Latest Fashion Stories

Fashion and beauty writer Nada Guirgis Manley interviewed dozens of beauty experts and compiled them into her latest book called Secrets of the Beauty Insiders. We were lucky enough to get a copy and Sarah Bellum submitted the following review.Sarah’s SummaryBook: Secrets of the Beauty Insid

Fashion and beauty writer Nada Guirgis Manley interviewed dozens of beauty experts and compiled them into her latest book called Secrets of the Beauty Insiders. We were lucky enough to get a copy and Sarah Bellum submitted the following review.

Sarah’s Summary
Book: Secrets of the Beauty Insiders
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Condensed Book Review

Secrets of the Beauty Insiders (SOTBI) has 225 pages packed with useful information about practically every beauty topic imaginable. There are chapters dedicated to skin, nails, face, lips, makeup and hair. I liked this book even though many of the “secrets” can be found elsewhere and some are not quite right.

Complete Book Review

When I first received SOTBI, I was pretty excited. Sure, I know a lot about making cosmetics but I’m just like everyone else when it comes to figuring out what makes me look best. At first glance, the book was great. With chapters on skin, hair, makeup and everything else, this it looked like it was going to be indispensable. The book has a nice layout with easy to read columns and headlines that make it similar to a reference book. It’s nice because you can look for solutions to your specific problem instead of having to read the whole book through.

The list of experts made me a bit nervous because there were lots of celebrity makeup artists, dermatologists and beauty entrepreneurs. I’ve read and heard advice from these types in the past and it isn’t always completely unbiased. I also didn’t see a cosmetic scientist in the bunch. Guess they couldn’t really ask the Left or Right Brain for input. Too bad.

The first two chapters are perfect examples of what is both great about this book and where it falls short. On the positive side you’ll find pragmatic advice from dermatologists about what treatments actually work on problems like acne, dark circles, and puffy eyes. There is even a little skepticism thrown in about “natural” products and whether dietary supplements can help your skin (they can’t).

On the other hand, these chapters also have what amounts to commercials for the experts giving the advice. Does the Peter Thomas Roth Beta Hydroxy Acid 2% Acne Wash really work better than Neutrogena Daily Scrub? I don’t think so. I mean I can’t fault Mr. Roth or Jan Marini for giving a plug to their products, but it just makes me skeptical of the advice they are giving.

The chapters on skin and makeup are the best ones in the book. The information about haircare is not really that good. Maybe this is because dermatologists were consulted for the skin information while hair stylists were the experts for the hair chapters. Unfortunately, we’ve seen all too often that hair stylists completely buy into bogus ideas propagated by salon brands. In these chapters, there is very little skepticism at all.

For example, one expert advises that celtic sea salt can help when you are experiencing hair loss? Another says that ionic hairdryers are too strong. This is just silly. These are supposed to be the hair experts? Sure there is some interesting advice but overall I was really disappointed in the haircare chapters.

The book ends with some appendices that provide useful definitions and a helpful online shopping guide. This last section could keep me busy for weeks.

Overall, this is a decent book. It is highly readable and contains some useful information. Perhaps if they took a slightly more skeptical view of the advice from the experts it could’ve been a great book.

www.thebeautybrains.com

Popularity: 55% [?]

Share This