Asian Faces: The Essential Beauty and Makeup Guide for Asian Women [Paperback]

Taylor Chang-Babaian (Author), Yoko Ono (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2007

A celebrity makeup expert shares her secrets in the first beauty guide for all Asian women.

Professional makeup artist Taylor Chang-Babaian shares her beauty secrets in Asian Faces-the first beauty book created specifically to focus on the techniques and styles that enhance the skin tones and facial features of Asian women of all ages and ethnicities. This fully illustrated, step-by-step guide includes advice on:

- Makeup products and tools to achieve the perfect skin tone
- How to work with one's face and eye shape
- Natural day looks and evening makeup
- Creating the illusion of flawless skin

With more than 100 full-color photographs and illustrations, Asian Faces covers costume makeup and favorite looks from past decades with a modern edge-as well as looks from top American style meccas including New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. Featuring celebrities Margaret Cho, Yunjin Kim and Moon Bloodgood.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Writing Asian Faces was a very personal experience for me. As a young Asian teenager growing up in Los Angeles. Learning how to apply makeup was all trial and error. There were very few examples of Asians in the media if any and foundations back then were all pink. Needless to say I had tons of embarressing moments of bruised looking eyes. Many of my friends resorted to eyelid surgery or tape. I was a bit more rebellious and refused. Asian Faces is filled with all the information I wish I had during my early years. It is meant to be empowering and a resource for all Asian women. Enjoy!

About the Author

Taylor Chang-Babaian is one of the country's top makeup artists in the fashion, magazine, music, film, and television industries. Her makeup tips have been quoted in Town and Country, In Style, Glamour, and Real Simple magazines, and she has appeared on several shows including Access Hollywood, CBS Early Show, Dr. Phil, Extra, and Fox News. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; 1 edition (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399533141
• ISBN-13: 978-0399533143
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Let me tell you a little about myself. I grew up in Los Angeles surrounded by the entertainment industry. From a young age I was completely infatuated with makeup, hair, and fashion, but with strict parents and older brothers I wasn't allowed to wear makeup. So I did what most teenagers do, I put it on in the bathroom at school and took it off before I got home. The problem with that was I made tons of mistakes which my peers were all too eager to point out. I write books so that you don't have to suffer the same fate.

Watching movies like 'Grease' as a young girl made me realize the power of a fantastic makeover. I still find it amazing that you can change the way a woman feels, the strength and confidence she gains when she looks her best. It doesn't matter who you are, whether you're a model, actress, president of a company, or a stay-at-home mom. We all feel better and empowered when we look our best.

In my time in the entertainment industry I've worked with countless celebrities as well as everyday women. I've demonstrated makeovers on shows like Access Hollywood, The CBS Early Show, Dr. Phil, Extra, FOX News, and Lifetime, and have been quoted in dozens of magazines including Elle, Glamour, Self, Real Simple, and InStyle. I live in Los Angeles with my husband, two teenagers and two dogs! I'm so excited to have this opportunity to share everything I've learned about makeup with all of you!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really fun and useful book!, August 10, 2007

By 

Sarito (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asian Faces: The Essential Beauty and Makeup Guide for Asian Women (Paperback)

I'm not usually one to buy books on makeup and beauty, etc. So, this is a first for me. The book truly embraces the beauty of Asian faces and is filled with gorgeous pictures. As someone who tends to stick with really simple and basic makeup applications, I've really been surprised at the results I've gotten from following the step-by-step and "down to earth" instructions.

Also, there are examples given for different kinds of faces and features (ie. eye makeup applications for those who have double lids and those who don't). It is a really empowering book for Asian women who have either tried to follow makeup instructions for Caucasian faces that usually don't work and/or had someone do your makeup who tried to make you look Caucasian instead of playing up your natural and beautiful Asian features.

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Overrated, October 15, 2007

By 

Mark Twain (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Asian Faces: The Essential Beauty and Makeup Guide for Asian Women (Paperback)

After the superb reviews, I was really excited about this book but found it to be too basic and lacking in real information. For example, makeup basics section is mostly pictures of items (lipstick, lipliner, eyeliner) with a name of what it is underneath. There is a section on how to wash your face (1. splash warm water 2. lather in circular motion 3. rinse). The second part of the book is composed of picture of face on left and description of how it was done on the right but the description is written stepwise with breakdown like this--"1. use foundation 2. use highlighting foundation 3. use eye shadow at base 3. use eye liner 4. use mascara 5. use lipliner." There is nothing about how to apply to eye liner, how to apply to lipliner, the foundation, etc. I can't do the makeup in the pictures but I can definitely write this book. Save your money.

65 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY! Kevin Aucyain for REAL Asian Women!!!, September 9, 2007

By 

M. Mooney "(her daughter)" (Raleigh NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Asian Faces: The Essential Beauty and Makeup Guide for Asian Women (Paperback)

I am a 27 year old woman of (probable) Korean ethnicity (I was adopted and whoever my birth parents were are untraceable). I grew up in a white family in a small hick town in PA where Asians were unheard of (lol, for ex. at age 15 a record store owner truly thought I was Yoko Ono, excitedly pointed to a poster of the Beatles/John Lennon and called all of the employees over to look at "John Lennon's wife in our town"! Another time, a 19 year old student told me, "Its so cool that I met you because now I can say I met a real life Asian, because before you came along I thought Asians only lived in the TV!") My adoptive mom has never worn make up in her whole life - even for her wedding!! Obviously, I was clueless about makeup, clueless regarding my appearance in general growing up. The time period was right before Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, and other beautiful Asian actresses began to appear in common media and grace the beauty ads of women's magazines. I was very self conscious because I had no idea what I looked like, I know it sounds weird.. I used to search magazines and TV shows, to no avail.. Ppl told me I looked exactly like Yoko Ono/Connie Chung/and Lisa Ling of Channel One news (in High School). I didn't think I looked like any of them but I didn't know what I looked like either, so I was just confused.. I had no clue what to do about make up, so I pretty much ignored it, gaining names like pizza face because of horrible acne... Anyway, sorry about the ramble... I WISH I HAD A BOOK LIKE THIS GROWING UP. I am sure many other Asian women would have found this book as life changing as I would have. In my early 20's, when I finally started gaining confidence about my looks, I bought every make up book that there was.. all of the Kevin Aucoiyn books were my favorites, because of the creativity, variety, limitless possibility, and stunning beauty of the images... I was stunned by the transformations done by makeup alone, and this is when I first began to view makeup as an art form. I began to take pictures of myself experimenting with all different types of makeup looks. The only thing was, I could never understand why some of the looks would not work on me, and all of the ones that did I had to spend hours of confusion 'adapting' them to fit me, eyes especially. It was very frusterating to find looks that I loved, but couldn't figure out why they did not work, or looked completely different. I wondered if I was doing something wrong, or at more frusterating times, if something was just wrong w/ my face, if I was defective in some way, since the looks worked on my friends that I made up. There are only 3 other books that have direct info for Asian women (Asian Beauty by Margaret ?, a small book by Jaceyln that took 6 weeks to arrive from Amazon, and Iman's Beauty of Color book). The first one disappointed me as far as the makeup tips went, but I thought it was nice for teenagers in situations like mine was because of the emphasis on Asians being beautiful too and the role models/famous Asian women... The 2nd one was a big disappointment - it was so small and didn't have many looks at all. It labeled eyes into 4 categories, and the whole techniques revolved around trying to make a "double eyelid" look - and by the end I had no idea what type of categories my eyes fell into, because they are very small but I do have a lid. Iman's, even though it was for all women of color, was the best of those because of the wide variety of looks, and truly celebrated all shades of women of color... The only thing was, since the book focused on many races, it wasn't directly presented to Asians of course, since that was not the aim of the book. I would highly recommend that title as well. I was ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY the moment I flipped through Asian Faces by Taylor Chang-Babaian. The photographs were stunning, and I had never in my life seen such a variety of Asian women. I'm definitely no longer a beginner by now, so typically the first section of makeup books (a breakdown of the various cosmetics and basics) never provides me w/ anything new. However, I found myself reading and re reading the sections on layering, eyeliner, contouring, and other basics that she shed new light upon.. it was finally like the light bulb in my head clicked on, and every Asian adaptation of looks made sense. (the eyeliner close to the lashes was something I always thought was essential, I had a photo shoot once where the make up artist said that was wrong but I felt in my heart I looked better w/ it.. Taylor confirmed I was right after all!) Total beginners will find the first part of the book easy to follow, and advanced makeup artists will find tons of inspiration (and probably learn quite a few new tricks as well!!) I LOVE how Taylor displays endless creativity in her looks... the gorgeous full size pictures make some of the looks seem complex, but on the other side of the page she breaks everything down into steps, w/ an intensive focus paired w/ a close up picture of the more complex techniques. It is the morst thorough examination of the looks and best system of explaining the steps in any make up book I've ever seen! I also love how she puts the focus on the variety and beauty and art of makeup merging w/ her models, as opposed to focusing on "how to make a double eyelid" or other tips that might as well be saying, "how to make your eyes look less Asian".. or other things that make you feel flawed to be Asian. Instead, she celebrates the diversity of the many Asian women of the world. The book has seemingly endless looks, format being similar to Making Faces or Face Forward in the looks section which is divided into : Day, Evening, Cities (such as looks of LA or NYC), Period Looks (I LOVED this section.. I never realized these looks that I admired so much but was unable to adapt in Kevyn's books were even possible for Asian women, until now!), Special Occasion, and Costume. FINALLY, I can try every look out of a book directly from the instructions, instead of spending frusterating hours attempting to adapt looks that usually never looked the same or don't work on me at all. This book exceeded anything I could ever imagine. I did a 1920's period look last night for the first time ever - w/ no makeup remover involved! The days of irritated red eyelids from rubbing off products over and over, the nights of being the latest one out for a night on the town because my special night out makeup took an hour longer than the other girls... Those times are over!! My only complaint is, I wish this book would have existed 12 years ago, and there better be more.. many many more from this groundbreaking author!