The Marilyn Monroe Look

I'd love to see the red dot technique on a real person. Please, some brave soul who doesn't mind an extreme close-up, show us!

Miss_Bella_Hell said:

I'd love to see the red dot technique on a real person. Please, some brave soul who doesn't mind an extreme close-up, show us!

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Give me an hour of two-- I've got some sewing to do-- and I'll get my makeup on and show you ladies a picture

maggiethespy said:

We used to use the red-dot trick in our stage makeup when I was a ballet dancer. It keeps you from looking cross eyed from far away, and I suppose it helps on camera, too, especially the older cameras that don't have auto-correct and red-eye out functions. I'm sure it really helped back before Photoshop. There is probably another reason to do it, but we just didn't want to look cross-eyed from the mezzanine.

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My mother was also a ballet dancer back in the late 50's early 60's (in her childhood to mid-teens) and they also put red dots on the corner of the dancers eyes. It also makes ones eyes look father apart, thus sort of "doe eyed" and I'm sure the it helped the cross-eyed look too

As for Marilyn, one of my makeup artist acquaintances grandmother did Marilyn's makeup on occasion (She has a great picture of her mother as a child sitting on Marilyn's lap when her grandmother was doing her makeup for an event). So I can tell you there's nothing super mystical about Marilyn's makeup She was a gorgeous gal with beautiful bone structure. Here is what I can gather from viewing the pictures:

*As someone mentioned before, pearly light beige shade for browbone and eyelid as well as in the inner corners of the eye

*A matte medium taupe shade in crease to create definition as well as to make the light beige shade on the brow bone and lid "pop"

*At least two pairs of false lashes. One pair to go all the way across to make the lashes look longer, and another pair that is just for the outer corner (like these http://www.lauramercier.com/products/tools/accessories/faux_eyelashes/corner_faux_eyelashes/) to give that extra oomph at the outer corner.

*A dash of liquid liner flicked out at the corners to give a lift

*White eyeliner pencil in the inner rim (also helps to make the eyes look rounder and larger)

*As someone mentioned, matte light taupe shadow under the outer lash line to create a fake shadow thus making the eyes look even larger and rounder.

*The pictures shown do not feature any type of pink or red blush at all (These pictures, not all of them. I don't want to offend anyone who uses blush to emulate the look!) Her face is actually contoured with what can be compared to as matte bronzer placed at her temples, the high part of her cheekbones, underneath her cheek bones and a little on her jaw. Bronzer or even darker powder is applied this way to make a face look sculpted.

*One could add a little bit of highlighting powder down the bridge of the nose, under the eyes (with a blush brush so that it catches some of the front part of the cheek) and on the tip of the chin to emulate natural highlights that photographic lighting gives.

*I would say a couple of different reds mixed with a light pearly white/ivory lipgloss added just to the center of the lips to make them look pouty. I would also line lips with a nude (yes, nude) liner. It's hard to perfectly match a red liner to a lipstick and the nude will help to keep the lipstick from traveling into those little lines that surround the mouth.

*Can't forget the beauty mark A long lasting option is to use a liquid liner. Just a dab and that's all you need.

*Be careful not to overdraw the brows and use a light taupey blond brow pencil to "shape" the brows and a golden brow powder to fill them in.

*Phew* Sorry that was so long! Best of luck on the costume!!

For a costume, it's enough to have blonde, short curly hair and red lipstick, trust me........... (I get called Marilyn all the time.... )



Naama

:eusa_clap Gotta love Rebecca!!
Just wanted to add the red dot is meant to make the whites of the eyes look whiter as well.

PS said:

:eusa_clap Gotta love Rebecca!!
Just wanted to add the red dot is meant to make the whites of the eyes look whiter as well.

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Awww your sweet *kisses*

Who would have thought there would be so many benefits to having a red dot next to your eye?

Alright, I followed the tutorial to the best of my abilites, and this is what I came up with:

Here are my eyes from a (slight) distance:


And here is a close-up of the red dot. My eyes are blue, but they look totally green here!:


Here are a couple of shots of my full face:
(as you can see, it looks like I have a milk moustache because I didn't blend the white line on my lip well.)


I have lipstick on my teeth here. Shame on me!


And, my "Black Dahlia" hair:

the red dot looks surprisingly good, it seems to make the shape of the eye slightly more pronounced and feline.

Say, that red dot seems to work well! I may try this. *ponders*

I guees everyone is talking about this article?
http://getglamorous.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-do-marilyn-monroe-makeup-step-by.html

Here's a great video tutorial showing how you create that bottom liner shadow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkDjC-O55BE

Sydney Loren said:

I read that she used to put gold eyeshadow lightly over her eyeliner because it's supposed to give your eyes a little something special, which I have repeated and found that it works out pretty well.

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I read that, too!

"Above the thin line of brown on the upper lid, Marilyn always had an even thinner line of gold liner. Make sure to make the thinnest of lines or it will look obvious and tacky, instead of glamorous."

What product could I use for that? Would MAC Retrospeck work?

Retrospeck may work, depending on the color of your skin. I know on some women it is very gold, some very yellow and on some others it can be a silver-ish. Just go try and report back!

Oh I will! The texture is horrible to work with I have to admit, but I think it is such a classy champagne - gold shade.