Dancing Queens: Sandy Linter’s Disco Makeup Book Is Back

In the time before YouTube get-ready-with-me videos, the easiest way to learn how to do your makeup was picking up a book. Beauty bibles like Kevyn Aucoin’s Making Faces (1997) and Francisco Nars’s Makeup Your Mind (2001) taught generations of makeup lovers how to shade, snatch, and sculpt. Before it all, though, makeup artist Sandy Linter published a book completely dedicated to New York City’s incredible disco scene—Disco Beauty: Nighttime Make-Up—which had a single run at the printer.

“Back then, the general public didn’t know how to do makeup!” Linter says. “Everyone was thinking on their own because nobody had rules yet to follow. I was making up my own; [my peer] Way Bandy was making up his. We’d just formulate ideas, concepts, and ways to do makeup.”

Earlier this year, Linter discovered that vintage copies of her book were selling for $1,000 on the resale market—and that sparked a bold, bright idea: Bring back Disco Beauty. And so, the new and semi-updated reprint of Disco Beauty: Nighttime Make-Up (at much a more affordable price than a grand) was born, almost 50 years after its first and only printing.

Back in June, Linter took to Instagram to announce that the book was finally available again via a print-on-demand service. Those both of the era and the ones dreaming of it rejoiced.

“I always knew of Disco Beauty,” says makeup artist and historian Erin Parsons. Years ago, she paid about $200 on eBay for a vintage copy, which is now part of her incredible Makeup Archive. “It’s a great book to have because most makeup artists’ books from that period only have illustrations. Sandy’s book had gorgeous photos of models we recognize [wearing the makeup], like Gia Carangi. It’s a great collector’s piece if you’re looking to reference the 1970s.”

The 2026 edition retains almost all of what was in the original. That includes its cover star, the late model Bitten Knudsen. “She had such fearless energy!” Linter states. “I didn’t want a model on the cover [posing] cutesy or smiley. I wanted a fierce model. The kind of someone who goes out of the limo and into the club!”

All of the models inside were dressed by then up-and-coming designer Anna Sui, who was also thrilled to see the book returning to print. “Disco Beauty is such a great documentation of that period,” Sui says. “All those supermodels in there, plus Sandy. She was the most glamorous makeup artist! Her look and technique were so feminine compared to a lot of makeup artists back then.”

Though, Linter says, there are a few nostalgic changes to the 2026 edition. It now includes tributes to those who were on the scene or in the book who are no longer with us. There’s a special dedication set aside for Gia Carangi, who passed away of complications due to AIDS in 1986.

A standout detail of Disco Beauty, and the era in general, is the use of blush: “Today’s blush is rounder and softer than I did in the ’70s.”

Disco Beauty’s legacy isn’t just its unbridled celebration of color, or Linter’s starry clientele, who could all be seen at Studio 54 wearing glam done by the makeup artist. Now it’s available to a new generation of beauty lovers right when the tides are turning back toward bold and expressive makeup. Next up, hopefully? A return to the dance floor.

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