Elizabeth Taylor had bizarre last step in her glam routine — and it worked like magic
Elizabeth Taylor had bizarre last step in her glam routine — and it worked like magic
Rance CollinsSun, September 27, 2026 at 8:28 PM UTC
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Elizabeth Taylor in 1955Credit: Silver Screen Collection/GettyKey Points -
Elizabeth Taylor had an unusual process for getting ready, her former attorney Barbara Berkowitz said.
A bath was the A Place in the Sun star’s last step in her glam routine.
Berkowitz also shared that Taylor’s greatest flaw was her notorious tardiness.
Elizabeth Taylor got ready in atypical fashion, almost backwards.
“I’d call going, ‘How’s she doing? How’s she doing?’ And they’d go, ‘Okay, she’s in the bath,’” shared her attorney Barbara Berkowitz in an interview with PEOPLE. “Well, you would think that she’s just starting her process. Fascinating to me, her bath was the last thing she did because it set her makeup.”
As explained on the late Giant star’s official website, “Once her makeup was done, Elizabeth would take a quick bath, using the steam to set her face.”
Taylor with her first Academy Award in 1961Credit: Archive Photos/Getty
“She embraced dewy skin long before it became a trend that folks with oily skin had been waiting on forever,” the site continues. “This unique makeup setting practice, along with a sheer foundation to let her freckles show through and a matte grey cake eyeliner for a subtle pop may as well have been the original ‘no makeup makeup’ look.”
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“So she’d get out, put on her jewelry, put on her clothes, and out the door,” Berkowitz added. “Her hair was done, her makeup was done. It was very fast after that.”
Taylor in 2003Credit: J. Vespa/WireImage
According to Berkowitz, other makeup artists would sometimes work on Taylor, but “she absolutely did her own makeup the best.”
As perfectly set as her makeup might have been, Berkowitz does admit that the two-time Oscar-winning star was not without her flaws.
“The only thing that I think with Elizabeth that would drive me insane was the tardiness, which people would comment on,” she revealed. “I don’t know how her getting-ready team... I would’ve had an ulcer, let me put it that way.”
But Taylor was in on the joke, and being late was even among her last wishes. Her 2011 memorial service started 15 minutes after its announced start time as a cheeky wink at her notorious tardiness.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
