Pretty Powerful: Beauty Stories to Inspire Confidence

by Bobbi Brown, Sara Bliss (Contributor)

The bestselling author and makeup artist gives you application techniques you can use at home and personal stories that will inspire you to be your best. Pretty Powerful is a new kind of makeup manual that starts with who you are, rather than how you look. In this book, Bobbi interviews dozens of real women, celebrities, and athletes about what beauty means to them and shows, step-by-step, how to achieve each look. Along the way, she shares her trade secrets for striking eyes, youthful skin, pretty lips, and perfect brows for any age, skin color, or beauty type. Brimming with hundreds of stunning makeover ideas, recommendations for the best tools and products, inspiring beauty stories, and expert tips not found anywhere else, Pretty Powerful is the must-have guide for lasting beauty, inside and out.Includes personal stories Danner, actressAlexa Ray Joel, musicianGabourey Sidibe, actressCristie Kerr, professional golferAlexandra Wilson and Alexis Maybank, co-founders of Gilt GroupeEstelle, musicianLee Woodruff, writer and advocateAnd many others!

Genres: Nonfiction, Fashion

299 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 14, 2012

About the author

In addition to running her company, Bobbi continues to pursue her craft by creating the runway looks for New York Fashion Week. A permanent fixture backstage, she works with the industry’s best designers including Rachel Roy, J. Mendel, Erin Fetherston, Tory Burch and Cynthia Rowley.

Bobbi often does how-to segments on The Today Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and her advice can be found in syndicated columns and advice features for magazines and websites around the globe.

Of course, you can always find Bobbi where she began—on the set. Bobbi is still the world's most celebrated makeup artists for personalities and fashion magazines.

A New York Times bestselling author, Bobbi has written five instructional and engaging beauty and lifestyle books: Bobbi Brown Beauty, Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty, Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution, Bobbi Brown Living Beauty and Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual.

For Bobbi, making other people's lives better simply makes sense. "I love helping others because it feels good," she says. On a year-round basis, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics donates generous financial and in-kind support to organizations including Dress for Success and the Jane Addams Vocational High School.

Reviews

[Diem · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have any other Bobbi Brown book you don't need this one. Unless you love the other ones. This is a nice extension of those. Nothing new here but lots of fun before and after and more of the same BB looks. To be honest, I don't love her hand. It is a little heavy on the concealer and blush and the eyeliner always looks too obvious but I like her use of color and the spirit of her work.

[Caroline Magill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit meh. Nothing new really but nice photos.

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as her others one but still filled with really pretty photographs. Glad this was a library checkout and not a purchase.

[Breanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I picked this up on a whim today and spent the evening after the kids went to bed reading and looking at this book. Not only does Bobbi Brown walk you through how to create different makeup looks but she really celebrates the beauty of women as they are. Overall, nothing revolutionary, but I'm glad I picked this book up. I'm excited to put on my makeup in the morning!

[Gracey E · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Bobbi Brown, world-famous makeup artist, Pretty Powerful is another kind of makeup manual that starts with who you are, rather than how you look. In this book, Bobbi interviews dozens of real women, celebrities, and athletes about what beauty means to them and shows, step-by-step, how to achieve each look. Along the way, she shares her trade secrets for striking eyes, youthful skin, pretty lips, and perfect brows for any age, skin color, or beauty type. Brimming with hundreds of stunning makeover ideas, recommendations for the best tools and products, inspiring beauty stories, and expert tips not found anywhere else, Pretty Powerful is the must-have guide for lasting beauty, inside and out.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this! She took real women living their best lives and asked them to be her models. The book includes profiles of the women with before and after pictures. The looks are very natural and achievable.

[Fiona Leonie · Rating 2 out of 5]

yeah muss echt nicht, gar nichts gelernt außer „sei du selbst und trag drei schichten mascara auf“

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makeup meets empowerment. This book celebrates real women and their stories, showing how beauty can be a tool for confidence rather than a mask. An uplifting read with plenty of practical tips.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the wide variety of skin tones and ethnicities presented in this book. The before and after photos are excellent for reference.

[Beth Kakuma-Depew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read anything else by Bobbi Brown, and skimmed through this book to look at lots of before and after shots of a wide variety of women, from a large ethnic variety and a wide band of ages. The make up tips were vague, but they didn't try to sell certain products of her make-up line. What I found confusing was her categories. Some seemed to be exactly the same, like Pretty Natural and Pretty Authentic - please tell me what the difference is? I get the different approach from Classic, Radiant (more purple?) and Bold (more bright pink?).

Also, there were three Asian women in the Pretty Bold category, and two seemed to have make-up that look more low-key, like a Natural or Radient. I had a sneaking suspicion that all three were in Bold because they were just...Asian. Not that the other categories didn't have great Asian or half-Asian models.

So yeah, I gleaned some contemporary make-up tips, but mostly this book is coffee table book to spark discussion.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is my first purchase of an instructional make-up book. I am really enjoying it… I would recommend Pretty Powerful to any woman who wants her makeup routine and look to respect who she is, and learn general tips on looking beautiful and natural.

It is inspiring that she shows me makeup for "who I am", and the amount of time and effort I want to put into my look. I like that there is room for interpretation and I've genuinely enjoyed recreating the looks with my own makeup and budget. For that past few weeks, I look forward to washing my face on Saturday mornings, so I can experiment with different looks from the book. This book is all I need. Thanks BB!

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Methinks Ms. Brown is starting to phone it in. There's no information in this book that can't be found in her half dozen other how-to guides. While I can appreciate the use of before and after photos, what's the point if you're not going to detail how you went from a bare face to a finished look? Her first book, "Bobbi Brown Beauty," is a lot more fun and contains more detailed info, but I suppose one needs to stay in the public eye somehow, so putting the same old stuff in a glossy new book must be the way to do it.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad that I checked this out of the library and didn't buy it. This book was nice to look at, but it isn't very helpful at all when it comes to recreating the looks. I understand that it would not make sense of Bobbi to list specific products, since products get discontinued all the time. However, she could have at least written what shades of products she used. I thought this book could have been a lot better. Robert Jones' books are much more helpful.

[––––•(-•The Insomniac Book Hoarder•- · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borrowed this hardback matte paged how-to make up book from the library, its laden with pretty pictures of both reel and real people. This book has more of before and after pictures and statements rather actually showing us the process.

Its a pretty book, somewhat nice to be used as a coffee table. Im sure theres a lot more in-depth Bobbi Brown books I have yet to read..

[Lisa Scovill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I was really looking for beauty ideas. Bobbi Brown has always had a sensible beauty aesthetic, so I got this from the library. It seems that she uses the same makeup job on every woman in the book. They all look great, but there's no information on what shades were used or how to apply them. Also full of feel good, rah rah stories.

[Danielle Robertson Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a scientist, and I needed a scientific approach to makeup. I absolutely LOVED this book because it broke everything down into makeup preference (from natural to classic to bold) and area (eyes, lips, etc). All the sections had step by step instructions and corresponding pictures. Can't wait to try out the pages of notes I took while reading this book.

[VBergen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a collection of before/after photos (without and with makeup), with some few text below it but no step-by-step explanations. It includes some cheer-up, be-yourself, inner-beauty talk and some words of the women in the pictures.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't consider myself a beauty guru, but I saw this on the shelf at work and thought it looked nice! I like Brown's makeup style - very simple, fresh, and natural, even on the "night time" looks. The photos are great and there isn't much writing, but it is well written and works!

[Leigh Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't agree with every piece of advice, but cannot pass up Bobbi theory!

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focused more on feeling good about yourself than about makeup. It was a good book to get inspired by.

[MaryannC Victorian Dreamer · Rating 2 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It was nice to read about beauty on the inside rather than always focusing on the outside.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a nice surprise. Empowering pictures and text.

[Lindsey]

very inspirational! recommended!

[Ashley]

Got about halfway through, but nothing was really sticking out as new or fascinating. Not bad, just not how I'd like to spend my reading time these days.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't what I expected

I really enjoyed this book. I loved all the inspirational stories from the ladies she made over. Even if you're not that into makeup it was a nice read.

[Jays]

ok book on makeup. not great