Customer Reviews

The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Beauty Guide for Skin of Color

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most beauty books seem to rehash the same ideas or showcase looks that can be created by anyone who is somewhat familiar with makeup. This book is refreshingly different, and how! An immense amount of thought and creativity has gone into putting this book together. Iman and her team have gone into great lengths to portray a wide variety of looks on a broad spectrum of women. The makeup is so artfully done that you could come up with your own ideas by putting together components of several looks.

Another plus about this book is that the author doesn't resort to a common book-bulking tactic used by many cosmetics mavens. Here you don't see layouts of bare-faced (or nearly so) women with inane captions like "look how beautiful she is with only eyeliner". I think many women look to beauty books to give us creative inspiration. If we looked good w/o any goop on our face, we'd know it by now, saved a lot of time and $$$ and not bothered with makeup books. "The Beauty of Color" really delivers the goods. Congratulations to Iman (and team!) for a job well done!

This book is all around wonderful. Not only are the pictures beautiful, but the book is very informative. This book is not only for women of color (African American, Latina, Asian, Indian, etc.), it is for all women. Iman instructs readers on many issues pertaining to makeup application, color palette selection, and skincare. The book instructs the reader on how to obtain certain looks with makeup. For example, she shows readers how to obtain the natural look or the glamour girl look. She even shows readers how to obtain the vampy and ghetto fabulous looks. In addition, she instructs readers on how to select the correct foundation, blush and bronzer colors based on individual skin color. Furthermore, the book also discusses skin care issues. Its instructions on skincare are not one size fits all. It gives care instructions to those with oily, dry, combination, and normal skin. It even includes instructions on how to take care skin with hyperpigmentation.

The book is beautifully illustrated and contains a wealth of information on makeup. Regardless of your age, if you love makeup and want to apply it correctly, buy this book.

I really love this book! It's full of beauty tips that I can really use when applying my makeup or trying out a new look. I especially like the combination of models Iman chose to photograph-- from "real-life" people like me to celebrities such as Salma Hayek. Even the book itself is beautiful. I have it sitting on my coffee table for my friends and family to enjoy!

This is the MUST-HAVE beauty book of the decade! No matter what your ethnic background or physical appearance is, The Beauty of Color will help you accentuate your best features and downplay any flaws you may have. From those who feel "average" to women who are definitely "pretty" to even those with super-model good looks, Iman shows you how to work with what you have, and look your best all the time.

I was anxious to get my hands on this book and wondered if I should just buy it online without seeing it first. I'm glad I didn't, because when I checked it out at the library, I was truly disappointed. More than just make-up application, I was looking forward to seeing a variety of models that accurately displayed the world's women. The book showed models of color but not in the variety of shades that each ethnicity comes in. For example, the Asian models were shown stereotypically with light beige skin. No brown, Southeast Asian models were represented from countries such as Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia or Thailand or if there were some that did they looked lighter than most of their countrymen. The same with Latinas. Some of the models that were listed as coming from Latin American countries such as Brazil, Puerto Rico or Mexico looked nothing like the majority of Latinos from those countries. One model that supposedly was from Brazil looked like a poster girl for the Aryan nation! Blond hair, blue eyes and all!

Iman simply used the same stereotypical representations of these races as other modeling agencies do: all Asian models must be light porcelain, Latina models must look white Spaniard, Native Americans/Indigenous usually aren't represented, Middle Eastern and Indian models must be medium to light. Do you not see a pattern? With the exception of models of African decent, practically all the models were "light" versions of their race. That is not reality and it certainly is not "global beauty." The book claimed to appeal to complexions from "nutmeg to cinnamon." I was infuriated when I saw a chart of models meant to represent various skin tones with the overwhelming majority looking more from olive oil to lemon zest than "nutmeg to cinnamon." If it weren't for the three drops of dark chocolate models thrown in as tokens, the chart would have been a complete lie - and it was a lie. Whether the racist modeling agency or Iman likes it or not, the majority of women (and people) in the world ARE BROWN. So why didn't Iman, who is a woman of color herself portray this reality? Why, after her graceful speeches of not categorizing women according to ethnicity and stating that each race has diversity of complexions, did she fail to display that fact? The excuse certainly isn't because she couldn't get hold of unique looking models, as Iman is an icon herself with loads of resources at her finger tips and aspiring beauties of the rejected "too exotic" class abound. Any model would consider it a privilege to work with her. Of course the one race that was accurately portrayed with an array of colors was the models of African decent, but maybe that was done right because Iman herself is African.

If the Beauty of Color was done correctly at least 80% of the models should have been various shades of brown (i.e. mahogany, coffee, dark & milk chocolate, cinnamon, caramel, toffee, etc) because that is the global color. Was Iman ashamed to show this? Does she think that brown is boring? Or was she indirectly appealing to white consumers who might flip through the book? So maybe the intention was to incorporate so called "Latina" models that might be mistaken as Europeans themselves to make white customers feel included. But if that was the purpose it would defeat the whole reason for making a book for "women with skin of color" in the first place! Don't white women have enough books tailored for them with nothing but them represented on the pages? It's beauty books with genuine women of color that are lacking. Don't get me wrong, besides this mistake the book is beautiful: with gorgeous photography, detailed makeup application instructions and creative cosmetic looks. Literally speaking the book is filled with bright, vibrant colors but the Beauty of Color would've been so much more beautiful if it had been filled with women with real skin of color.

I read a few reviews of this book not having a variety of brown women, so I was hesitant to get it. However, when I opened it up, I was pleasantly surprised that they were wrong. This book is one of the first I've seen with quite a large range of colored women.

This book is about skin color and how to find makeup that goes with warm toned colored skin. It has every shade from the white-looking yet olive skinned blonde, to the very dark African. (At first I too was shocked by the blonde Brazilian, but she is a warm toned, very light skinned person that probably runs into issues since most people with skin that light have a pink tone.) It is true that there is not every single shade of every ethnicity of woman available. But, there cannot possibly be a book that has every shade between white and black for Hispanics, Asians, Middle Easterners, South Asians, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Africans, and every mix in between. A dark South Asian, for example, will have the same skin color as an African. Plus, it even includes a handful of mixed-race people like Salma Hayek (Mexican and Lebanese), Kimora Lee (Asian and black), Alicia Keys (black and white), Jade Jagger (Nicaraguan and white), Patricia Velasquez (Spanish and Indigenous) a woman who is South American, Guyanese, Indian, and white, and a woman who is Puerto Rican and Thai. So don't say you're not represented, because there is QUITE a variety.

I am a medium-light skinned Indian woman and I am very grateful for this book. Most of the time when I see an Indian mentioned in a book they have dark skin and thick black hair. This is one of the few times I've seen anything that addressed a light olive skin tone (as opposed to light and pink toned or the dark and olive). The tips are easy to understand, so matching the look shouldn't be too difficult. There are no specific shades suggested since there are so many variants and brands. But there are families of color listed for the appropriate skin color (example: light olive should use an apricot or coral colored blush).

The book itself is written well, with a bit of Iman's sense of humor coming through. In fact one of my deciding factors was her description of "The Vamp" look. It perfectly described other women whom I notice my boyfriend check out: "The other woman: cheekbones cut like glass; a curtain of mysterious, silky black bangs hanging over dangerously smoky eyes; cleavage that would smother your boyfriend and your dreams of a princess-cut diamond engagement ring. You immediately loathe her, but you're also dying to ask her what lip-gloss she's wearing..."

Bottom line: don't be put off if your ethnicity is not depicted in your exact shade. You can check out another race with a similar skin color and have a great result. There is of course, some Photoshopping going on (there's no way a giant zit stops being 3D when you put concealer on it, and there's no way any human has skin this smooth). But that is to be expected of any makeup book. There's a lot of helpful tips, and I'd definitely recommend this to anyone with a hint of color.

This book was recommended to me by a Facialist at Elizabeith Arden Red Door Spa. Its great for all levels from beginners to the more advanced!! It has a wonderful section on skincare products based on your skin type. Also, if you were ever confused about your skin type, it clears up any confusion in a very simple way. The other sections are also comprehensive and serve as a good guide......the makeup applications and techniques are explained and detailed enough to pull if off on your own. If you like make-up an skincare, this book is it!!

I understand some might feel that there is a lack of darker skinned models in this book but its really hard to please everyone in the world. I feel Iman did a good job of picking her models, i haven't seen this many brown colored girls in anything but an essence magazine and i'm happy she did this. And yes girls from Brazil can be blonde with blue eyes. Just like blacks in america can have red hair and green eyes. All of the photos were gorgeous and everything was explained in a way that can be replicated easily. I recommend this book to any WOC who wants an informative book that caters to them.

I bought this book as christmas gift to myself. This book tells of basic makeup application for the eyes, skin, lips, etc. It has different looks for you to try and it gives you instruction on how to apply it. I rated this book 4 stars because I thought their should have been more african-american women in our variety of colors, but the book is the the book of color. I have tried one of the looks and I can say I looked HOT!! Good for beginners.

Not a very explicit book. Better off purchase de Sam Fine DVD and/or any Bobbi Brown Books. And if you are looking for mastering African-american skin makeup application and you love Iman, go to youtube and download her makeup products application videos, that will be more helpfull