Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: For Everyone from Beginner to Pro

Having grown up with little instruction in the skincare area, and in the middle of a dryness breakout (which I've never had before), I purchased this book with the hope of some insight because I already use Bobbi's makeup and it has not failed me yet. There are a lot of books about skincare and makeup out there, many with conflicting opinions. But I put my trust in Bobbi's straightforward and mostly practical approach to natural beauty. Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual is a beautiful, glossy, info packed book for anyone who needs to know or reference the basics. It's not gonna turn you into an esthetician or a makeup artist. But in it Bobbi explains how to find the best products for you - without pushing any skincare line (including her own) - by learning how to analyze your own skin and reading the ingredients on packaging that can often be confusing and/or misleading. Bobbi also covers how to care for your skin, including different ethnic types such as latin and asian, and even discusses things you should keep in your regular diet to promote healthy, dewy skin. With, best of all, specific reasons why. She also covers all the basic makeup techniques for each product type (you apply a gel eyeliner much differently than a pencil, for example) and colors for each skin tone, with variations for taste and occasion purposes. Overall an extremely helpful book, it was instrumental in the much needed revamping of my beauty routine, but also fun in that I learned some new ways to do my makeup!

This book really is a great introduction to correctly applying make up, and it's also a great way to learn more advanced techniques! This book addresses everything from nutrition and how it affects your skin, to finding the right foundation as well as applying concealer correctly. I have tried to apply make up over the years, but I have had a hard time getting everything just right. I used to wear just lipstick when I was younger. As I've gotten older though, the little fine lines and some redness on my cheeks have made it necessary to start using foundation. I would try to match my foundation correctly, but I always ended up getting it either too light or too dark. I spent a ton of money over the years trying to find the right foundation! I am SO thankful that I found this book by Bobbie Brown! It has changed everything! Now I know the right way to find a foundation and to apply it correctly. I also learned the importance of finding the right concealer, the tricks to applying it, and how to set it. This book has made a huge difference for me. I will feel a lot more confident knowing that I can finally walk out the door each day looking my best. I highly recommend this book for anyone who needs to learn more about make up! It will truly change your life! I also highly recommend this book to anyone that would like to learn more advanced techniques, as well as learning about what it takes to become a make up artist. Definitely FIVE STARS!!!

Love this book it is so informative. My granddaughter looks like a supermodel

Growing up, I never really learned how to apply makeup beyond the occasional lip gloss and mascara. This book is great for a novice such as myself, as it goes into great detail while explaining the products used and how to use them. I particularly enjoyed the skin and foundation sections, as those are the biggest problems for me. The book lists the pros and cons of different types of makeup and is very clear in its recommendations depending on your skin type. I have found this to be an invaluable resource when playing around with new looks, and I'm glad to have it around when I need it. It doesn't really delve into unique styles, but that wasn't what I was looking for when I bought the book; I wanted a resource that would create a solid foundation of makeup knowledge that I could use as a base for creating looks of my own. I think this book did just that.

This book is like having a girlfriend who knows everything there is to know about makeup, cleansing, skin care, and hands it to you in a book form. I’d repurchase quickly. It’s a great reference for someone who wants to learn more about applying makeup, skin care, product information and how application technique makes such an impact.

Bobbi Brown is not like other makeup artists. If you know Brown from her other books, then you know that her style is natural makeup. If you know Brown even more then you know this book is a big improvement for women of color. However, the book retain the usual subjects (skin, face, lips, and eyes), adds a few new subjects, and expand on old ones. However, you will soon see why this is not the best book for African skin tones. Well received was the tutorial for the correctors and Brown teaches how to choose correctors and foundation, step-by-step apply them, recommend more foundations shades if needed, and did a tutorial on how to bridge the two. The tutorials were the best of the entire chapters because they dealt with problems African women have that are not touched upon in other makeup books. African women had better enjoy those tutorials, because that all African women receive. That is where the problems begin. Powders are briefly touched upon and we arrive at bronzers. Brown lists only two tones for African skin: "Dark" like Vanessa Williams or "deepest" like Venus Williams. Before she recommends a bronzer for women as "medium dark" as Jennifer Lopez. However, Vanessa Williams is light tan and Venus Williams is not "deepest," an example would be Alek Wek. Giving bronzer recommendation for only two out of maybe 8-10 dominate skin tones in the African community is ludicrous and unhelpful. Blushes are broken down into about seven types, but only three types get tutorials. Brown should have given a tutorial on chubby pencils and cheek tints, which she says herself, are the most difficult. There are also no recommendations on blushes for skin tones. So many African women are scared of wearing blush and do not even know where to start, or if they can even wear blush. Brown does do a table on what colors would be great to achieving a natural lip colors for different colored lips and expanded the table for anyone that does not have pale lips. In Brown's Beauty Evolution book, she give pales lips four shades options. If you had medium lips or two-tone, you had two options, if you had dark lips, one. It is offensive that people with the palest lips had more options than darker lipped people did. Now, everyone can choice between five shades. It is offensive as an African woman to read that you can only wear so many shades, colors, and hues while fairer women have an array of options. In the brows section, Brown does not mention on how to bring out golden or warmer tones in African skin, which is possible with brows. Sam Fine has done it and Brown can too. She does not even give tips on which brow colors. It is the same dilemma in the eye shadow section. No mentions how to use Africans tones to create a look, highlight color options, or how to make eye seem more awake. Ten-step guide and the Diverse Beauty are the worst. There is no ten-step guide or many tips in the Diverse Beauty section for African woman. "African American" women receive three tips. Why does Brown name it "African American" beauty? There is no difference from Nigerian, Ghanaian, or Jamaican beauty. We are all the same race. However, you will be happy to know that other women with different backgrounds receive around 5-8 tips. African people only had about two tutorials thought out the whole book. Good, though there could have been more. If you are African and looking for a makeup book to help you, I would recommend Sam fine's "Fine Beauty" and the DVD "The Basics of Beauty." They are for beginners, but Fine's materials are a lot more helpful for African skin than Brown's provides. Because Brown skimps for African women, it gets three stars. Some chapters are useless, other have less depth, and with so few tutorials, the book is not very helpful.

Excellent book, this book in my opinion is one of the top 5 Make-up Book Bibles for Beginners. This book has everything for beginners like me to follow, From Make-up tools to all forms of skin care. Bobbi Brown did a good job in showing diverse women of all races & ethnicities on what looks good on their skin tone which I really love as a black woman. One big thing that sets this book in another level is the step by step visual pictures & instructions shown when it comes to make-up application on the face. There are steps on how to put on blush on the cheeks, how to put foundation on the face, how to put on lip stick on the lips, how to put on makeup on for eyes, from asian eyes to smokey eyes and countless other steps for other applications of makeup done to the face. Plus there are some tips and info for makeup artist especially on the Artistry section of the book. So this book has something for everybody who are into makeup whether a beginner or a professional makeup artist. Lastly this book is a example of a timeless book you can always refer back to and keep in your makeup book collection years from now. I would recommend this book to all beginners, the best of all bobbi browns books in my opinion, and its worth the money.

This is a wonderful book for makeup by Bobbi Brown and very useful for someone to learn more about the art of makeup. It is very well written and explains practical ways to apply makeup. This book has great pictures and explains the nuances of different types of makeup application. It can be used by anyone from a beginner to a pro. There is a section in the beginning about brush selection, the importance of proper brush maintenance, and the reasons to use high quality brushes. I found this to be really useful. This book also tells us how to compile makeup kits including what items to buy and how to organize them for different purposes (travel, everyday use, and so on). I would highly recommend this book.