There are few women whose beauty legacy has transcended generations quite like Marilyn Monroe. The platinum waves, the diffused red lip, the unmistakable luminosity, Marilyn was never simply glamorous, she was cinematic. A woman who understood the power of beauty as performance, softness and self-expression all at once.
Now, Lisa Eldridge revisits that mythology through a collection that feels less like a collaboration and more like a beautifully preserved love letter to Marilyn herself. Created in partnership with the Marilyn Monroe Estate to mark the centenary of her birth, the Lisa Eldridge x Marilyn Monroe Makeup Collection reimagines the actress through a softer, more intimate lens.
Rather than leaning into the exaggerated Hollywood caricature so often attached to Monroe, Eldridge instead focuses on the woman behind the image. The collection draws inspiration from an off-duty Marilyn photographed during summers spent away from the scrutiny of Los Angeles, windswept in the Hamptons, relaxed, radiant and entirely herself.
“My aim when creating this collection was to honour Marilyn’s creative artistry with authenticity and respect,” Eldridge explains. It’s an approach that feels evident throughout every detail of the edit, from the carefully reconstructed lipstick tones to the glowing skin products designed to recreate what many described as Marilyn’s ability to “light up a room.”
At the heart of the collection sits Elevated Glow Balm Concentrate, a molten highlighter inspired by classic Hollywood lighting techniques. Available in Butterfly Light, a pearlescent champagne, and High-Key Light, a warm bronze, the formulas melt into the skin with the kind of expensive-looking luminosity that has become synonymous with Eldridge’s artistry.
The lip collection is where the emotional storytelling truly unfolds.
Norma Jeane, named after Marilyn’s birth name, arrives as a vibrant red-orange lipstick housed inside elegant refillable packaging. Amagansett, a cooler carnation pink, references the secluded summer Monroe spent in the Hamptons in 1957, a chapter of her life often associated with rare moments of calm and privacy away from Hollywood.
Elsewhere, Strawberry Blonde Velveteen offers a modern interpretation of Marilyn’s iconic scarlet lip, designed to blur from a sheer strawberry stain into a full vintage Hollywood red. The collection is completed with Gloss Embrace lip glosses, lip pencils and Kitten Lash Mascara, each carefully curated to evoke Monroe’s signature beauty wardrobe without ever feeling costume-like.
What makes this collaboration particularly compelling is its restraint. In a beauty landscape saturated with fast-moving celebrity launches and nostalgia-driven marketing, Eldridge approaches Monroe with reverence rather than spectacle. The imagery itself reflects this sensibility, favouring candid, sunlit portraits over overt glamour, allowing Marilyn’s warmth and magnetism to take centre stage once again.
The result is a collection that feels timeless rather than trend-led. Not simply a recreation of Marilyn Monroe’s makeup bag, but a modern interpretation of the femininity, confidence and sensuality she embodied so effortlessly.
For collectors, beauty obsessives and lifelong admirers of Marilyn alike, this may be one of the year’s most beautiful collaborations.
