Helen Gurley Brown on Makeup

That fabulous face...can you achieve it by being very, very clever with make-up?


I don't think there's even a prayer!

The even-featured, alabaster-skinned, meltingly, gaspingly beautiful beauty men go to pieces over can't be achieved with make-up, prayer, incantations or sending your face back to the factory!

You can have something else with make-up...an interesting face, an alive face, a sexy face. ...

You don't have to lie your head off and say I am, I am, I am when you know damn well you aren't—a stunner. But you must love yourself enough to employ every device...voice, words, clothes, figure, make-up...to become one. ...

Nearly every woman is part-beauty. She has one good feature even if it's just smooth elbows. You play up that feature. You draw a face on the elbow with little eyes and a mouth. (I'm kidding!)



—Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown, 1962