What do Marilyn Monroe, celluloid powder and cosmetics dating back to the 17th century have in common? They can now be found under one digital roof.
Makeup artist and beauty historian Erin Parsons has launched The Makeup Archive, an online museum dedicated to preserving the history of cosmetics. At makeuparchive.org the collection showcases more than 1,500 beauty items Parsons has amassed over the past decade.
Among its standout pieces is a Max Factor lipstick once owned by Marilyn Monroe, which Parsons purchased at an online auction for more than US$15,000. The archive also includes 1920s Schuco animal compacts, early predecessors of modern false lashes and 1960s Revlon Couturine Lipstick Dolls.
Among its most notable pieces is a Max Factor lipstick once belonging to Marilyn Monroe, which Parsons acquired at an online auction for more than US$15,000. The archive also includes 1920s Schuco animal compacts, predecessors of modern false lashes and Revlon Couturine Lipstick Dolls from the 1960s.
Parsons, who has worked with stars including Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Gisele Bündchen, is known for using social media to surface lesser-known stories from makeup history. The Makeup Archive extends that work into a public digital resource for makeup artists, beauty enthusiasts, consumers and brands.
Beyond cosmetics, the site hosts a library of hundreds of beauty books, including Kevyn Aucoin’s Making Faces, Denise Nicholas’s Beauty Book and Sally Pointer’s The Artifice of Beauty.
The archive also presents curated exhibitions, with selected products photographed and styled by photographer Vanessa Granda and set designer Matt Cullen, turning vintage cosmetics into objects of visual and historical interest.
The Makeup Archive operates as a nonprofit organisation and aims to become a permanent institution dedicated to beauty history. While previous makeup museum projects have appeared in New York, none has established a permanent physical home.
Parsons hopes to eventually change that by opening a physical museum in New York, complete with exhibitions, artist-led workshops and programmes supporting the wider beauty community.
For now, The Makeup Archive offers a digital time capsule of beauty history, bringing beauty items of the past century into one accessible collection, online.
