Five books to own if you are a Makeup Artist

For the international book day I thought it would be great to recommend my top five books that inspire me in my everyday.

Makeup Artists often need a lot of inspiration to create makeup looks to use on our regular clients, or more ambitious looks when we are working in fashion. So here are my recommendations!

FACE PAINT by Lisa Eldridge

This is one of my favourite books, for many reasons. The first reason is that this book has been written by my Makeup Artist muse, Lisa Eldridge. Also, she signed my own copy in person so you can imagine how lovingly and carefully I have kept this book.

Secondly, in the book Lisa has made an excellent compilation of beauty and makeup throughout history. She has documented, by pictures some vintage makeup from her own collection. Every time I need some inspiration for a vintage beauty trend its an excellent source of research. Lisa is a super talented Makeup Artist and for me, a perfect reference in this beauty industry.

PRETTY HONEST by Sali Hughes

This book is for any Makeup Artist, and for any beauty addict. I love the straight-talk that Sali Hughes use to kill all these false myths about beauty that the industry sometimes has been trying to make us believe.

Any person in this world who has been working in a counter will feel represented by this book. When I was reading this book I could hear the voice inside my mind – Yes, I knew it! It’s amazing the vision of the beauty market she represents and I think it was about time someone would speak clear.

Sali Hughes represents a simple sense of beauty without complications and too many explanations.

MAKING FACES by Kevyn Aucoin

I still remember when I first got this book, it was for Christmas and I was quite young. I was pretty interested in Makeup already and I used to spend the afternoons in the beauty section of department stores testing different makeup products on my hand.
When I saw this book is when I realized what makeup could do, and the power of transformation Kevin was capable to achieve. For me this was the breaking point when I decided I wanted to become a Makeup Artist.
He was capable to get a celebrity icon and transform to another iconic character. I was amazed by this kind of magic.

It’s a makeup book that’s aged very well. You can tell that the makeup got a touch of the nineties, but all the pictures are still totally inspiring to this day.

PRETTY ICONIC by Sali Hughes

Another book from Sali, but if you have been a beauty addict like me you have to recognize every single product exposé in this book. We could perfectly say that this could be the bible of the beauty history. You can find the most popular products from the history of the perfume, from “Chanel no5” to the best selling product of YSL, the “Touch Eclat”. Some of these may be overrated in my opinion, but I think they deserve the recognition and Sali has made a beautiful compilation of all of them.

#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso

Well, this book its not exactly about makeup but its been my most recent mantra since I have started the Glow project. This is the story of how a young girl wanted to create her own life the way she wanted and ended up becoming the CEO of her own company, Nasty Gal - one of the most famous ecommerce companies from the last couple years.

#Girlboss is about encouraging women to follow their dreams and empower them to support each other.

Being a Makeup Artist is tough. Being a freelance is not easy, always looking for costumers and building your own identity as a professional. That’s because I think this book could be very helpful for anyone who is starting their own business.

So these are my top five recommendations. They all deserve a mention on such a special day. Of course there are lots of books related to fashion and art that is totally worth giving a chance to, but I wanted to keep it more simple this time.

And you? Which are you must have books, the ones that inspired you the most?

Keep glowing!