Like many beauty stories, mine begins with Marilyn Monroe. Starting with her ample peach fuzz, which she embraced for its flattering effect on camera. She slathered petroleum jelly under her makeup and was partial to rich, heavy creams. As someone with PCOS-induced facial hair and a lifelong fondness for Vaseline-adjacent occlusives to seal in every last drop of moisture, I was curious—did Marilyn and I have something in common?
Monroe removed her makeup religiously with Pond’s Cold Cream. That’s all the endorsement I needed before I was scanning the shelves of my drugstore, unearthing a jar from the dusty recesses. For $8.99, I was the owner of American cosmetic history.
