Marilyn Monroe’s beauty secrets: The most surprising tips from Hollywood’s ultimate icon

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Everyone has a preferred beauty routine, whether it’s on the simpler side (say, lip balm and mascara) or a full-on ritual that rivals the likes of Kim Kardashian. Of course, the queen of #IDidNotWakeUpLikeThis was the ultimate blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe.

The star’s beauty routine was rumoured to be three hours long, which explains why her make up artist Allan ‘Whitey’ Snyder was one of her closest friends.  Monroe not only spent hours on her appearance, but she employed some seriously bizarre beauty hacks. For instance, she used to shock her system with ice baths to keep her skin tight and firm (hello, cryotherapy!) and wash her face four to five times a day out of fear of breakouts. This obsessive cleansing obviously caused extremely dry skin, so she would slather on coats of olive oil, Vaseline and Nivea face cream (the latter contributing to her famous glowing white skin). She was also known to sew marbles into her bra to ensure a permanent hard-nipple effect.

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Marilyn Monroe beauty secrets

Erno Laszlo, the go-to derm for Hollywood’s A-list at the time, created an iridescent gel infused with gemstones called Morning Beauty Rescue for the starlet. This little bottle allowed the bombshell to maintain her late night party antics while making sure she was camera-ready in the morning. Morning Beauty Rescue ($95, dermstore.com)