- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Crown Publications (29 Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0307237486
- ISBN-13: 978-0307237484
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.7 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 727,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Everybody loves beauty products. Even if you think you know nothing about them, or even if you think you hate them, you actually know plenty about them and, in fact, have several of them that you love. You have major opinions that lie barely beneath the surface. Women whomodestly/moralistically claim to “never use all that beauty stuff” are big Clinique ladies, usually with a healthy helping of Neutrogena. —Free Gift with Purchase
From the beloved beauty editor of Lucky magazine comes a dishy, charming, and insightful memoir of an unlikely career. Combining the personal stories of a quirky tomboy who found herself in the inner circle of the beauty world with priceless makeup tips (Is there really a perfect red lipstick out there for everyone? Which miracle skin potion actually works?), Jean Godfrey-June takes us behind the scenes to a world of glamour, fashion, and celebrity.
Godfrey-June’s funny, smart, outsider perspective on beauty has set her apart since she first started writing her popular “Godfrey’s Guide” column for Elle magazine. In Free Gift with Purchase, she invites us into the absurd excess of the offices, closets, and medicine cabinets of beauty editors. From shelves upon shelves of face lotion, conditioner, lipstick, eye cream, wrinkle reducers, and perfume to thoroughly disturbing “acne breakfasts” and “cellulite lunches”; from the lows (a makeover from hell, getting pedicure tips from porn stars) to the highs (the glamour of the fashion shows in Paris, lounging in bed with Tom Ford, a flight on Donald Trump’s private jet, and landing her dream job at Lucky magazine), we see it all.
Like a friend sharing the details of her incredibly cool job, Jean lets us in on the lessons she’s learned along the way, about the eternal search for the right haircut and the perfect lip gloss, of course—but more important, about what her job has meant to her and why she loves what she does, blemishes and all.
From the beloved beauty editor of Lucky magazine comes a dishy, charming, and insightful memoir of an unlikely career. Combining the personal stories of a quirky tomboy who found herself in the inner circle of the beauty world with priceless makeup tips (Is there really a perfect red lipstick out there for everyone? Which miracle skin potion actually works?), Jean Godfrey-June takes us behind the scenes to a world of glamour, fashion, and celebrity.
Godfrey-June’s funny, smart, outsider perspective on beauty has set her apart since she first started writing her popular “Godfrey’s Guide” column for Elle magazine. In Free Gift with Purchase, she invites us into the absurd excess of the offices, closets, and medicine cabinets of beauty editors. From shelves upon shelves of face lotion, conditioner, lipstick, eye cream, wrinkle reducers, and perfume to thoroughly disturbing “acne breakfasts” and “cellulite lunches”; from the lows (a makeover from hell, getting pedicure tips from porn stars) to the highs (the glamour of the fashion shows in Paris, lounging in bed with Tom Ford, a flight on Donald Trump’s private jet, and landing her dream job at Lucky magazine), we see it all.
Like a friend sharing the details of her incredibly cool job, Jean lets us in on the lessons she’s learned along the way, about the eternal search for the right haircut and the perfect lip gloss, of course—but more important, about what her job has meant to her and why she loves what she does, blemishes and all.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am a sucker for any fashion-y, magazine-y documentary/non-fiction story, so ordered this without knowing the author at all, but optimistic that it would be interesting.
It completely exceeded my expectations, largely because I didn't expect it to be so funny - as in, out-loud laughs. Jean Godfrey-June is a terrific writer: dry, concise and absolutely authentic, in the manner of Melissa Bank and Susan Jane Gilman (Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress - also brilliant). Predictable comparisons to The Devil Wears Prada aren't quite accurate, although it's of at least that calibre, because the characters aren't as ridiculous. It is, after all, a real memoir, rather than a thinly veiled pretend-fiction one. The only negative was the paean to Lucky, her current employer - too much - but forgivable when the rest of the book is that good.
If you like smart American humourous writing, and you're even remotely into comics and cosmetics, this book is an absolute pleasure. I can't recommend it too highly.
It completely exceeded my expectations, largely because I didn't expect it to be so funny - as in, out-loud laughs. Jean Godfrey-June is a terrific writer: dry, concise and absolutely authentic, in the manner of Melissa Bank and Susan Jane Gilman (Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress - also brilliant). Predictable comparisons to The Devil Wears Prada aren't quite accurate, although it's of at least that calibre, because the characters aren't as ridiculous. It is, after all, a real memoir, rather than a thinly veiled pretend-fiction one. The only negative was the paean to Lucky, her current employer - too much - but forgivable when the rest of the book is that good.
If you like smart American humourous writing, and you're even remotely into comics and cosmetics, this book is an absolute pleasure. I can't recommend it too highly.
Format:Hardcover
One woman's autobiographical atttempt at self-deprecation does not in my books mean she is lifting the lid on the beauty industry.
A pleasant enough read but very light on any insider facts and I shouldn't have bought it!
A pleasant enough read but very light on any insider facts and I shouldn't have bought it!
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Ever wonder what a beauty editor really, truly thinks of the products that fill her magazine's pages? Or, hypothesize about what happens to the between 50 and 200 free beauty items that come across her desk every day? If so, pick up a copy of "Free Gift With Purchase" by the winning tell-it-like-it-is Beauty Editor of Lucky Magazine, Jean Godfrey-June. She has crafted a breezy, down to earth, funny peek behind the scenes look at what goes on in the glamorous world of makeup and skin care, which she allows is "impossible to take seriously."
As she notes, she has a cousin who is immersed in research, helping to find a cure for pediatric cancer. "Me," she writes, "I ponder lipstick."
Her memoir is aptly subtitled "My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup." Rightly so, because as she says she used to think she was ugly. In fact, while a youngster her one concern was that "people would mistake me for a boy." But life has a way of surprising us - she never dreamed she would some day do an interview on a hotel bed with Tom Ford. And, she found herself attracted to the mystique of those lotions, potions, and colors that held so much promise. As she writes, "It's like candy, all those little boxes and bottles."
Her take on fellow workers at Elle magazine is hilarious - there was "The Playboy" ("noted for the trail of broken hearted supermodels in his wake); "The Fashionista" who ruled the fashion department; and "Eminence Grise" who evidently had money and gave input to the magazine re finances and personnel issues. Sound a bit like "The Devil Wears Prada"? It's even funnier.
Godfrey-June's tales of the parties, the trips to Paris, and the fashion show seatings are fodder for daydreams of life among the glamoratti. Sidebars filled with information dot the book, such as in one titled The Fungible Truth we learn that many eye pencils come from the same factory in Germany, and that nothing, zip, zero from the cosmetics counter will erase wrinkles.
Each page bursts with chuckles, dishy tidbits, and solid advice - don't miss "Free Gift With Purchase."
[...]
As she notes, she has a cousin who is immersed in research, helping to find a cure for pediatric cancer. "Me," she writes, "I ponder lipstick."
Her memoir is aptly subtitled "My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup." Rightly so, because as she says she used to think she was ugly. In fact, while a youngster her one concern was that "people would mistake me for a boy." But life has a way of surprising us - she never dreamed she would some day do an interview on a hotel bed with Tom Ford. And, she found herself attracted to the mystique of those lotions, potions, and colors that held so much promise. As she writes, "It's like candy, all those little boxes and bottles."
Her take on fellow workers at Elle magazine is hilarious - there was "The Playboy" ("noted for the trail of broken hearted supermodels in his wake); "The Fashionista" who ruled the fashion department; and "Eminence Grise" who evidently had money and gave input to the magazine re finances and personnel issues. Sound a bit like "The Devil Wears Prada"? It's even funnier.
Godfrey-June's tales of the parties, the trips to Paris, and the fashion show seatings are fodder for daydreams of life among the glamoratti. Sidebars filled with information dot the book, such as in one titled The Fungible Truth we learn that many eye pencils come from the same factory in Germany, and that nothing, zip, zero from the cosmetics counter will erase wrinkles.
Each page bursts with chuckles, dishy tidbits, and solid advice - don't miss "Free Gift With Purchase."
[...]
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