Makeup artist and historian Erin Parsons sent me a mysterious email last week. “I wanted to let you know first that I’m breaking a big story,” she shared cryptically. “It’s a big story on Marilyn Monroe’s missing lipstick. I can’t say much else now, but curious if you are interested in this?”
My answer, from both a personal and professional point of view, was a big yes.
Yesterday, Parsons took to TikTok to share the sordid story behind Monroe’s signature red lip. “In December 1987, in Los Angeles, friends dedicated a time capsule to Marilyn Monroe,” she begins. Artifacts inside the vessel, created by artist and sculptor Bill Mack, included a mink cap owned by the actor and a lock of her hair, all meant to be unearthed on August 5, 2062—the 100th anniversary of Monroe’s tragic death.
On the day the capsule was set to be buried, Monroe’s longtime makeup artist, Allan “Whitey” Snyder, also added something to the collection: a tube of her lipstick. “Whitey’s contribution to the event was a red lipstick used to make up Marilyn’s body in death,” Parson says, reading from a newspaper clipping. “He told the gathering that he had used this red color for half her career and that he had specially made it for her.”
Of course, we all know about Monroe’s singular beauty look: perfectly curled bob, a sultry cat eye, and a bright red pout. It’s something Gabriela Hernandez, founder of Bésame Cosmetics, recreated in her 2021 limited-edition collection dedicated to the actor, producing a true red meant to exactly match the shade worn by Monroe as Sugar Kane in Some Like It Hot. (The color was aptly named “Some Like It (red) Hot.”)
But Monroe’s time capsule was never buried—instead, according to Parsons, it was actually stolen.
To find out what happened, Parsons reached out to the three living people who had been part of the project. First, Hollywood Heritage’s archivist Richard Adkins described the entire event as “not a happy story.”
Parsons then spoke to the event’s publicist, Chris Harris, before coming to her conclusion: “I’m not accusing Bill Mack of having the lipstick, but some others are, and I’m going to show you all of the evidence that I found.”
Hear all the (rather compelling!) proof in her video, below.
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