To be sure, my number one reference for all things beauty and make-up are the numerous and talented beauty gurus on YouTube, followed by a number of fashion blogs like dulcecandy.com, carahamelie.com, and fashionbombdaily.com. Although I’ve learned a lot from these sites, I’ve been curious to consult a publication from a professionally trained point of view, and “Pro Makeup: Salon secrets of the professionals” caught my eye.
As a reference guide, one of the features of the book I found especially useful were the detailed photography and annotations which gave thorough review of equipment, product placement, and technique. Because makeup application is “hands-on” I liked that the author didn’t overwhelm you with paragraph after paragraph of sophisticated industry lingo, but opted to use the layout of every page with clear step-by-step visual organizers.
The book is a total of 246 pages divided into 4 chapters. Preferencing the three chapters on “Essential Techniques”, “Developing Looks”, and “Applying Makeup to others” is a guide to skin care and facial features which offers generic product suggestions and régimes for all skin types and tones. If your someone like me who just had a general understanding of skin care basics, this section is very thorough, but again, reader friendly in conveying helpful information.
The following chapter reviews essential techniques for equipment (such as brushes and curlers), foundation, concealer, powder, contouring and highlighting, blush, lips, and eye shadows. This section was my favorite part of the book because the author provides tons of ‘pro-tips’ for common and unique application glitches to help create flawless, featuring enhancing looks. The third chapter on “Developing Looks” gives very simple, natural, everyday looks for all skin tones but were illustrated on models that appeared to be at least 30 years and older; a feature I found a bit odd. A special feature of this chapter is that there is a section for developing bridal looks too. The final section of the book provides helpful suggestions for applying makeup to others using costume paints to create theatric looks ranging from animal designs to period looks.
I would recommend this book for someone looking to apply makeup to others, such as aspiring makeup artists. But, for more individualized makeup looks I would recommend a more specific book that caters to specific skin tones and styles. However, I would definitely purchase this book as a makeup reference to have on-hand. The limitations of this book are that the looks are extremely basic, feature older models, and don’t experiment with color or transitional looks. And while there are variations of looks depending on age/skin tone, noticeably absent are more trendy/glamorous guides which could’ve added to my repertoire of looks. Overall, I give “Pro Makeup” 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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