Beautiful and bedazzling are just some of the words you could use to describe Old Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor. Although she rose to the pinnacle of Hollywood for her acting skills in “Cleopatra” and “BUtterfield 8”, she was also renowned for her outstanding beauty. And while there are several ways to bring Elizabeth Taylor’s Old Hollywood glamour to your outfits, we doubt there could be anything better than to emulate the five-time Oscar nominee’s tried-and-true beauty tips and include them in your own beauty routine.
Elizabeth Taylor definitely had many different beauty tricks up her sleeve from her many years as a silver screen staple. From careful, routine exfoliation to skipping out on conditioner entirely, the “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” star knew what worked best for her and took great pride in the fantastic results she got. And since some of these are quite easy and cost-effective to pull off, there’s no harm in trying out beauty advice from one of the most beautiful women of her era.
One of Elizabeth Taylor’s most alluring physical qualities was her uniquely violet eyes. It’s no wonder, then, that the star knew just how to make them stand out. And as someone who is credited for pulling off one of the most stunning Old Hollywood eyeliner looks, she certainly knew what she was doing. While Taylor did use eyeliner to accentuate her eyes, she actually went for a Clinique eyeliner in a matte gray instead of a standard black shade. “It was a cake and you had to wet the brush with water and soften the cake and apply it, like the old-fashioned type of eyeliner,” Tim Mendelsohn, once-personal assistant and close friend to the late star, revealed to The Hollywood Reporter, “I think she was just used to using it. Why change?”
There’s certainly some wisdom in not changing what’s already worked for you before. After becoming famous for her her stunning eyeliner look in “Cleopatra,” though, the actor actually steered clear of fake eyelashes and mascara rather than going in on other eye products. According to Mendelsohn, Taylor had no need for them in the first place when her natural lashes were already so voluminous. “She had a double row of lashes,” Mendelsohn said. “She was born with it.”
Just because Elizabeth Taylor was an A-list actor with a high-flying, extremely successful career, doesn’t mean she often wore the most expensive skincare products available. In fact, the “Suddenly, Last Summer” star was an ardent user of cost-effective brands, particularly loving the Jergens lotion. “She put cream on but she didn’t use fancy brands,” Tim Mendelsohn said to The Hollywood Reporter. He also added that Taylor would use DIY methods such as applying tea bags to her eyes, which is purported to be able to diminish the appearance of dark circles. However, Taylor did splurge from time to time, and absolutely loved Elizabeth Arden’s famed Eight Hour Cream.
Taylor also took further steps to ensure her skin was always smooth and glowing. In a method we understand as dermaplaning, Taylor would carefully and delicately shear away the surface of her skin, presumably with the use of a clean razor. It would explain how the actor could look so flawless and impeccable whenever the cameras started rolling, as dermaplaning could help resurface the skin and leave behind a more rejuvenated, clearer complexion.
For Elizabeth Taylor, another non-negotiable aspect of her makeup routine was her lips. The three-time Golden Globe winner favored a glossy lip rather than a matte one. She outlined her lips before using lip glosses or lipsticks with a shiny finish to do the job. But according to Taylor’s makeup artist, Francesca Tolot, the silver screen icon was quite particular about which beauty brands she trusted to execute her preferred lip look.
Although she loved lip glosses by brands like Chanel and YSL, Taylor could never go without an Elizabeth Arden lipstick in her makeup kit. In fact, Tolot remembered just how much Taylor loved and relied on the product. “I remember she was using a lot of Elizabeth Arden lipsticks,” Tolot recounted to The Hollywood Reporter, adding that Taylor had an enviable archive of lipsticks in general.
If you prefer having larger-than-life, voluminous hair, then this beauty trick from Elizabeth Taylor will be perfect for you. She avoided using conditioner in her hair routine, believing that the product would be too heavy for her hair, weigh it down, and make it look limp and lifeless. “Because obviously she liked big hair,” Tim Mendelsohn recounted fondly to The Hollywood Reporter. But leave-in conditioners and the formulations of hair conditioning products today would possibly have suited Taylor’s hair preferences.
Aside from removing conditioner from her regimen, Taylor also had one, slightly unique step she’d always do at the end of her makeup routine. After she applied the finishing touches to her face, the two-time Oscar winner would run a bath and hop in. In lieu of setting powder or spray, Taylor used the humidity and steam from her bath to fix her makeup in place while leaving a natural, glowy finish. That’s certainly one creative way to make your makeup last without shelling out more money for additional products.
