Beauty Icon of the Week

Its only fitting that the first Beauty Icon of the Week is Ms. Lana Turner. She graces the background of this webpage in a still from the film noir classic, The Postman Always Rings Twice. The ultimate femme fatale, she radiated attitude onscreen and glamour off.

Some Lana Turner beauty tidbits:

• Her hair was naturally auburn until, when auditioning for a role in 1939's Idiots Delight she dyed it platinum. She didn't get the role but she kept the hair color. 
• Early in her career she shaved off her eyebrows for a role as a harem girl and they never properly grew back. She had to draw or paste them on for the rest of her life.
• When Eva Peron changed her image upon entering the political spotlight she modeled her new look after Lana Turner.
• Lana was rumored to have owned almost 700 pairs of shoes in a room where they lined the walls floor to ceiling and were accessed by a library ladder!
• According to legend, when a fire broke out in her apartment she grabbed only what she thought essential: lipstick, eyebrow pencil, and a hairdryer. 
• She exfoliated her skin with Boraxo Powdered Hand Soap once a week and followed with Nivea Cream.
• Her favorite fragrance was L'Air du Temps.

 Get Lana's makeup look after the jump!

To get Lana's signature makeup look:

• Start with a matte, even-toned foundation followed by translucent powder.
• Use a soft, neutral blush (such as Nars' Douceur) to sweep blush in the hollows of the cheeks.
• Apply a nude or light beige eyeshadow (such as Stila's Dune) on the eyelid and up into the crease.
• Using a darker shade (such as Stila's Rain) slightly deepen the shadow in crease, lightly sweeping up onto the part of the brow bone just underneath the inner corner of your eyebrows (see photos: Lana always had a dark shadow in the inner corners of her brow bone due to her amazing bone structure and possibly because her eyebrows were drawn on slightly above where they would have naturally been).
• Apply an off-white eyeshadow (such as Maybelline's Linen) to highlight the outer brow bone, inner corners of the eyelids, and the tops of the cheekbones.
• Carefully fill the brows with a light brown pencil (such as N.Y.C. in Taupe), drawing a long, thin line with a round arch and focusing on the highest points of your natural browline to give the illusion of Lana's perpetually raised eyebrows. This is a key part of her look.
• Using a black or dark eyeshadow (such as MAC's Carbon) draw a thin line as close to the lash line as possible across the entire top lid, winging it out very slightly at the outer corners.
• Curl lashes with an eyelash curler and apply Black Mascara (such as Covergirl LashBlast Fusion) to the top lashes only. 
• Line the lips with a red pencil liner (such as Maybelline Moisture Extreme in Red). Make sure to draw only rounded arches (it was the fashion) to make very voluptuous lips. Carefully apply a classic red lipstick (such as MAC's Russian Red). Blot and reapply.
• Optional steps: Line the bottom waterline of the eye with a nude or white waterproof eyeliner (such as Tarte EmphasEYES Inner Rim Brightener) to open the eye up and make it pop.  Apply false lash strips to the upper lash line (Lana certainly did!) for extra va-va-voom!