Dolly Parton never does anything small. The glitter-drenched, rhinestone-wearing, acrylic nail-harmonizing country music legend has a big voice, a big heart, and even bigger hair to match. Her larger-than-life style is as much a part of her brand as her music. So, when Parton announced Dolly Beauty, her new makeup line, this past summer, it was beyond exciting — and that’s saying a lot, especially in an oversaturated sea of celebrity beauty brands. The timing of Dolly Beauty couldn’t have been better, with the holidays around the corner. After all (with respect to fellow icon Mariah Carey), Parton is a Christmas queen herself, as evidenced by her multiple Christmas movies, albums, and TV specials. If there’s one season where Parton really shines (both literally and figuratively), it’s Christmas.
Parton loves the holiday season so much she puts her decorations up on Thanksgiving and doesn’t take them down until after her birthday on Jan. 19. “Going all the way back to the 1960s, I’ve loved dressing up in ‘Santa Claus drag,’ she wrote in her 2023 book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. “For some people, in fact, I’ve become synonymous with Christmas — which makes me very happy.” Her “Santa drag” includes various red and white jumpsuits by Lucy Adams, one of her very first costume designers, as well as the Academy Award-winning costume designer Ann Roth, who worked with Parton on the 1980 film 9 to 5.
The Santa suits are pulled out of storage during “Cookie Night,” one of the long-standing family traditions that Parton keeps every Christmas. Dressed as “Granny Claus,” she bakes cookies with her nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews, then surprises them with a sack of toys and rides down her “chimney” — a specially decorated elevator in her Tennessee home. “I come down in my Santa suit, and they all get excited,” Parton shares with me over a Zoom call. She also goes all-out with a wardrobe of light-up Christmas sweaters, accessories, and even lights for her hair. “I’m pretty gaudy, but I’m pretty fun, and I’m a real good aunt, and the kids just love it,” she says. “I do it every year, and I have been doing it for 30 years or more. They grew up, and now they got kids, so they bring them. Christmas is always fun for me and them because of that.”
Parton’s love for all things Christmas — and beauty — has long been a central part of her iconic persona, and now she has her very own makeup line to match her holiday wardrobe. “When I wear my Santa suit, my Santa dress, or my red sweaters, I’ll probably wear the Jolene Red,” Parton says of her holiday beauty look, which includes her label’s lipstick shades. But if she’s going for something a little softer, she might choose the more neutral shades. “When I’m being more subtle with the whites and greens, I’ll probably come down to the warmer ones like Rosebud [a soft pink]. And there’s one called Birthday Suit, that’s not totally nude but is really perfect and beautiful if you’re wearing whites.”
A foray into beauty felt overwhelmingly like a natural step for Parton, and a long time coming at that. Back in 2018, I asked the singer during an interview about the possibility of a makeup line, and she said it was something that she had always wanted to do. Cut to today, when I’m chatting with Parton about Dolly Beauty, and it’s a full-circle moment. After initially launching her Scent From Above fragrance in 2021, Parton achieved her dream of a makeup line, complete with lipsticks, lip liner, glosses, eyeliner, and mascara, and she’s already hinting at more to come. “We hope to grow and have some of everything as time goes by,” she says. “We started with our perfume and our colognes… then we have our lipstick line and eye makeup. I think we’re going to have some beautiful things that people are going to enjoy.”
For Parton, makeup isn’t just an accessory — it’s part of her personality, a celebration of individuality, and a tool to express yourself, no matter how over the top or subtle you want to go. “I think with all makeup, you can take it and use as much or as little,” she says. “You can use it in good or not good taste. I know I like to wear a lot of makeup, and I like my lips to be bright and stand out, but you can use our cosmetics however you want. Some like a lot, some like a little, but you can use it in whatever way you want to.” Parton especially loves the Heaven’s Kiss Lipstick, which goes on “so smooth” and comes in eight shades, including the aforementioned “Jolene Red,” as well as the Hi-Gloss Lip Glosses. “They shine and glisten, but are not so thick that you feel like a fly could get caught in it,” she laughs.
This undying love for makeup goes back to Parton’s childhood, where she would improvise with anything she could find to create makeshift products. She sourced DIY ingredients from her momma’s kitchen (baking flour as face powder), the medicine cabinet (bright-red antiseptics like merthiolate and mercurochrome for lip tint!), or the woods — Parton famously used pokeberries as a lip stain. “Everybody’s heard me talk about how I used the wild berries and the burned matchsticks and all the little things I used to try to look pretty before I could ever buy makeup,” she says. When I ask if she’d ever make a “Pokeberry” shade like she had told me years ago, she says she probably will at some point, though the Heaven’s Kiss Honey Plum lipstick is “closest to it.” As for Parton’s childhood tale of rubbing honeysuckle on her skin as a DIY fragrance, she pays homage to that with her Tennessee Sunset Eau de Toilette, which features honeysuckle as a top note.
While the Dolly Beauty lineup doesn’t include a sparkly eyeshadow palette this holiday season, it may be something to look forward to in the future. “When I’m onstage or for nighttime, if we’re going out to parties, especially through the holidays, I love to wear the glitter and sparkly eyeshadows, and we’ll eventually get there. We don’t have those yet, not this Christmas, but maybe one Christmas we will,” she says. As for gifts, Parton’s loved ones can be sure to expect Dolly Beauty in their stockings. “I’m going to give my sisters and friends some of the products. I’ll probably get by with having to buy a lot of expensive gifts and give them some of my samples. See how that goes,” she laughs.
Parton won’t even have to wrap the gifts — a huge part of Dolly Beauty’s appeal is the packaging, which is truly as Dolly Parton as it gets. With rhinestone accents, her name in script, and her signature butterfly logo, the products embody Parton’s love for all things sparkly. “I love the rhinestones because, well, you know how I am about rhinestones,” she says. “I’m a diamond in a rhinestone world, as they say.”