Before there was Michelle Phan, there was Joan Collins. The actress, famous for her glamorous role as Alexis Carrington in the '80s soap opera Dynasty, penned helpful how-to books, such as The Joan Collins Beauty Book, Joan's Way: Looking Good, Feeling Great, and Health, Youth and Happiness: My Secrets.
In order to promote these titles (based on the blush application, our best guess is that this was for her first, published in 1980), Collins appeared bare-faced for the cameras on TV host Michael Parkinson's special, "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Joan Collins."
"I do [my makeup] myself," she tells Parkinson. "I like to allow a half an hour to do it properly, but if push came to shove and I had to do it fast, I could do it in this amount of time." (Her total amount of minutes clocked for a full, glam face? 14 minutes.)
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
You can watch as she uses paintbrushes — yes, from the art store — to fill in her eyes with shades of gold and purple before finally bestowing herself with that shock of '80s "blusher." She is, throughout the entire video, an absolute marvel to behold. And, she's incredibly charming on top of it all.
"I think a lot of women get into a thing of finding a makeup style that suits them...and they stick to it, and a great many women get stuck in what they consider to be their prime, which I suppose is their mid-20s," Collins says, adequately describing the beauty rut that still exists for many women nearly 40 years later.
If there's anything we can learn from the actress — beyond using brow pencil to make our lips look fuller — it's that beauty can adapt and become utterly timeless. Much like Collins herself. Watch, and prepare to be hypnotized.
Like this post? There's more. Get tons of beauty tips, tutorials, and news on the Refinery29 Beauty Facebook page!