Hello dear reader(s) and welcome to another instalment of Nessa reads books and writes reviews (NRBWR). Today I’m reviewing another makeup book for you, and yes there’s photos. 🙂 Face: Make-up, Skincare, Beauty is an interesting and innovative makeup manual created by two sisters Samantha Chapman and Nicola Haste. Together they created the Pixiwoo brand, they have a hugely successful YouTube channel and they’re the Artistic Consultants of the popular and affordable brush line Real Techniques. You can find out more about Sam and Nic (as they are known) through their various social networks. Here’s the link to their website where you can find all their social handles.
Face was published in October 2016 and it’s in a league of its own. It’s the makeup manual for the 21st century girl/woman who is used to watching YouTube makeup tutorials, Instagram stories and all that jazz. Face has an accompanying (free) mobile application that you can download on your smartphone or tablet. Through the app the reader gains accesses to videos embedded in the pages of the book. On certain pages you have a smartphone symbol and when you start the app and scan the page with your phone magic happens! 🙂 Trough the screen you can see that a video appeared on the page so you can press play and watch Sam or Nic do a tutorial about the subject you’ve just read. It really is amazingly innovative and quite fascinating!
Although I love how the authors managed to integrate the content of the classic makeup manual with modern technology and video tutorials, it’s not really the reason why someone would spend their hard earned cash on a makeup manual when they can watch YouTube tutorials for free. Content is what makes you reach for a book and Face will not disappoint you in that department. Sam and Nic are both no nonsense kind of ladies, who write clearly and concisely (I tend to use those two words a lot do I?). They write about makeup and skincare with such joy and passion, and their writing style reflects that. In addition they manage to present makeup instructions in such a way that you don’t feel it’s a lesson, rather your best mate (who just happens to be a makeup junkie 😀 ) telling you how to apply your foundation so you don’t look like a giant orange cake. 😀
Likewise, I enjoyed that the authors dedicated segments of the book to brows, lashes and even had a whole page dedicated to mascaras, formulas and wand types! These details showed me how both sisters are truly passionate about makeup and how even the smallest details matter. I also loved how they wrote a lot about skincare and its importance, in addition to having a helpful skin type check list chart. Another favourite bit was the section about eye makeup for glasses wearers where they acknowledge that the biggest issue in that department is that you can’t see what you’re doing without the glasses! Usually makeup tutorials for glasses wearers focus on how to make the eyes bigger or smaller, completely disregarding the fact that we wear glasses because of our impaired eyesight!
Compared to Bobbi Brown’s makeup manual (which I reviewed in my last post) Face is a more up to date book, suitable for the generation of girls and women who got used to learning about makeup and skincare through YouTube videos. Furthermore, while Ms. Brown’s book leans more towards the nude, every day classic look which is appropriate for work (and let’s face it the majority of women do their makeup for work), the Pixiwoo sister’s book features more colourful, fun and quirky looks as shown in the photo below. My observation is not a critique on either book or makeup artist. Both looks have their worth, and depending on your personal preferences you’ll like one makeup artist’s style more than the other. In other words if you prefer the natural, nude every day look and you do your makeup mainly for work I believe Ms. Brown’s makeup manual will be more to your tastes.
All things considered should you get the book? Well if you like makeup than you definitely should. 🙂 If you’re not really in to makeup or you’re unsure about the subject I sincerely encourage you to get this book and read it. The combination of text and video tutorials that accompany it will make things clearer. It will also encourage you to experiment with makeup in addition to introducing you to skincare basics and keeping makeup brushes and other tools of the trade clean and in good shape. Face is an interesting book to read, and it’s always a joy to see makeup through the eyes of various artists and their perspective. Until next time dear reader(s)!
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