More Monica: The Look Behind the Book

The phone rang last week--the caller was a self-described “old broad from the Valley.” Of all the things she’s seen in her life, she never thought she’d find herself glued to the TV set watching ABC’s “20/20” with Barbara Walters interviewing presidential gal-pal Monica Lewinsky. Was her foremost thought outrage? Horror? No, all she wanted to know was where Lewinsky got her lipstick.

We reported last week that Lewinsky wore Club Monaco Glaze lipstick sold only at Club Monaco stores (there are two in Los Angeles). Asked how the lipstick sales were going, a Club Monaco spokesman said the Canadian company was too busy with the upcoming merger with Polo/Ralph Lauren “to discuss anything to do with Monica.”

Of course, a lot of you are more serious, eschewing TV news in favor of books and magazines. So we found out who did Monica’s hair and makeup for the photographs featured in her book “Monica’s Story” (St. Martin’s Press).

To achieve Monica’s cover look, New York stylist Harry King used three products--Kiehl’s Shine and Light--”It took away the puffiness”; KMS Pomade, “which made it very glossy, not greasy”; and, while blow-drying, Biomedic’s the Big Blow-Off. King, who has styled for Vogue and 80 covers of Cosmopolitan, said the look was achieved with a blow dryer, not a flattening iron, which was used for “20/20” by another stylist.

The cover, King said, “was very personal. . . . I wanted her to look very normal and not too fashiony.”

Makeup artist Tatijana Suljic-Shoan of New York used her own product line, Noah, to achieve a timeless look for Monica’s face.

“The look I was looking for was something very, very sleek and fresh, timeless and ageless.”

Suljic-Shoan said she didn’t want to overplay Lewinsky’s features. The makeup artist went for a natural brow, just getting rid of a few strays, and used black mascara in between the lashes. She also used a concealer around the mouth, colored the lips with a liner and blended in some gloss. The result, she said, was “a very, very serious, beautiful picture of Monica.”