Book Review: Make Up by Michelle Phan

Book Review: Make Up by Michelle PhanMake Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success - Online and Off by Michelle Phan
Published by Harmony on October 14, 2014
Genres: Non-Fiction
Pages: 224
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Synopsis:

Michelle Phan has believed in makeup since the first time she was allowed to try eyeliner. When she looked in the mirror and saw a transformed version of herself looking back, she fell in love with the sense of confidence that makeup could give her. Ever since she posted her first makeup tutorial on YouTube, she has dedicated herself to inspire millions by using makeup as a tool for transformation and self expression.

Now, Michelle has compiled all of her best wisdom into Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success--Online and Off. From creating a gorgeous smoky eye to understanding contouring to developing an online persona, Michelle has advice to help you transform every facet of your life. Make Up is packed with Michelle’s trademark beauty and style tutorials, stories and pictures from her own life, and advice on the topics she is asked about most, including etiquette, career, entrepreneurship, and creativity. From the everyday (such as how to get glowing skin) to the big picture (such as how to turn your passion into a profession), Make Up is a practical and empowering resource to help anyone put their best face forward.

I think I’ve seen maybe one of Michelle Phan’s videos; that will probably be changing now that I’ve read her book. Aside from being absolutely adorable, she seems very knowledgeable about her craft, and after reading her life story, I feel great about supporting her as an artist.

Her book begins by chronicling her life up to the present. She was a very poor, yet extremely hard working teenager, who’s family made many sacrifices for her to go to art school. Eventually, through her vlogging, Google hired her, and the rest is history. She then goes on to give a quick over view of beauty tips, from how to care for your skin to coloring your hair. The last fourth of the book is dedicated to manners, interview skills, social media do’s and don’ts, and tips for being an entrepreneur.

While this book doesn’t go too deep into specific make-up techniques, I feel like that’s not the point. That’s why she has hundreds of videos on Youtube. This book is supposed to be an overview, and to point you to watching her videos for more help. It does go into a few of the more complicated techniques, such as contouring, but I feel like watching her videos for those topics would be more helpful.

The book design is adorable, with lots of photos, some sketches to help illustrate her points, and has a lovely color scheme (mint and pastel pink!) with some cute fonts. I loved just looking at the design of the book and seeing all of the pictures of Michelle putting on make up or her cute wardrobe.

I would recommend this book for a middle schooler/high schooler who is looking for a good skin care routine, basic make-up, and manners. Or maybe, like me,  you’ve never paid much attention to beauty routines, and you’re interested in the basics. There’s a lot of interesting information in this book, that, though it’s not earth shattering, it’s presented in a cute, bubbly fashion that you just can’t help but appreciate.

This book is filling the category “Type of Book You Rarely or Never Read” (Non-fiction/Self Help) in my Full House Reading Challenge.

4 Stars

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