matte contour powder, which Marilyn wore under her cheekbones and
down the sides of her nose. Marilyn had a couple of plastic
surgeries in her lifetime. According to Dr.
Banner, though, her nose
surgery wasn't all that successful, so Marilyn turned to contour powder to give her nose
the illusion of a higher bridge, not unlike the techniques makeup artists and their
celebrity clients do today. Once my face was contoured, I moved
on to blush and highlighter. I applied blush to the apples of my cheeks,
a touch on my forehead, and my nose, and then dusted some highlighter
on the high points of my cheeks. Then comes the fun part:
Marilyn's iconic red lip.
But, Marilyn didn't just apply it straight
from the bullet and call it a day. She often traced her lip line with a slightly
deeper red lip liner and layered lipstick overtop to create the illusion of
fuller and juicier lips. Marilyn wore a number of different red shades
in her lifetime, but Guerlain's Diabolique was one of her favorites. The shade still exists in the brand's KissKiss
range, but under a different name: Red Insolence.
And there you have it: Marilyn's iconic look. I finished it off with a bit of brown eyeliner
to mimic Marilyn's iconic beauty mark, and I was good to go. Through the research for this video, I started
to see just how much of an impact Marilyn Monroe has had on the beauty industry. Countless products are named after her, dozens
of tutorials crowd the internet, and even at Kristy's auction of Marilyn's belongings
in '99, her makeup bag sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Marilyn was a true beauty girl at heart. Her skincare and makeup knowledge alone proved
that she was super ahead of her time, but she wasn't without her insecurities. Marilyn clearly had a complicated
approach to beauty, and it's something that I still grapple with to this day. Ultimately, though, Marilyn Monroe was real,
and she was just like you or I.
I'm reminded of something Banner told me during
our conversation: that despite Marilyn's flaws, she was one of the most courageous
and ambitious women of her time. And that is something
we can all strive for. Thanks so much for watching guys, let me know
what other iconic beauty routines you think I should try by commenting down below. And click here to subscribe to Refinery29.
Click here to watch another video. And add me on Instagram @mianne.Chan! Thank you!.
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