Press / Articles  •  Book Synopsis

Book Synopsis:

"So, you wanna come home with me?"

Most women hear this every night in bars and nightclubs.I hear this every day at cosmetic counters, TV studios and salons.

I’m a Hollywood makeup artist. Women invite me home with them because they love their makeup application but don’t know how to do it themselves on a daily basis.  I have made up movie stars as well as soccer Moms and have found that they all share the same bewilderment when made up by a professional.   How did you do that?

Repeatedly hearing that question has brought me to a conclusion.

Women are starved for basic makeup information.

Why? I did my research and found that there are books on the market written by magazine beauty editors, whose knowledge is more about product, less about application.  There are books written by ex-models; they’ve had a career having other people apply their makeup.  Some books are written by creators of makeup lines and are all about selling their own brand.  The books written by film and fashion makeup artists fail to understand that our lives are not a movie or a runway show.  Collectively, none of these books address the real makeup needs of real everyday women.

This is the only makeup book on the market that shows women how to apply and buy makeup for daily life.  It teaches a woman how makeup is meant to highlight her face not turn it into a canvas for fancy and costly artwork.  It challenges old makeup ideals with basic logic.  It’s a practical, no-nonsense, approach written by an everywoman for the everywoman.

Today's beauty books deal with a result: they show how fabulous a woman can look in the hands of experts.  FROM THE NECK UP gives practical advice from a down to earth relatable teacher and shows how those expert hands can be your own.

• It’s What Not to Wear for your face.
• It’s Clean Sweep for your face.
• The Food Network’s Rachel Ray can teach you how to make a 30-minute meal.  Janice Bremec can teach you how to make up a 30-second face and she does it with straight talking honesty. 
  

ABOUT THE BOOK

In approximately 70,000 words, the book goes into specifics about basic cosmetic needs. How to buy makeup, easy definitions of various types of cosmetics, what to carry in your purse or for travel, how to set up a personal vanity nook, how to shop in the drugstore and most important, simple tips for a well groomed face.

Topics covered include:

• Moisturizer, Sunscreen
• Foundation, Concealer, Powder
• The How of the brow tweeze
• Eye shadow, Eyeliner, Lashes
• Blush, Bronzer
• Lipstick, gloss and the power of Red

The book also includes 10 Face Recipes that give detailed plans on how to makeup your face for common daily occurrences.  The “30 second face” recipe is the perfect guideline for a gal on the go who only has the time of most television commercials, to get out the door before the kids start screaming that they missed the bus.

The book demystifies fancy makeup lingo and unlocks the secrets to how department stores make their sales.  Have you ever gone into a store to buy one mascara and walked out with a face full of makeup?  This book teaches you how to not get swindled by a company’s free gift that ultimately isn’t so free.  Cosmetics is a multi-billion dollar industry that promises you the moon.  I am a makeup artist who promises you the down to earth facts.

Other books feature photographs showing the results of a makeup application.  This book will have photos that show what I see in the mirror while applying my own makeup. The reader can follow along and match my personal technique.  Beauty books written by male makeup artists lack that vital ingredient.  A male makeup artist might be able to put it on you but he can’t teach you how to put it on yourself.  Unlike me, it’s not something that he does everyday.  Give a gal a fish, she’ll eat for a day, teach a gal to fish and she’ll eat for a lifetime and look stunning while doing so!

Within the book are the Vanity Table Vignettes; true stories about some of the women that I have made up.  These stories are makeup for your mind.  You will laugh, nod in recognition and identify with other women’s makeup foibles and ultimately learn how to over-come your own. FROM THE NECK UP is the Oprah of makeup.

WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK DIFFERENT

Lookout!  I’m gett’n on the soapbox!

This book is not only about practical makeup advice for women; it is the start of a crusade to urge women to stop running to a man to tell her how to be beautiful.

Have you ever seen a man questioning, embracing, or shelling out money for advice on shaving his beard from a woman?   Never, yet how often do you see a woman seeking advice from a man for her daily grooming?  Repeatedly.  This has got to stop.

As women, we have been through and continue to go through sexist obstacles everyday but as the proud and confident women that we are we bombard through those obstacles and prevail. When it comes to beauty however, I see women going through value obstacles and they face them not with confidence, but with questions of self worth.  When a woman doesn’t find internal answers she often turns to a man for external validation. Then her beauty becomes about how a man sees her and what she can do to look better for him.  Enter the male advice. 

While roaming the bookstores I came across a book written by a self-titled “Queer” guy claiming to know women’s beauty secrets.  I was angered and annoyed that a man, who has never had a menstrual cramp and whose sexual preference doesn’t include me, claims to know the secrets of how I can be more beautiful.  This is absurd.

Another book by a famous male makeup artist gives instructions on how to wear makeup to look like Marlene Dietrich. Does that teach us how to be our own woman or how to be a man’s idea of a female starlet?  My face is my calling card to the world so why turn it into nothing more than a canvas for a man’s artistic pursuit?  When my uterus feels like it’s swollen to twice its normal size, the last thing I think about are Marlene Dietrich’s eyebrows.  I just want to get through the day and try to look my womanly best when a part of me that makes me a woman is clenched in pain while the rest of me craves chocolate.  What’s the tip on how to be beautiful then? 

There is no book, written by a woman, straight or gay, claiming to know the grooming secrets of a man so why are we allowing a man to teach us how to be a well-groomed woman?  Learning about female beauty based on male knowledge insults my intelligence. It’s time to stop these insults and start accepting advice from one of our own.

This is not “male” bashing. It's “idea” bashing.

There are many male makeup artists and I am not at all proposing that their skills should not be acknowledged because of their gender.  What I am proposing is that we should accept their makeup work as their skill and not as insight into the secrets of womanhood.  

Wearing makeup is one of the pleasures of being a woman yet somehow we have let men dictate that pleasure to us.  Stops the manness! 

What makes this book different?  IT’S WRITTEN BY A WOMAN!