Bobbi Brown Beauty: The Ultimate Beauty Resource

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As a way to get in touch with my make-up technique after almost four years of reading exclusively textbooks, I decided to read about it from the word of one of today's most well-known and acknowledged makeup artists. However, this book has left me with mixed feelings. Although it is undoubtedly a compendium of great suggestions (notice I say "great" not "excellent" or, more importantly, NEW), Bobbi Brown's ultimate message is that understatement is the key to good make-up.What is mind-blogging to me is the fact that the woman studied theatrical make-up at the prestigious Emerson College in Boston, yet she is petrified to even suggest something minimally colorful! Her advise never veers from "use ONLY yellow-based foundation, powder and concealer, translucent and other colour powders make a woman look washed out, never use colour mascaras, cellulite creams DO NOT work (she is wrong here, Lancaster and Clarins have excellent products that DO work, I have tried them myself and even reviewed some here at Amazon)" and, my personal favorite of all her contradictions: "I have purposely avoided colors like emerald green, turquoise and purple" for eye shadow (page 111). I would then ask her what she was thinking when she came out with the beautiful, gorgeous, vivid colours in her "Eye Brights Make up palette", which I have recently ordered and I am anxiously awaiting its arrival in the post. The truth is, make up is supposed to be fun. Stylish, yes, but fun. Maybe it is the fact that this is an old book (it was published in 1997). But it simply lacks the appropriate guidance. For instance, you will find in it suggestions as to what to do and what not to do to wear make-up that lasts for hours, how to remove makeup from clothing before it stains, how to clean your tools, even suggestions on fitness. However there is no actual reference on technique, i.e. how to correctly apply eye shadow, no pictures or photos that present a step-by-step method. In fact, most of the photos in the book are old and unbecoming. From a book written by a world-renowned makeup artist, I see this as a major flaw.Moreover, the subjects she presents seem to be just as plain as she is. To illustrate this, one need look no further than her comments on actress Andie McDowell. Although she is pretty (sort of), she is the type of woman who has always looked old and wrinkled in my view, even when she was younger. Ever since the time she did "Green card", with the genial Gérard Depardieu, to the present day, McDowell has always exhibited very defined crows' feet around her eyes, as well as deep laugh lines. It has always baffled me how companies like L'Oreal keep showing her as an example of a fresh and beautiful face. To Brown, this is the essence of mesmerizing beauty, and although she packs a powerful message in the premise that the features that women usually criticize about themselves are the ones that in all actuality make them unique (e.g. Cindy Crawford's mole), considering a woman like McDowell a breathtaking beauty who "when you meet her, she intentionally puts you at ease with her sense of humour so that her incredible beauty is not overwhelming" is a bit too much (page 59).One thing is for sure, Brown's book is just as understated as her own look. She always seemed sort of plain to me as far as a makeup artist goes. Personally, I prefer a more daring approach to makeup, a bit daring and yes, colourful! Thank God for minds like those of Vivienne Westwood and the late Alexander McQueen, who dare show us what fashion, elegance and style with a twist are all about!

The book needs to have more examples of darker skin tones and products.

I was amaised when reading it. It is the perfect book to read.Bobbi Brown gives a lot of very good advise and "Do nots".I really love this artist and author! She is very easy to read even for non native speakers.She discribes steps very clearly (which product to use when and where) and how to apply make up.The book also has very complete subjects.Bobbi Brown has the idea of make up to be natural for a natural beauty which is her view of Beauty.She gives lots of advises for you to create looks and wearable make up for every day, work, evening...The pictures are not great but the text is fast to read, straight to the point and very clear to understand for amateurs (like me :-))Do not hesitate, go for it!

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!

This is an incredible resource for anyone that is interested in how to change their look. I borrowed this from my mom years ago and loved it, then bought my own copy and loved it again! It provides the ABC's of exactly how it works when you apply your make up for this or that effect. I am actually a professional face painter and have been using the techniques I found in this book (with a different color pallet of course!) to drastically altering children and adults to look like everything under the sun. ITs the how to and why of making up a face!