Beauty by Lauren Conrad is her second guide for young women. While Conrad’s first book, Style, took a charming yet barebones approach (hey, it was her first guide!), Beauty has proven to be much stronger as a guide and resource. Conrad breaks her book down into two large segments—prep and play.
Prep
Prep was the section that really caught my eye. Prep focuses on taking care of your body through fitness and diet, managing stress, and following appropriate skin care and hair care regimens.
The skin and hair chapters in this book touch on more than just finding the right products for yourself. Beauty lists “Ingredients To Avoid” in both the hair and skincare sections, which were very educational. The skincare section featured a face map and explained how the location of your breakouts may have to do with an imbalance in your body.
The hair section went into detail on finding the perfect haircut not only for the shape of your face, but for the texture and thickness of your hair. The book defines thickness and texture and recommends different styles for a variety of hair profiles. I thought this was a great guideline for haircuts, since styles come and go and because at the end of the day, a new hairstyle should be manageable for your hair type.
Food and fitness were also well-defined in Beauty. Conrad lists ways to get motivated to exercise, but the highlight of the section was the chart on “Beauty Power Foods and Vitamins,” which shows the nutrient (the vitamin), what the vitamin does for your body (say, combat dark under eye circles), and what foods you can find the nutrient in (greens).
Play
Play was a section that I thought was less unique to Beauty–information you can find on the internet. However, Beauty has gone further in depth when it comes to styling hair, applying makeup correctly, and taking care of nails, all while creating one place to reference all of this important information.
Makeup
The focus of Play comes down to makeup. The book shows how to apply makeup properly for your skin type, what particular brushes are used for, how to avoid beauty blunders and more. My favorite part of this section talked about styling eyebrows for the shape of your face, every day makeup tutorials based on skin tone and texture, and highlighting/contouring features we are not so happy about. There are also party makeup tutorials as well, showing us how to avoid looking overdone, but still ready to have some fun!
Hair
Hair tools, everyday hair styles (and their tutorials–like Conrad’s everyday waves), and finding the right hair tools for your texture and thickness were the main topics here. There are details on finding the right curling iron, flat iron, and hair brushes. Party hairstyle tutorials were also listed, showing how to style your hair for special occasions–like Old Hollywood curls!
Nails
I’m glad the nail section was included (since many beauty resources leave this out), because it touched upon all the basics of taking care of nails, from tools to products, how to properly give yourself a manicure, and also nail art! Ingredients to avoid were also listed here, as nail polishes can contain known carcinogens like DBP and Toluene.
At the end of the day, Beauty is a great beauty resource for girls of all ages. This book makes a great gift for teenagers and young women, especially those who idolize Lauren Conrad. I would highly suggest adding this book to your collection, especially since much of the content here is timeless. Personally, I’m happy I made the purchase and will definitely be referring back to this book much more than I referred back to Style.
Rating: 4.5/5. If you’re a Lauren Conrad fan though, definitely 5/5.
