Beauty Can Be a Pain

Today's beauty standards laud sprayed-on sunshine, instant Rapunzel-length manes and solid walls of thick black lashes.  These are easy, painless and usually immediate fixes.  But things weren't always so easy for those setting the glamour standard.

Here are a few examples of how the Tinsel Town beauties of old had to suffer (or at least, alter) and certainly work for their art:

• Perhaps most famous is gorgeous Rita Hayworth's hairline raise (via electrolysis) as mandated by Fox Studios
• Louis B. Mayer commanded svelte Swedish beauty Greta Garbo to have her hairline and teeth fixed and to lose weight!
• Joan Crawford underwent plastic surgery and is said to have slept nightly with her face secured with surgical tape, and started her days by immersing that same face into a a bowl of ice and water
• Bette Davis also used tape to gift her face a lift.  Plus, she 'colored outside the lines' when applying lipstick in order to feign a fuller mouth. In her later years she resorted to cosmetic surgery as well
• Norma Jean Baker changed more than her name.  The iconic Miss Monroe reportedly went under the knife to improve her chin and nose.

On the less invasive and much pleasanter side, here are a few tricks des femmes to make you feel fabulous:

• Take an ice bath laden with some classic Chanel No. 5
• The old cucumber on the eyes de-puff trick
• Homemade facial masks using vitamin-rich ingredients such as avocado and eggs
• Pond's Cold Cream - still receiving rave reviews from the entertainment industries youthful beauties
• Be a flake - exfoliate
• le French manicure
• This page boasts a bevy of home beauty tricks

Who is your icon for classic beauty?  This fun little quiz will help you identify your inner screen goddess.   Come and share your results on our Red Boa Facebook page.