If I remember rightly Martin bought me this for Christmas last year, and it had been on my wishlist for a while. This book comes highly recommended from the beauty community and I can see why. For a very reasonable price, you get a book that not only covers make up (as the name suggests) but skincare, nutrition and much more besides.


In this book there are hundreds of useful tips from Bobbi Brown herself, and tutorials to show you exactly how to apply everything from lipsticks to eyeshadow. There are also guidelines for creating certain looks e.g. bridal, and also advice for applying makeup if you are a teenager. I thought this book would be catered more towards the professional end of the scale, but it really is aimed for everyone, no matter if you're a makeup artist or someone just starting to experiment with make up.


Despite being branded as a Bobbi Brown product, there's nothing in here that suggests only buying her products, nor are particular items of hers named in the make up tutorials. For example, the book suggests buying a colour corrector for use under the eyes, but does not suggest using the brands own corrector. I know name or product-dropping is not only a common occurrence from brands, but is also frowned upon by pretty much everyone in beauty. Everyone knows that alternatives can be found in other brands, so why overly push your own in this context? By avoiding this, Bobbi Brown's book is a pleasure to read and to flick through as and when you want to.

Bobbi Brown's tips, tricks and advice are sensible and well thought-out, and everyone could benefit from having this book in their collection. There's so much in there that you're pretty much guaranteed to find something useful or that you didn't know before. In short; if you're even slightly into make up or skincare you need to own this - stat!

Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual is available to buy from Amazon for £16 with free P+P.