Blondes may have more fun, but brunettes are considered 'twice as beautiful,' with Audrey Hepburn voted most 'desirable female of last 50 years'

Good news Kate and Angelina! Blondes may have more fun, but brunettes are considered 'twice as beautiful,' with Audrey Hepburn voted most 'desirable female of last 50 years'

• Survey by Superdrug reveals 50 greatest female beauty icons of all time
• 33 were brunettes, 16 blondes and Rita Hayworth was the only redhead 
• Princess Diana voted 'top blonde,' with 17 per cent of votes

By SCARLETT RUSSELL

PUBLISHED: 17:00, 20 April 2014 | UPDATED: 17:48, 20 April 2014

Move over blondes, the most beautiful women are brunettes.

A new survey has asked who the 50 greatest beauty icons of the  last 50 years are, with Audrey Hepburn coming out on top.

Overall, 33 out of the 50 were brunettes, 17 blondes and just one redhead - 1940s film legend Rita Hayworth.

Icon: Audrey Hepburn, pictured here, was voted the most desirable woman of the last 50 years

Royally beautiful: The Duchess of Cambridge's long brown hair is the envy of many women the world over

The top 10 women in the survey, which was carried out by Superdrug, Audrey Hepburn was directly followed by three blonde icons: Princess Diana of Wales, Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot.

But supermodel Twiggy was the only other blonde in the top 10, which featured a total of six brunettes.

Elizabeth Taylor, the Duchess of Cambridge, Angelina Jolie, Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai and actress Catherine Zeta-Jones all featured, as reported in The Sun today. 

Also in the list of desirable brunettes were Kelly Brook, Mila Kunis, Jackie Kennedy, Victoria Beckham and Alexa Chung.

Standing proud: Brunettes Angelina Jolie, left, and Kelly Brook, right both made Superdrug's beauty icon list

Brilliant brunettes: Mila Kunis, left, and Victoria Beckham, right, both made the beauty icon list

In the blonde corner, 17 per cent of those who voted went to Princess Diana.

Kate Moss, Holly Willoughby, Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johannson all made the list, too.

X Factor judge Cheryl Cole had twice as many votes as Nicole Scherzinger, who also sat on the X Factor panel.

Superdrug spokesperson Simon Comins told The Sun: 'The public like to look at all the attributes that make an amazing woman.'

Always an icon: Princess Diana was voted the second most beautiful woman of the last 50 years. She followed Audrey Hepburn, making her the most desirable of all the blondes on the list

Blondes have more fun?Kate Moss, left, and Holly Willoughby, right, were voted number 13 and 16 respectively in Superdrug's list of the 50 most beautiful women of the last 50 years

Red on top: Rita Hayworth was actually naturally brunette, but died her hair to attract a greater range of roles

Rita Hayworth, who was born Margarita Carmen Cansino in 1918, was the only redhead in the votes.

She was, in fact, a natural brunette, but dyed her hair red as she thought it would get her more film roles.

It clearly worked, as the actress and dancer rose to international fame in the 1940s and 1950s as one of Hollywood's sexiest and most iconic 'femme fatales'.

An icon of early cinema, she was one of the few women who danced on screen with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.

She died of Alzheimer's disease in her Central Park West apartment in Manhattan in May 1987 when she was 68 years old.

Breakfast at Tiffanys and Funny Face actress Audrey Hepburn was 63 when she died.

Like Rita, she was considered one of the greatest beauties and most iconic actresses of all time.

Read more:

• The most beautiful girls are brunettes

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Elizabeth Taylor, Rita Hayworth and Humphrey Bogart in glorious technicolour! Golden Age of the movies captured in stunning new book 

By OLIVIA WALMSLEY

PUBLISHED: 14:08, 30 October 2013 | UPDATED: 15:59, 30 October 2013

Spectacular images of the Hollywood film legends of the 1940s have been gathered in a stunning new book. In Hollywood in Kodachrome 1940-49, we see stars such as Rita Hayworth, Katherine Hepburn, Carmen Miranda and Humphrey Bogart, captured in vivid colour photographs for the first time.

For the film fans of the Forties, used to black and white images, the advent of Kodachrome film was a revelation. The era was suddenly saturated with colour.

Movie audiences thrilled as stars came to life in vibrant tints. For the first time, the world saw the glossy crimson of Ava Gardner's lips, Marilyn's peachy complexion and platinum waves - and the multicoloured fruit baskets perched on Carmen Miranda's head.

Vivid: Film star Ann Sheridan lounges on set, in a 1941 shot by George Hurrell. For the film fans of the 1940s, used to black and white images, the advent of Kodachrome film, which saturated the era with an explosion of colour, was a revelation

Cosmetics campaigns: Rita Hayworth, in an advert for Max Factor shot by Robert Coburn in 1946. Multi-million pound cosmetics contracts were years away - back then, stars were paid in products - often a year's supply of whatever they were hawkwing

The cosmetics industry responded with special formulations for colour stock, such as Max Factor's Pan-Cakes and Elizabeth Arden's 'N' Technicolour Series.

And, just like today, they used the stars of the day to advertise their wares in colour. However, multi-million pound cosmetics contracts were years away. Back then, models were paid in products - often a year's supply of whatever they were hawkwing. 

Companies reneged on many deals such as this, so some canny celebrities demanded their truck-load of products in advance.

Flesh and blood stars: For the first time, movie fans could see the deep violet of Elizabeth Taylor's eyes (pictured left in 1949) and the vivid crimson of Lauren Bacall's lips (pictured right in 1946)

Colour clash: Lucille Ball, above, was known as 'Technicolour Tessie' as her tomato hair and piercing blue eyes photographed particularly well in Kodachrome

Other actresses had bespoke foundations created to hide their imperfections, among them Merle Oberon who was conscious of her badly pitted skin, and Carole Lombard who had to camouflage facial scars from a car accident. Marlene Dietrich reportedly became adept at retouching her own photographs.

But the raw commercialism of the glossy, bold colour images weren't greeted with enthusiasm by everyone. 'Kodachrome brought forth an orgy of colour. Instead of colourful pictures, we had coliferous images,' said photographer Edward Steichen at the time.

'There is a certain lack of restraint and feeling of dignity that is lacking in too much of the colour photography of figure and portrait studies of the day. We are still a little barbaric in our conception of what is good colour in colour photography,' warned Kodachrome expert Fred Bond.

Kodachrome's reign was short. It was soon supplanted by other film stocks and became the choice for film amateurs.

Bathing belles of 1944: Hollywood quickly latched onto the commercial potential of colour - film fans were desperate to see what their black and white idols really looked like 

At home: The advent of colour popularised gossip magazines - and in them, fans demanded 'off-duty' shots of their favourite film stars, such as this picture of Guy Madison shot by Bob Beerman in 1947

Hollywood legends: Stars such as Lucille Ball, left, and Humphrey Bogart, right, became flesh and blood to their fans for the first time

However, Kodachrome's successors - such as Ektachrome - faded badly over the years, and as a result, much of Hollywood's mid-century colour photography now appears dull and lacklustre.

It is Kodachrome that has stood the test of time: when properly stored, transparencies maintain their sharp detail and vibrant colour. And so
that hyper-real colour has became synonymous with a glamorous Hollywood Golden Age.

Subtle it isn't: but brilliant, bold and eye-catching it certainly is. 

Hollywood in Kodachrome by David Wills and Stephen Schmidt is published by It Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers priced at £26.99 on 25th November

Hollywood in Kodachrome 1940-49 is published by HarperCollins

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