Face Painting: African American Beauty Techniques from an Emmy Award-Winning Makeup Artist [Paperback]

Reggie Wells (Author), Theresa Foy DiGeronimo (Author), Karen Pugh (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2000

Oprah's longtime makeup artist shares the beauty secrets of some of America's most beautiful and popular African American celebrities in this lavish and practical guide, now available for the first time in paperback. Face Painting is not a just-the-facts presentation of flattering color schemes, eyebrow plucking, lip defining, and cheek accentuating- although it does have all of that. As Reggie Wells tells us of the colors, techniques, and secrets that work best on beauty icons such as Leontyne Price, Robin Givens, Diahann Carrol, Oprah Winfrey, Iman, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and many others, he also gives us a rare glimpse at each of these women before her public face is in place. He shows us the human side of celebrity that helps remind us that we are all beautiful women and that with a little help from a beauty expert we can all look like the divas do.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Full of plain-spoken advice, not just about colors, textures and applications, but about basic skin care and physical well-being." (Lynell George, Los Angeles Times)

About the Author

Reggie Wells, an Emmy Award-winning artist, worked exclusively for Oprah from 1989 to 1995. He has been a makeup artist for twenty years, and his work has appeared on the cover of Essence and in GIamour, Mademoiselle, Harper's Bazaar, Time, and Bride's magazines.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080505216X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805052169
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,534,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I hoped for!!, October 19, 1998

By 

Pamela L. Lee ([e-mail]) (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reggie's Face Painting: Emmy Award-Winning Make-Up Artist Reveals His Beauty Secrets For African-American Women (Hardcover)

As a certifiable make-up junkie, I am always interested when new books about Cosmetics come out. As an African-American female, I especially am interested in ones that cater specifically to me. I have to say I was dissappointed in this book. I was hoping to see more makeovers with specific how to information. This book dealt more with Mr. Wells interaction with certain celebraties than it did with makeup techniques and looks. There were really only 3 makeovers in the book, one for light complected women, medium complected women and dark skinned complected women. There were no day versus evening looks or how tos in regards to changing or updating looks.

There were also more drawings than there were actual pictures so I did not find this book to be all that helpful.

I think Mr. Wells is definitely a very talented makeup artist, I have seen his work in numerous magazines, however, this book just did not give me what I was looking for.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Porfolio, November 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Reggie's Face Painting: Emmy Award-Winning Make-Up Artist Reveals His Beauty Secrets For African-American Women (Hardcover)

I am happy for Mr. Wells success. However, this book is basically a portfolio of his work. There are over 100 pages of who he worked on and the book has only a few pages for 'how-tos'.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Biography and Celebrity Essay oriented, November 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Reggie's Face Painting: Emmy Award-Winning Make-Up Artist Reveals His Beauty Secrets For African-American Women (Hardcover)

Reggie Wells certainly did work hard to suceed in being a makeup artist (and has paid his dues) and is definitely skilled at his trade. I found the book interesting (you almost feel like your right there watching). The only thing is the pictures seemed just a bit dated (80s'ish). I think I would have liked to have seen more modern (90s) looks. Other than that he talks in a warm light-hearted way throughout the book. He just seems like a nice guy who has a respect for African American women's beauty.