Beauty Confidential: The No Preaching, No Lies, Advice-You'll- Actually-Use Guide to Looking Your Best

304 Pages·2007·2.75 MB·english

by  Nadine Haobsh

Beauty
Confi dential
The no preaching, no lies,
advice-you’ll-actually-use
guide to looking your best
Nadine Haobsh

Contents
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER ONE Getting Started 5
CHAPTER TWO Hairstyling 37
CHAPTER THREE Hair Color 78
CHAPTER FOUR Eyes 94
CHAPTER FIVE Complexion 116
CHAPTER SIX Sensitive Skin 156
CHAPTER SEVEN Face 172
CHAPTER EIGHT Lips 194
iv BEAUTY
CONFIDENTIAL
CHAPTER NINE Body 208
CHAPTER TEN Bikini Line 240
CHAPTER ELEVEN Manicure / Pedicure 251
EPILOGUE 263
NOTE ON THE PRODUCTS
IN THIS BOOK 273
INDEX OF PRODUCTS 275
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Nadine Haobsh
Credits
Co er
V
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
R
For fi ve years, I worked as a beauty editor in New York City,
swinging my way from magazine to magazine and quickly
working my way up the masthead. I was on track to becoming
a beauty director—one of the younger ones in the industry, if
things kept course. Then I started writing a blog called “Jolie
in NYC.” And then all hell broke loose.
My blog was a poor-man’s version of the popular gossip
sites that were sprouting like kudzu, with regurgitated celeb-
rity news that I posted and added my own hi-larious two cents
on. I even enjoyed a brief side foray into the public ser vice
sector, cobbling together a side blog called “Nick and Jessica
Breakup Watch,” which included proof of their imminent de-
mise. (Hey, I was right in the end.) After taking a particularly
lavish press trip to Arizona, however, I briefl y tabled the celeb-
rity content and wrote instead about our journey, marveling at
how beauty editors were treated to such perks as private jets,
2 BEAUTY
CONFIDENTIAL
designer handbags, and massages. The blog was anonymous
(mistake one) and included commentary on my industry and
the often tenuous dynamics between editors and publicists
(mistake two). I started getting coverage in blogs like Gawker,
Jossip, and Mediabistro, was swiftly outed by the New York
Post, and had a plum offer at Seventeen magazine rescinded
. . . the day after I left my position at Ladies’ Home Journal.
(Worst . . . day . . . of . . . my . . . life.)
Except, in retrospect, it wasn’t. I learned that fl exibility and
hard work are not mutually exclusive and decided on a whim
to go for broke, trying to make a career out of this craaazy
blogging thing. (Cue violins.) Every second I could, I posted,
noting favorite products, great tips gleaned from industry ex-
perts, celebrity beauty trends, and, most importantly, answer-
ing beauty questions from readers. In the fl urry of Q&A’s, I
realized that there’s a serious lack of honesty in today’s beauty
information: we’re sick of being lectured, talked down to, ad-
vertised at, and just generally misled.
The questions are endless. When every dermatologist in
America is touting an astronomically pricey skin-care line,
does that mean you’re ruining your complexion if you only
have money for the drugstore stuff? Why do all the magazines
champion that product you spent two hundred dollars on,
when it did absolutely nothing for you? Why does it feel like
you read the same beauty article every single month, in every
single magazine? Isn’t it a strange coincidence that the prod-
uct you’re reading about on page 53 is advertised on page 55?
And why is it so hard to grasp that the label “combination
skin” helps nobody? (Fine, you’re dry here, you’re oily there,
but all of the “right” products either make you fl ake or break
out!)
3
Introduction
I set out to create a beauty book for you—the girl who loves
makeup, hair, perfume, and skin care, but wants to fi nd what
works for her without blindly following trends or swallowing
corporate-placement rubbish. There are millions of beauty
books on the shelves by experts, crammed with step-by-step
instructions on how to painstakingly create the look that will
make you appear as if you’ve just stepped from the pages of
your favorite magazine. While that’s fabulous, if you have time
to read a complicated manual the size of a World War Two
textbook and then spend hours aping the looks inside . . . most
of us don’t! We want fast, accurate, and real, and we want it
from somebody who’s been there in the beauty trenches with
us. Let’s be honest: I’m not a makeup artist, I’m not a hair-
stylist, and I’ve singed my hair, poked out my eyes, and turned
myself orange more times than I’d like to count! But I have
been surrounded by beauty information 24/7 for several years,
and armed with enough knowledge to make over an entire
village of frizzy-haired, oily t-zoned, crying-out-in-need-of-
highlights women, I hereby pass it all along to you.
Thanks for reading, and stay beautiful!