cover image Plastic Surgery Without the Surgery: The Miracle of Makeup Techniques

Plastic Surgery Without the Surgery: The Miracle of Makeup Techniques

Eve Pearl. Warner Books, $19.95 (126pp) ISBN 978-0-446-53169-6

Designed for the woman who is unhappy with an aspect of her face or body but who""either cannot afford plastic surgery or does not want to risk its very real potential side effects,"" Pearl's guide to makeup techniques is a friendly, affordable alternative to the doctor's office. As a makeup artist to celebrities such as Barbara Walters, Brooke Shields, Mira Sorvino and Kelly Ripa, Pearl has blue ribbon credentials among the rich and famous. This book, however, leaves starry glamour aside and focuses on the common problems of ordinary women everywhere: dark circles under the eyes, blotchy complexion, unwanted freckles and double chins. Pearl uses normal-looking people, including her own family members and herself, as the models for her before and after demonstrations, which makes her results seem both more doable and more believable. (Several of the models are African-American.) For example, in the section titled""Bye-Bye Crow's-Feet and Laugh Lines"" she shows how concealer and foundation can be used in a""two-step process of spackling and painting"" that fills in and covers signs of aging. Other sections cover techniques like contouring and setting. Some readers may wish that more time had been spent explaining basic techniques like blending foundation. But for readers who already have some experience using makeup, and are satisfied with a transformation that can be washed off at the end of the evening, Pearl's how-to book should be just the trick.