Face Forward

Aucoin produces yet another beautiful and fun book about the art of make up. However, Face Forward is much like Making Faces without the practical techniques.

The book follows the same format as Making Faces without many improvements. The book begins with general articles about brows, lips, eyes, color, etc. However, these articles are truly general and only give written directions to achieve the looks in the photos. If you have the facial structures of the models, then these sections will be very useful to you! For the rest of us, I found the preliminary sections to be fun but not helpful.

The next section entitled "Face to Face" is useful with many before and after photos. The techniques are written and illustrated by photos of the make-over subject throughout the process. The looks are very natural and complimentary to the different ethnicities featured. I wish there were more makeovers in this section!

The final section entitled "Dimensions" features 48 different looks that are fun but not realistic for everyday use. In fact, most of the techniques demonstrated would only be useful for Halloween or a costume party. This section features many stars from Madonna to Tina Turner but offers little substantive content for everyday use.

Being a make-up-a-holic, I found Making Faces the better buy of the two. If you have to choose, choose Aucoin's first book for practical use. For fun, this book definitely takes the cake.

If you've ever looked at fashion magazines and wondered what makeup techniques went into creating the look, "Face Forward" may give you all the answers you need. Not only did Kevyn Aucoin do all the makeup in this book, but he also wrote it and contributed to the photography, art direction and design. He is a genius. Period.

Outside of the introductory chapters, the book is divided into five main parts: 1) "Behind Beauty," where Kevyn describes how he treats the face to bring out a wide range of attributes; 2) "Face to Face," which consists of in-depth photography and illustrations of the steps involved with creating beautiful looks; 3) "Dimensions," where Kevyn explores the "classic personifications of beauty" by making up actresses and models to look like stars of the past; and 4) & 5) forward-looking concepts of makeup techniques and the future of beauty, also using the faces of actresses (and even his mom).

I think it's great that someone as talented as Kevyn can be so generous in explaining his craft, but even if you're not into that, "Face Forward" holds up fantastically on its merits as an art/photography book: the resemblance of the current stars to the past ones is incredible (e.g., Winona Ryder as Elizabeth Taylor).

This book may be a little advanced for makeup artists who are just starting out, but hey, makeup is art, and art is about ideas, so it's definitely worth checking out. For anyone who is just plain interested in fashion and style, "Face Forward" will be intriguing, even if only for the skill exhibited in transforming one famous face into another. It's a masterpiece.

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Kevyn Aucoin has outdone himself again. This is an awesome step by step account of how to transform yourself. I have his other books and I can definitely say that this is my favorite. He takes everyday people and morphs them into a more glamourous version of themselves. This man is a "Master Beauty Magician"!

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I loved, loved, loved Kevyn's last book "Making Faces" because I could add a lot of the looks he did in his book to my everyday face. His techniques and tips were helpful and well illustrated. In this book, I found more looks that I would want to experiment with, but a lot of the makeovers he did had to do with classical movie stars, and therefore not very practical for everyday use. Both the makeup and the photography in this book are stellar, and the celebrities and unknown people alike look fabulous! However, I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for basic makeup tips and ideas. Most of these looks are not for the office, much less daylight. But if you are interested in the art of makeup and designing character based makeup, this book is a must have. I saw this book at my beauty salon before I bought it, and I wanted it as soon as I saw how it featured pictures of people actually applying the makeup, and also when I noticed the faces of Julianne Moore, Tori Amos and some very pretty imperfect unfamiliar women that wore looks I could see myself in. FINAL VERDICT: Delightful for women who want to experiment and explore the artistry of makeup. Not suggested as a starting point for people seeking basic makeup know-how. If you do decide to get this book, I suggest taking some signature looks of the timeless celebrity faces and make them part of your style. I can't wait to add a little bit of Elizabeth Taylor's eye makeup into my everyday routine!

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I saw Kevyn on the Oprah show! How beautiful the women were after Kevyn's talented artistry. The book is a must have. It shows the techniques that even we can use. Explained so even we can actually understand. This will be a great christmas gift for my girlfriends with the "six essential items" he recommends attached to the gift box! (so martha.....I know).....

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