Old School Beauty Tips From Grace Kelly You Can Still Use Today

Grace Kelly's timeless beauty remains an inspiration today. The iconic 1950s movie star who later became Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco captured an old-Hollywood glamour that fans today can replicate. She wasn't one for heavy makeup or extreme beauty practices; instead, she leaned towards understated elegance and simple tricks to stay radiant. 

For modern acolytes of Kelly's timeless beauty, the less-is-more philosophy works well as a guiding compass. Radiant skin, a combination of dewy and matte textures, is right up Kelly's alley. Similarly, learning how to nail the anti-foundation makeup look to allow skin to breathe is another philosophy of Kelly's. She wasn't a fan of thick foundations. The same goes for eye makeup. Kelly kept things natural and understated, practicing the "clean girl" makeup mindset before the term was popularized. 

Kelly's radiance also had to do with her love for movement; she played tennis, rode horses, and swam. She loved walking in nature as a way to ground herself, so a key part of Kelly's beauty came from within. But she was also fastidious about external details, which are delightful to replicate. So with Kelly's subtle beauty practices at the helm, it's time to dig into her effective but understated beauty practices. 

While Grace Kelly favored simplicity in her beauty regimen, she also understood the impact of a red lip. For reference, there are ways to find your perfect lipstick based on your skin tone to offer a guide to finding the ideal red tone. Kelly nailed her exact shade and could rock a bold lip when she wanted to. 

The story goes that Dior gave Kelly a gift of 14 lipsticks, but she gravitated towards the shade Rouge Dior 999. The color was created in 1953 and is still a top seller today. This shade became Kelly's signature, and it packed a punch. Rouge Dior 999 is a cool-tone red with blue undertones, which worked well on Kelly because she had a cool, fair undertone. Fans of Kelly's films will notice that when the star wore red lipstick, she went minimal with the rest of her makeup. She didn't apply heavy eye makeup and even went light on blush, allowing the lip to remain the focal point of her look. 

Long before contouring became the ubiquitous makeup hack it is today, old Hollywood stars understood the subtle techniques required to add sculpted shadow to the face. Grace Kelly famously used two blush tones to create added dimension to her cheeks, and the rumor is that she always carried these two blushes in her bag for touch-ups on the go. 

Kelly began with a darker blush and applied it just below her cheekbones. Celebrity makeup artist Genn Shaughnessy explained the color choice with Woman's World. "Lighter or fair skin tones like Kelly's tend to have more blue or cool undertones and should look for pastel, classic pinks, light mauves or even light plums," Shaughnessy said. For those with darker complexions who want to recreate the look, Shaughnessy added, "Medium skin tones are warmer with red undertones and pair perfectly with peach, darker corals, and light reds. In contrast, darker skin tones absorb color faster and need deeper shades like berry, wine, brick red, or terracotta to stand out." Kelly then applied the second blush, a much lighter pink, to the apples of her cheeks for a fresh, healthy glow.

Grace Kelly relied on Dr. Erno Laszlo's skincare regimen to achieve her flawless complexion. He was a Hungarian-American dermatologist who opened an exclusive office in New York in 1939 and accumulated a host of A-list clientele, from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn and Kelly herself. Laszlo pioneered the double-cleanse regime and Kelly practiced this herself. This involved applying a botanical oil to dry skin to dissolve SPF and makeup. Without rinsing the oil off, this first cleanse was followed by a cleansing bar with warm water. 

Part of this cleansing process included Laszlo's signature splashing technique. He advised clients to fill their sink with hot water, wet the bar of soap in the water, and splash their faces 20 times. Following this, they then splashed their face another 10 times with hot water from the tap and gently dried off with a towel. Kelly also famously loved Laszlo's Phormula 3-9 Repair Cream. While the formula has since been updated to the new Phormula 3-10 Skin Repair, it's clear that Kelly was a skincare girl at heart.

While Grace Kelly wasn't one for dramatic makeup or complicated beauty routines, she did understand that beauty involved all of the senses. This is why she was so invested in fragrance, and it became her invisible accessory. When she was a working actor, Kelly wore Chateau Krigler 12, with top notes of Mimosa and Lily-of-the-valley and base notes of almond and mild musk. In fact, Kelly was wearing this fragrance the night she won an Academy Award for her role in "The Country Girl" in 1955. 

But Kelly's scent evolved with big milestones in her life. According to the Monte Carlo Times, Kelly loved Creed Fleurissimo, a scent made by the House of Creed specifically for her 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Touchingly, the signature scent was actually ordered by her husband. "Prince Rainier III would commission the House of Creed to create a perfume to complement her wedding bouquet," Claudia Poccia, CEO of Grace de Monaco, explained to NewBeauty. "Fleurissimo, an elegant blend of bergamot, tuberose, iris, and Bulgarian rose, is forever intertwined with their timeless love story." While Kelly's signature fragrance changed with her marriage, she understood that there was a memorable impact involved with wearing the same scent.