Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution: A Guide to a Lifetime of Beauty (Paperback)

The text is organised around a bunch of rather general photographs of extraordinary and ordinary women, and quite frankly there are far too many, beautifully shot as they may be. The point is to illustrate the amazing diversity of beauty, how it comes from within and how it changes - positively - across your lifetime. On this score, the book succeeds because beauty really is more than the sum of its parts. However, this philosophical side to the book leaves less space for more instructional aspects (diagrams for how to apply make-up etc) that some women might be seeking.

Bobbi Brown is one of my favourite beauty writers because she is so commonsensical and 'real', so I am disappointed not to be able to recommend this book. Her previous book Bobbi Brown Beauty The Ultimate Beauty Resource (to which I would unreservedly give five stars) is far more in-depth and I would advise turning to this for beauty tips and make-up inspiration.

For those of you looking for a brilliant all-round guide then buy The Beauty Bible by Josephine Fairley and Sarah Stacey, or their book Feel Fab Forever in the same vein for older women, both of which include recommendations of products based on tests on thousands of ordinary women.

The book contains a lot of photos, collages and examples of cosmetics but the main reason why I would prefer Kevyn Aucoin's Making Faces and Nars' Make your Mind up is because both are more adventurous thatn this.

Brown is rigid - she loves her neutrals, brown, greys, and doesn't think twice about telling people that blue shadow is just a no no - but how can you rule out EVERY shade of blue, matched with all possible skin tones in the world?!

The book is of a good standard overall, but if you want a bit of daring, try another one.

The text is organised around a bunch of rather general photographs of extraordinary and ordinary women, and quite frankly there are far too many, beautifully shot as they may be. The point is to illustrate the amazing diversity of beauty, how it comes from within and how it changes - positively - across your lifetime. On this score, the book succeeds because beauty really is more than the sum of its parts. However, this philosophical side to the book leaves less space for more instructional aspects (diagrams for how to apply make-up etc) that some women might be seeking.

Bobbi Brown is one of my favourite beauty writers because she is so commonsensical and 'real', so I am disappointed not to be able to recommend this book. Her previous book Bobbi Brown Beauty The Ultimate Beauty Resource (to which I would unreservedly give five stars) is far more in-depth and I would advise turning to this for beauty tips and make-up inspiration.

For those of you looking for a brilliant all-round guide then buy The Beauty Bible by Josephine Fairley and Sarah Stacey, or their book Feel Fab Forever in the same vein for older women, both of which include recommendations of products based on tests on thousands of ordinary women.