Dolly Parton Is Just A Girl

Dolly Parton doesn’t have any beauty regrets. That’s an especially inspiring sentiment, considering the 78-year-old has been through the wringer when it comes to criticism from the press (for decades, no less) about her appearance. “I probably should be embarrassed, but I don’t regret anything [beauty-related] I’ve ever done because everything has brought me to here,” she tells me over Zoom in her instantly recognizable Southern accent. “I’ll probably be doing something tomorrow that should embarrass me, but I’ll keep doing it.”

After speaking with her, I’ve realized that, at her core, the musician is just a girl like the rest of us who wants to feel pretty and enjoys playing with her hair and makeup.

It makes sense, then — perhaps more so than other stars in the industry — that Parton has joined the ranks of celebrity beauty brands with her own makeup line, Dolly Beauty, which launched over the summer. Through her offerings, which include mascara, lip liner, lip gloss, eyeliner, and fragrance, as well as the new Heaven’s Kiss Lipstick collection, the singer wants her shoppers to, well, feel pretty.

Ahead, Parton talks about foraging for makeshift makeup before she could buy cosmetics, the beauty tip she picked up from one of her sisters, and how her nieces influence her beauty routine.

I read that growing up, you weren’t allowed to wear makeup, so you would forage for things in nature you could use for a pigment instead. Do you remember the first time you were actually able to buy makeup for yourself?

Probably the first time I bought any makeup for myself was after I started singing on a local TV show and a radio show in Knoxville. Well, it wasn’t local; it was about 40 miles away. I got a job singing there when I was a little kid in the summers, and I started making a little bit of money of my own. One of the first things I wanted to do was buy makeup. So that’s the first time that I really got to buy a real tube of lipstick of my own and a little compact of powder.

Speaking of lipsticks, you’ve just launched a collection of them. What does lipstick mean to you?

We all talk through our mouths, [and] everybody notices your mouth. I think most women that don’t even wear a lot of makeup, if they got on a little lipstick, they feel like they’ve got a little color in their face. But I just think it’s sensual and sexy, and I think it’s just pretty.

How has your approach to beauty changed over the years?

Well, a lot because I’m able to buy more of it, so therefore I wear more of it. And the older I get, the more of it I wear. But I’ve always loved makeup. Even like as you mentioned, when I was a little kid, I was always trying to find medicines that would stain, like merthiolate or mercurochrome. I’d put them on my lips so they wouldn’t come off and act like it was my natural color. Of course, it couldn’t be rubbed off.

My grandpa was a preacher, so he didn’t think that I should be wearing makeup at all. But when I got to where I could actually wear my makeup, I just started wearing whatever felt right on me.

I love making my eyes up more. I’m like an artist, like a kid with paints and crayons. I love to try new makeup, new colors, new designs. And I just love lining my lips this way one day and then being a little bold the next.

Using makeup is really like making art.

Yeah, it is artistic, especially the way you put it on. But I wear basically the same makeup during the day as nighttime. I just get up in the morning, put the makeup on, and just touch it up throughout the day.

If I’m doing something at night, like a show or something, I’ll often wear glitter and more shadows, and put a little shine here and there that I wouldn’t normally during the day.

When you’re just relaxing at home alone, do you like to wear makeup?

I do. It makes me feel better all day. Sometimes when I’m on a writing binge, I’ll have makeup on to start with, but I don’t worry about it after that. So, there are times when I’m not conscious of it or dwelling on the fact that “Oh, I should get up and put on some makeup.”

If I’m going to go outside the house, I will definitely wear makeup. And usually, if I’m not writing, I’ll get up, put on my makeup, and fix my hair a little bit. Even if I’m off that day, I never know who’s going to come to my door, and I don’t want to go to the door looking like a hag.

What is your go-to makeup look?

Well, I do my foundation. I always put that on. I put on a little blush, but I use different moisturizers. It just depends on what I’ve used through the years that still works for me. Eventually, I will have my own line of everything. We’re starting slow and building on up. But I just feel like I have to start with my foundation and get on with it.

Is there a beauty trend right now that you love?

I’m always looking for whatever’s new, and I can do that through my nieces. I have so many beautiful nieces, and they’re really into makeup. They’re always bringing me something and saying “Have you tried this? You have to try that.” But I’m one of those people that every now and then, I’ll see something they’re using and I think, “Yeah, I think I am going to try that.”

In fact, I have some of that on right now — some of the shadows that one of my nieces who likes to really dress up, even almost drag-queen-y the way she loves to wear her makeup, brought me. She learned from me, I think. But anyhow, if they’ve got something that I’m fascinated with, I’ll try it for myself. And if I don’t like it, then I’ll go back to doing what I’m used to using.

I’ve read that you’re close to your sisters. Are there any beauty tips that you guys have swapped over the years?

Absolutely, if any of us find some great makeup or some new trick that one of us might’ve read in a beauty book. I curl my eyelashes, and I sometimes wear false eyelashes also, and once my sister Cassie said, “If you take your candle and hold your eyelash curler over it for a little bit and let it get warm, it really, really bends the eyelashes, and they stay like that all day.”

Never do I curl my lashes that I don’t think of my sister Cassie. And I always thank her, too, because that was one of the best beauty hints that I ever got. [My sisters and I] are always giving each other little hints like that.

I love that. I also read that you once entered a Dolly look-alike contest and lost to a drag queen. What are some makeup tips you’ve gotten from drag queens?

Back when I started wearing all the makeup and flashy clothes, all the rhinestone chiffons, a lot of drag queens were dressing like me. And the contest I lost was one year in California — I was living up on the hill above Santa Monica Boulevard where there were a lot of gay clubs. The particular year that I went in to do that, I just exaggerated my own look. I entered that contest just for fun ’cause you got free drinks. These drag queens all had beautiful makeup — I’ve always picked up hints and ideas from them through the years, as they have me.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.