Bobbi Brown Beauty

"Almost every topic related to beauty is mentioned. She does have small sections for ethnic beauty, diet/exercise, men's beauty/makeup & special occassion makeup. BB is all about neutral/natural looks so everything she suggests is timeless. Has several chapters devoted to working with your natural beauty & playing up your flaws instead of trying to camoflauge them. Book isn't as visually appealing as many others but makes up for it in the amount of information given. While instructions don't come with visual guides, they are still explained extremely well so that visual aids are really necessary. She has a lot more "don'ts" than I've seen in other books ("Don't wear shimmer blush", etc). In no way does she try to get you to spend a lot of money. She very much advocates a more minimal approach, even to the point of suggesting plastic baggies as makeup bags. She also does not self-promote & even features other makeup lines in her pictures.
I think this is a great reference manual. Excellent book for someone new to makeup or someone who needs to be brought out of a dated look but even the more experienced can pick up a trick or two. One thing I didn't like for me personally was the excessive focus on neutrals.

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~ Written on 2008-01-08

"She advocates much too much makeup application. I don't think we all need foundation plus prep plus concealer plus this plus that plus.... Also she advocates natural beauty (accept your humped nose! etc...) but her models all have the typical symmetrical look. Which is fine and dandy but mildly hypocritical considering her natural beauty advocacy. I do like the section for teenage girls about self acceptance. Still overall her product line and approach just isn't my thing."
~ Written on 2007-11-06

"I consider makeup to be an important part of my everyday appearance. And this book really didn't deliver on anything more than everyday, easy to learn tricks that i gathered when i was 14 from Glamour. Not my fave makeup book, but there are a few good spots "
~ Written on 2007-07-28

"I was very disappointed with the book. I have been wearing makeup since I was 15. I take it as my hobby and what I needed was a book that could show me different techniques, different ways of applying makeup other than the usual ways I was taught over the years, different color combinations. This book is REALLY BASIC. It really does not give you a step by step in how to achieve a certain look. So if this is what you are looking for go for another book. "
~ Written on 2007-01-30

"I bought this book based on the recommendation of my sister-in-law, who has worked at several department-store makeup counters. She said that Brown's book had a lot of really great information, especially for a novice makeup wearer like me. However, I found the book to be lacking in specific techniques for applying makeup.

Some sections were fairly thorough, but most (especially the section on doing eye makeup) remained at a really general level. The only main piece of advice I got from the book is to wear yellow-based foundation, concealer, and powder. A lot of the other information Brown gives is just too general; using some diagrams and showing color variations would have made it much more practical.

Last year, I purchased Sonia Kashuk's _Real Beauty_, and I definitely recommend that book over this one. Kashuk's book shows detailed photos of her makeup techniques so you can really see how a professional makeup artist applies makeup.

I wanted to like Brown's book, but found it not as helpful as I hoped it would have been!"
~ Written on 2006-08-03