Customer Reviews

Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution: A Guide to a Lifetime of Beauty

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

AT LAST! I cannot believe that a book has been written for ALL ages....whenever I am reading a magazine (or book) about make-up, it sounds like women are no longer interested in looking good after 50! NOT TRUE! In just a few years I'll be reaching 70 and I want to look as good as I can at this age, and Bobbi has great suggestions and tips. I loved this book. I am SO tired of reading about make up suggestions for 20's, 30's 40's 50's then NOTHING, like women over 50 or 55 no longer exist. Also, seeing older women on tv, just on arthritis commercials. Can't we see some pretty older woman on a commercial for make up, or a hair product???? When I was reading Bobbi's book, I felt I was "still in there"...someone like Bobbi knows there are women like us who care about themselves. She helps us use makeup the right way for all ages!!! Thanx Bobbi......you made MY day.

I am a 46 year old mother and wife. ALthough my husband and I are almost empty nestors (next year) I will always continue to try to make myself look my best for me and my family. Your book allowed me to read and learn the natural way to do this. No on needs to be heavy handed when applying make up. It seems by your books that the more natural looking the make up the more beautiful you are. Letting your flaws come through can show ones beauty. Thank you for your inspirations.

I find this book to be better and more complete than Bobbi's first book. It contains basically the same techniques, but presented in a different format. It is less restrictive regarding colors and makeup application and uses more real women for models. Also, the tone is less bossy, and I liked the aproach to makeup divided in several age groups. My guess is Bobbi read all the bad reviews on her first book and tried to improve it. Well, she succeded.

If you don't own her first book and would like to read something of hers, definitely buy this one, don't waste your money on both. This one is more complete and has better pictures. Whereas you might be a little uncomfortable with her way of speaking (don't do this or that...) you'll appreciate her advice in the end. After all, she did come to revolutionalize the makeup industry with her natural approach to makeup. Before her, the choice in foundation colors was very limited and basically pink-toned. She was the one who suggested women should wear yellow-toned foundation and natural blush (not the diagonal stripe along the cheekbone). Many people may not realize it, but the current trend to make makeup natural is here to stay and she brought it forward!!! Thank you Bobbi, because of you we see less mask-like pink foundation, less horrible blush, and even less brown liner on the lips! If you haven't changed the way you apply makeup n several years (or decades), you will love Bobbi. Also, if you are in a makeup rut and use foundation blush and lip liner in this way you should DEFINATELY buy this book and liberate yourself of the horrid 80's style of applying makeup. You'll be grateful for being able to show your most natural and pretty face!!

I had this book for a few weeks before I picked it up to read. I was pleasantly surprised. Going in, I felt as if I knew everything there was to know about makeup already. Years of reading fashion magazines and getting makeovers had put me into a comfortable groove. Yet Bobbi did teach me a few new tricks with the tips she suggests in this book. I whizzed through it in one evening and found it to be an easy read. I think the biggest thing women forget is that if they're 40 and still treating their face as if they're 30, they're not doing themselves any favors. Bobbi reminds us of the essentials we need to know at each age. Sure, there are some unnecessary bits in the book that I already knew. But maybe the next woman won't know those things already. Everyone can just pull from it what they need.

"Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution" is a guide to looking good and staying healthy from your 20s to your 70s and beyond. Six chapters cover each decade of your life, starting at age 20 and going on to beyond the age of 70. In each of these chapters, Bobbi explains what kind of make-up and cosmetics products you should use and why. After that, there's a chapter about staying fit and healthy. It includes information about the kind of nutrients you should be getting during each decade, too. Also inluded are tips on make-up and applying it, including how to find the right colors for you. My favorite part of the book were the chapters about the kinds of tools your would need to apply make-up. Plus, an entire chapter covered cleaning out your make-up drawer/cabinet/bag, with advice on what to keep and toss, and it also included a general timetable for make-up's life span. Many more topics were covered in this book, including caring for your skin, answers to beauty questions, quick fixes for beauty emergencies, beauty while you're pregnant, and much more. This book is an essential guide to beauty throughout your entire life.

I am definitely an admirer of Bobbi Brown, whose lovely makeup designs can actually be worn by real women in real life. Her book "Bobbi Brown Beauty" is one of my favorites. However, much of the advice in that book is repeated in this one. There are new features in this book; for instance, a section on makeup for cancer patients and sections on makeup to wear for each decade of your life. However, about seventy percent of the advice in this book was dealt with in the previous publication. I would only purchase this book at a bargain price.

This may not be the one for you. That having been said, however, I love this book. I consider it to be a beauty "what-for?" book. The pictures in it are absolutely gorgeous and they are of real-looking women. That is a definite plus for me. I love Bobbi's style of doing makeup. I love seeing real women wearing it. However, there are no step-by-step instructions for different looks as you find in Kevyn Aucoin's books. This may be a drawback for many people.

There are, however, good common-sense guidelines for health and beauty (particularly good skin tips) and general instructions for makeup application. Bobbi does still like her rules, but her approach is much less stringent in this book than it was in her first effort (Bobbi Brown Beauty). I love the chapters on beauty guidelines by the decade (20's through 70's and beyond). I also appreciate the "Beauty by Skin Tone" section. I don't fit any of the classifications listed, but it is very interesting to read her recommendations for several ethnic groups/skin tones based on each group's inherent strengths.

The "It Runs in the Family" chapter is full of beautiful family portraits which I find inspirational as well. The makeover section is small but useful and the "Just Add Color" chapter gives helpful recommendations, especially if you are looking for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics products. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you are looking for an inspirational beauty guide. Check it out!

I'm a makeup junkie, so I eagerly awaited this book. If you have other makeup books, especially those by people like Kevyn Aucoin, and her earlier work "Bobbi Brown Beauty", save your money. It is just a feel good about being a woman book, not a makeup book. The only reason I gave this book two stars is that right in the beginning a compare/contrast section shows how photo retouching remarkably alters photos. That section should be recommended reading for all persons reviewing fashion magazines.

Bobbi Brown was in her mid-forties when she wrote this (a time of life she laughingly calls the "oh s$@t" decade"), and her years of playing and working with makeup and hundreds of different faces, skin colors, tones, and types, not to mention products of every kind, inform this useful and enjoyable primer on how to successfully use makeup at *any* age.

Kudos to Bobbi for featuring women who aren't all WASP-y looking and twenty-something. There is a big wide world of women who remain interested in looking their best once they're out of college and beyond the first few years of their professional life. Bobbi knows that for them, it's not just about making the boys sit up and take notice anymore (though gosh, it sure is fun when they do). It's about feeling good in one's own skin (literally and metaphorically), making the most of what you have with good sense, good humor and good taste. Nothing over the top here -- nary a Tammy Faye Baker paint job in sight -- just practical advice for making the most of your own brand of "pretty", whatever that might be. Bobbi is an advocate of the "less is more" approach, and the results are beautiful. Enhance, don't disguise, your assets. More makeup will only call attention to the things you think you are hiding -- and too much makeup will age you faster than almost anything else. As a woman on the "wrong" side of 35 (though I wouldn't take a million bucks to get back the last ten years of my life), without question I've received the most compliments when I'm wearing the least amount of makeup. Buy good stuff, apply it well, READ THIS BOOK -- and people will notice. Be prepared to turn a few heads ;-). What woman doesn't want to look her simple, beautiful best? Bobbi gives you confidence that you can do it, with a minimum of fuss. Very empowering, I think.

Other just-as-good books in a similiar vein: Chic Simple Woman's Face, and Sonia Kashuk's Beauty (which includes a DVD!) These three books together could easily form the modern woman's library of beauty/make-up/skin care -- they go way beyond "wash your face at night and always have Kleenex in your purse" but aren't so technical or over the top that they posit the unattainable. Sure, they all feature good looking people -- some of them models -- but that's not ALL they show. How many people are model material anyhow? These are books for the rest of us -- the other 99.9% of the female populace. Hurrah to THAT!

The only way Bobbi's empire could be improved is if she made her line "bunny-logo" worthy; certifiably cruelty-free, or better yet, vegan (without any animal testing OR ingredients). She'd capture a whole new swathe of women who shop by the bunny -- and no, not Hugh Heffner's bunny logo ;-). Another wise move would be for her to roll out a line of less expensive (but still quality) items in middle-market department stores that have a certain cachet (Tar-jhay, anybody?) Sonia Kashuk's done that and proved that there's no need to spend a fortune to get really nice stuff. (End of editorial!)

Why do I call this the everything book. Because it really does cover everything you need to know when dealing with beauty. Some may think that when discussing beauty one is only talking about make-up. But many of us know better; if you're aspiring to be a beautiful woman, for the rest of your life, than make-up is just the tip of the iceberg. Bobbi Brown goes into great detail about what you eat, skin care routine, exercise, vitamin intake, and many other things that are crucial in keeping yourself beautiful. And the best thing is that she categorizes it based on age, 20s-80s. This allows someone like me to not only easily look up my age bracket and find out information, but also allows me to prepare for when I get older, and take on some new habits that you I have missed when I was younger. Brown also talks about more than just beauty, but about being a healthy woman. I really love her information on vitamins, which ones are important for your age, and what those vitamins do for your body. I have yet to buy this book, but I've copied so much useful information out of it, I might as well invest. I have no concerns about getting old, but looking old, and this book will really help me get rid of that concern.