About Face: Amazing Transformations Using the Secrets of the Top Celebrity Makeup Artist
Barnes, Scott.About Face: Amazing Transformations Using the Secrets of the Top Celebrity Makeup Artist.Fair Winds: Quayside. 2010. c.240p. photogs. ISBN 978-1-59233-399-8. $24.99. PERSONAL GROOMINGBarnes gave actress-singer-megabrand Jennifer Lopez her trademark “glow,” and his celebrity makeup star ascended to join the likes of Pat McGrath and the late Kevyn Aucoin. In his mini-coffee-table-book debut, he shares his philosophy—it all begins with the light, where and how it hits the face, because glow is the goal with all women, starlets or not. A lot of heavy contouring and highlighting ensues in an array of “transformations” of nonmodels of various ages and ethnicities. These before-and-afters, captured in step-by-step color photos, are impressive in their technical skill and will inspire the more audacious and skilled among Barnes’s fans—Sarah goes from a pretty, minimally maquillaged twenty-something to a golden-cheeked Renaissance maiden.Verdict While Barnes presents some sensible skin care how-to and tricks, his book is best suited to intermediate to advanced makeup artists who have a stake in contouring and highlighting. —Library Journal, March, 15, 2010