Beauty & Fashion Books - Page 7

Cherry Bomb: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Flirt, a Tougher Chick, and a Hotter Girlfriend--and to Living Life Like a Rock Star

Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon Spotlight Entertainment Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $10.50

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Not for the faint of heart, Cherry Bomb is an A-to-Z reference for everything awesome a girl needs to know, including the obvious (style, beauty, dating, and sex tips) and the not-so-obvious (instructions for preparing absinthe, how to hit on a celebrity). It's a girl's guide with a difference: one that shows readers how to identify, go after, and get whatever they want in life -- be it a hot guy, a great job, a mind-blowing orgasm, or a sexy new look -- all while marching to her own (rock) beat.

Bona fide rock chick Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's tips are smart, funny, edgy, and will empower women to veer away from the pack, work every situation to their advantage, and look cool while doing it. She's also recruited a rocking list of contributors who offer advice on all things cool, including:

• Betsey Johnson on personal style
• A step-by-step guide to performing a striptease by Dita Von Teese
• Tips on getting inked by Kat Von D.
• Fashion inspiration from Anna Sui
• Lisa Loeb on how to be the perfect hostess
• Life lessons from Tori Amos
• A drum lesson from Samantha Maloney of Peaches
• Dating advice from Terri Nunn of Berlin

The perfect guide for the female who prefers black nail polish to French manicures, who would only be caught in pearls if they were paired with a cool black tank top, and who prefers Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier to any Klein (Calvin or Anne), Coach, or Kate Spade, Cherry Bomb will have readers taking chances and daring to be different.

The Essential Oils Book: Creating Personal Blends for Mind & Body

Colleen K. Dodt

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Storey Publishing, LLC Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $6.50

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Essential Oils Book by Colleen Dodt 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a fun book packed with ideas for using essential oils! I read it when I first started using the oils and am still using it 10 years later!!

Disappointed great for beginner 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Creating Personal Blends for Mind & Body wasted to many pages basic introduction of essential oils.

Great read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great read. It gives alot of useful information in a smaller book. A lot of fundamental essential oil information. Great for someone just starting to explore and a must have to keep around for the experienced with all her great blend recipies.

A good short version 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a good quick review short version to get started but I personally perfered a more in depth book.

Essential oils , never too old to learn!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have been using essential oils for several years, making my own skin care products, and sharing products with friends. I live in a small town and we all shop from the internet or drive 3 hours to Vegas to get what we need in the home. We were spending a lot of money on personal care items so I decided to get more informed on making my own lotions and fragrances. Colleen Dodt's book is a must have in my library! I would love to meet her as her personality jumps right out of this book. There are so many things to learn from this book. For those novice and experienced users of essential oils, this book is a wealth of information. It is fun to read and has not made it to the bookshelf yet!! Thank you,Colleen, you did a great job!!! JLO

Editorial Review:

A rich resource on the applications of aromatherapy and its uses in everyday life, including aromas for the home, business environments, and essences for the elderly.

Amazing Grace: The Nine Principles of Living in Natural Magic

David Wolfe

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: North Atlantic Books Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $10.06

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It’s official; embraced by everyone from stars like Uma Thurman and Woody Harrelson to average people who are seeking the best health possible, raw food and the live food lifestyle is “in.” But making that transition can be a challenge. That’s where Amazing Grace comes in. Written by raw-foods authority David Wolfe with life coach Nick Good, this combination of personal story and motivational guide offers a wealth of ways to improve life, health, and spirit by adopting this nurturing, intuitive lifestyle. Amazing Grace shares Wolfe’s secrets on how to become a superhero and lead a life full of fun, synchronicity, and magic. These secrets are based both on the personal experiences of the authors and the seven principles of Huna, the ancient Hawaiian shamanic tradition. With the addition of Grace and Forgiveness, they comprise nine powerful principles for success.
Equally useful whether reading cover to cover, sampling for nuggets of wisdom and inspiration, or retaining as a reference for support and guidance, Amazing Grace shows readers how to experience a new yet basic paradigm of possibility in an increasingly complex and confusing world.

The RealAge Makeover: Take Years Off Your Looks and Add Them to Your Life

Michael F., M.D. Roizen

Amazon Price: $12.38 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Collins Living Amazon Marketplace: 120 new & used starting at $0.20

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why not live at 60 feeling like you did at 35?

Thousands of Americans are younger today than they were five years ago. How is that possible? By following the specific recommendations that reverse aging in Dr. Michael Roizen's bestselling book RealAge®: Are You As Young As You Can Be?, people who were previously much older than their chronological age have now taken up to twentynine years off their biological ages. Since that first publication, more than 10 million people have taken the RealAge® test in one form or another, and thousands of people have thanked Dr. Roizen for helping them make simple changes in their lives -- changes that have made them healthier, younger, and more vibrant.

In the last several years, Dr. Roizen and his team have learned much more about the aging process. The RealAge® Makeover makes sense of recent critical medical findings -- mportant new research on inflammation in your arteries, stress reduction, chronic disease management, hormone replacement therapy, and other choices you can make to keep aging at a distance. You’ll also find the latest on vitamins and other supplements, which are age-reducing, which are aging, and which ones to avoid if you are taking certain medications. Roizen then offers more than seventy ways to reduce or even prevent 80 percent of the diseases that make you feel older. For example, coffee or the right kind of chocolate in moderate amounts can help reduce inflammation, preserving your arteries, joints, and memory. But the wrong choice can lead to needless aging and loss of energy, such as taking too much Vitamin A. And The RealAge® Makeover tells you how much (in years) each choice is worth so you can make the choices that are meaningful to you.

More potent than any statistic or finding are the personal stories interwoven throughout -- success stories from readers who followed the RealAge program, became biologically younger, and are living happier, healthier lives. With this book, readers have more opportunity than ever to turn back their biological clock to look, feel, and actually be many years younger.

Join the RealAge® Revolution and give yourself a RealAge® Makeover!

The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps

Susan Miller Cavitch

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Storey Publishing, LLC Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $4.23

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"Natural' isn't always better... 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I just finished reading Susan Miller Cavitch's The Natural Soap Book and found it lacking in several respects.

There is a pervasive preachy tone to this book that annoyed me horribly. Ms. Cavitch uses the book as a soap box (pardon the unintended pun) to promote several personal points of view, two central ones being her diatribes against the use of animal products and anything synthetic. My grandfather made soap the old-fashioned way, using the hot process method. He made his soap by boiling lye with animal fat he had rendered himself, much of it supplied by his children (including my mother). My mother always kept a coffee can in the refrigerator, and whenever she cooked any fatty meat, the grease when in the can. When it was full, it when to her father to be turned into soap. This grease probably wasn't much good for anything else, and was certainly full of unhealthy saturated fats; had it not gone into soap, it would have gone into the garbage. The vegetable oils Ms. Cavitch advocates using are mostly edible, and in many poor countries, vegetable oils are a significant source of calories. Increasingly, non-food uses of vegetable oils, most significantly an ever increasing demand for bio-diesel, have driven the price of these oils up to the point that many poorer populations around the world are being pushed dangerously close to starvation. The increased demand for these oils has also led to whole-sale destruction of virgin tropical forest, as huge plantations of oil palms are planted. So, our luxury all-vegetable soaps are made from oils that in many nations would be considered too valuable as food to be used for such a frivolous purpose as bathing, and further, the production of these soaps, although insignificant compared to the production of bio-fuels, can still not be completely divorced from the destruction of natural forest and the concurrent loss of bio-diversity inherent in the increased production of vegetable oil. So, which is better? To plow under rain forest to plant oil palms for soap, when the workers who labor on these plantations can't even afford the oil they produce for food, or to use animal fats that would otherwise go to waste? Personally, I prefer vegetable oil soaps, but I am also aware of the consequences of this preference and do not pretend that this puts me on a higher moral ground than people who bathe with tallow products. And although I also prefer `natural' products, many of these products are luxury items that are beyond the budget of most of the world's population. People who can't afford food are unlikely to spend $6.00 on a four ounce bar of pure castile soap. Synthetics, although by no means perfect and by no means lacking in potential harmful side effects, have made improved hygiene affordable to huge segments of the human population that would otherwise face much higher mortality rates due to a lack of basic cleanliness. These products have brought inestimable benefit to mankind, and although not without their faults, I would have liked to see a far more balanced discussion of them.

My final comments on Ms. Cavitch's book are technical. She doesn't discuss the use of the stick blender in home-made soap production. Many of the problems addressed in her chapter on trouble shooting can be avoided by the use of these wonderful gadgets; in fact, the 16 hour trace times she mentions for some soaps can be reduced to less than half an hour using one. Her section on trouble shooting also advises the soap maker to discard most failed batches; there is no discussion of rebatching, a technique that can be used to salvage all but the worst soap-making failures. The rescued soap might not be salable, but isn't it better to give away seconds than to throw your time and materials away?

I would advise a novice soap-maker to skip this book and buy Anne L. Watson's Smart Soapmaking instead. It is short, concise, practical, and a pleasure to read. It avoids many of the shortcomings that mar Ms. Cavitch's book.

Editorial Review:

An inspiring exploration of the goodness of chemical- and additive-free soap. 102,000 copies in print.

The Beauty Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Smart Beauty

Paula Begoun

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 9 to 14 days By: Beginning Press Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $2.96

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fumigated 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I find it interesting that there are many women (possibly some men) that consider Paula's work to be bogus, harmful, and riddled with lies. Here's one quote from a reviewer "Her products REAK of chemicals" First, Cosmetics *are* chemicals. Secondly, her products are free of any fragrance (masking or otherwise). Without fragrance, the scent of the chemical compounds in the products come through. I've had whiffs of her products, and (personally) they don't bother me, I'm not always expecting my products to smell amazing. But her products don't smell any worse than some of the products that are pushed by drug store brands (SpectroJel and certain Marcelle toners come to mind).
Gentle cleanser? It's going to smell a bit like alcohol (Not grain (rubbing) alcohol, but Cetyl or Stearyl alcohol -aka fatty alcohol, emollients that soften the skin). A toner? It's got a distinct flat smell (Water-binding agents, emulsifiers and light oils produce it). I can assure you that if Chanel, Lancome, or La Prarie put a moisturizer or cleanser out on the market sans fragrance, you'd be smelling something a lot more repulsive. I don't use Paula's products religiously (I have no brand loyalty whatsoever), but I can tell you her products are quite decent. However, I will still say that her website is a bit of a letdown. While it provides information, you have to know where to look for it, and it's mainly laid out as a sales site than a consumer advocate site.
A few other reviewers have commented on her credentials. And, while she doesn't have official credentials, she certainly knows far more than any of the reviewers do (myself included).
In the end, it's up to you when it comes to what goes on your face. This is not some evangelical movement, nothing is being pushed on anyone (on the flip side, I have to say that I've received more pressure to succumb to someone else's idea of proper skin-care at the department store). She's merely giving us tools to better our knowledge

Editorial Review:

Myriad new formulas, outrageous claims, and hot controversies run rampant in the cosmetics industry. This second edition of The Beauty Bible will help clear up the confusion. From tanning pills to oxygen in products, from facial exercises to behind-the-scenes industry information, this book covers it all. Containing 50 percent new material, this edition includes advice on the latest cosmetic surgery procedures, online beauty shopping, and permanent makeup. Drawing on her background as a makeup artist, her 20-plus years as a consumer reporter, and the latest dermatological studies, Paula Begoun (a.k.a. the “Cosmetics Cop”) gives readers the tools and information they need to make smart skincare decisions.

Life's Greatest Lessons: 20 Things That Matter

Hal Urban

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A great foundation for further exploration 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I found this book to be both inspirational and educational.
Inspirational : I found myself connecting to Urban's life story and was inspired to do several of the excercises he recommends. The book is very well written and requires alot of introspection after reading. For every lesson, I found myself reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading. I read this with a pen in hand and jotted down thoughts as I read. After re-reading my thoughts on each section, I started to think deeply of what matters in my life and was inspired to think of my actions, thoughts, beliefs, etc. in a different way.
Educational: A great aspect of this book is the way Urban injects the works of so many other authors into his own. I found myself writing down the names and titles of many of Urban's cited works. His use of other's ideas to further explain and strenghten his own motivated me to further my knowledge base on the subject. For an author to actively tell the reader to go and look for other's insight only proves to me the author's good intentions and credibility.
Overall - I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for some help on the road of life. Urban does a great job explaining his 20 lessons, and he does an even better job in making the reader want to think about his or her own goals and rules of life.

Editorial Review:

Life's Greatest Lessons is a wise, wonderful book. In it, Hal Urban, a parent and an award-winning teacher, presents twenty principles that are as deeply rooted in common sense as they are in compassion. The topics, gathered from a lifetime of teaching both children and adults, span a wide range of readily understood concepts, including attitudes about money, understanding the real meaning of "success," and the importance of having fun. The book will help you find the best -- in the world, in others, and in yourself. Classic in its simplicity and enduring in its appeal, Life's Greatest Lessons helps us all rediscover that the desire to live a good life is timeless.

The Perricone Prescription

Nicholas Perricone

Amazon Price: $27.50 List Price: $27.50 Usually ships in 12 to 14 days By: Collins Living Amazon Marketplace: 410 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 126 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Solid Ideas But Impractical Application for Most People 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ok...I really haven't gone insane. I saw this particular "diet" mentioned on a show I was watching about a month or so ago and the dietitian talked about how the "core" of the program is actually pretty solid but she thought, by and large the supplement and skin care regimen that he's created is "excessive" - I think she was one step away from saying it's just too much (money) to be spending and too much to be taking in terms of vitamins and other supplements. If you did everything Perricone said, you'd be taking about 20 vitamins and various other supplements and putting 4-7 lotions and topical creams on your person everyday, twice a day...and most of them are hundreds of dollars apiece if you're buying his brand (and still quite pricey of you "shop around" for the same thing from another manufacturer). You'd be spending several thousand dollars a month just on supplements and creams before you even got to the food part of this.

Reading this and being able to be objective out it (i.e. I'm not looking for a quick fix, I'm looking for additional strategies to add to this whole healthy living adventure thing I've got going on) it's slap you in your face obvious how this guy makes his living because, according to him, everything can be made all better with these supplements and creams. My complaint with this is it's clearly for people who are making a LOT of money...he wants you to eat fish (specifically Alaskan salmon, but a few others are in there too) seven days a week and for more than one meal a day...according to him, that should be the staple of the diet with some chicken and turkey breast thrown in, but never beef. If everyone were to suddenly start eating like this, wouldn't that have a long term negative impact on the salmon population....for the amounts he's recommending, it seems like this diet will coast a lot of $$$ to stick to the letter of the plan. I think I've come away from it with some things I can defiantly work into my plan and it was interesting to read about health and well-being from a dermatologist perspective, but I'm guessing the people who can really embrace and benefit from this type of diet/lifestyle long term are the one's making loads and loads of money. I do give kudos that all the recipes are the embodiment of simplicity, even my 8 year old daughter could make everything listed in the recipe section...he seems to think under his plan you could eat this way for the rest of you life...I think you'd get sick of salmon after a while...no matter the health benefit, eating ONLY one food 95% of the time, in my opinion can be really hard to stick with long term (unless you're fanatical about salmon). Overall, interesting read from a dermatological perspective, but not something I think most people would be able or willing to do for a lifetime. I've come away from it with a few new ideas about supplements (small changes that I can make that won't cost me tons of $$$) and some new (for me) info on bad and good sugars and carbs. I give it a C simply because the average Joe couldn't get on this program without bankrupting themselves.

Editorial Review:

Presents a seven-step diet, exercise, topical, and nutritional program designed to rejuvenate the skin and body, citing the factors that cause aging and a host of degenerative diseases while outlining how to improve overall health. 125,000 first printing.

Dr. Perricone's 7 Secrets to Beauty, Health, and Longevity: The Miracle of Cellular Rejuvenation

Nicholas Md Perricone

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $7.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

He has shown us how to smooth our wrinkles, and helped us slim down without feeling deprived. Now #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Nicholas Perricone gives us an anti-aging program that unveils the miracle of cellular rejuvenation. These seven powerful strategies are not only easy to follow but present a plan for total health designed to help us look and feel great by age-proofing us from the inside out.

Taking a holistic approach that taps into cutting-edge science, Dr. Nicholas Perricone reveals how to rev up our cellular metabolism so that we can stay healthy, strong, and energetic, while keeping our skin soft, smooth, and supple. These strategies will help us reverse osteoporosis, restore bone structure and muscle mass, revitalize brain cells, reduce the chances of heart disease and cancer, elevate mood, manage blood sugar, and slim down and stay trim. Inside Dr. Perricone’s 7 Secrets to Beauty, Health, and Longevity you will discover

• the six kinds of food you need to eat every day, as well as healthy and delicious snacks–including a vegetable that both suppresses appetite and builds muscle
• new findings about the best nutritional supplements to win the fight against aging
• revolutionary skin rejuvenating secrets for radiant, toned, and youthful-looking skin
• the role of pheromones in curbing depression, boosting self-confidence, triggering weight loss, and improving libido
• the essential oil that is more powerful than antibiotics
• an exercise plan that will shape your silhouette and strengthen your bones in as little as ten minutes a day
• delicious recipes, easy shopping lists, and a guide to safe cookware so that you can create your own anti-aging kitchen
• Dr. Perricone’s trademark tips about new products that really work–and where to find them

Whether your aim is to look younger, improve your health, or just feel great, you’ll see fast results by following Dr. Perricone’s simple program. These seven indispensable secrets will keep you beautiful, healthy, and young all through life.


From the Hardcover edition.

Better than Beauty: A Guide to Charm

H Valentine, A Thompson

Amazon Price: $14.95 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Chronicle Books Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $4.48

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Refreshingly modern (surprisingly!) 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 23 people found this review helpful.

I bought this as research for a novel. That being said, there are only a few things that are dated in this book in my opinion-- things like how to make liquid shampoo and rinse it out if you don't have access to unlimited running water, how to use deodorant with dress shields, a balanced diet should include salt, and much advice on how to choose hats. I expected as much. I expected quite a lot more batting eyes and staying mousy-quiet to catch a man, to be honest, considering the time period.

Herein lies the surprise: the emphasis in this book is on how to be a classy individualist without being a stuffy bore. The authors carefully take into account that all women aren't the same, and shouldn't be. They even admit it might be advantageous for a working woman to swear in the office to get things done. What a couple of saucy dames these women are!

The first section encourages women to come up with a personal and practical style without sucking out the fun. They ignore the rules in fashion magazines (which appear to be the same rules in fashion mags today) and present everything you might need to know head-to-toe with simple rules.

For example, the placement and angle of your rouge is not as important as making sure it blends in gradually with your natural color. The only rule for hair is "Does it look like it would be pleasant to touch?" And my favorite, "If being on a diet makes you jumpy and irritable, it probably isn't worth your effort. Everyone prefers a few extra pounds to a shrewish disposition." Bravo!

Similarly, the second part, about charming others, uses this simple rule for etiquette: "The only bad manners are those which are unkind or which contribute to another person's discomfort." There. Emily Post in one line. In addition, remember the simple thank you, treat the waiter as someone helping you, not a robot. Don't let your date drive drunk.

The authors spend a lot of time warning the reader to shy away from conversations involving complaints, what they ate at breakfast, how much sleep they lost, needless tangents and lists of pointless encyclopedic facts. Why? Because they are boring. Need proof? When was the last time you paid attention to a stranger's non-political blog? I rest my case.

Instead they promote a) having fun and laughing and b) reading constantly to to fill yourself with topics of conversation that don't involve gossip. Here's the kicker, they discard the old rule that you shouldn't talk religion, media or politics in company and actually encourage women to watch out for propaganda and to "Read several newspapers with different points of view and get into a violent argument on the obvious coloring of the news." What?!!

In short, many young women would find they'd get and keep the attention of real, live people in the real, live world by emulating the attitudes of Helen Valentine and Alice Thompson FAR better than by posting glam pics on Myspace and complaining about how boys they like are constantly blowing them off "liek there OpInIoNs dont matR".

Someone send this to Paris and Britney, please?

Editorial Review:

Chronicle Books resuscitates the long-lost art of charm with this classic compendium of hints, tips, and tricks guaranteed to boost anyone’s charm quotient. First published in 1938, this delightful handbook is overflowing with timeless advice to guide readers through a maze of social interactions with wit and grace. More than an etiquette or personal grooming book, Better than Beauty tackles complicated social situations with delicacy: • How to be kind to atrocious people • How to avoid the gossip mill • How many drinks is too many drinks • How to deflect unwanted advances from married men • How much to tip • And much, much more With good humor, authors Helen Valentine and Alice Thompson offer straightforward charm counsel, making it a cinch to win the admiration of friends, family, and suitors. Featuring original artwork, Better than Beauty proves that charm never, ever goes out of style.