Book Review: The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets

The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets, by Kym Douglas and Cindy Pearlman, is one of the most fun beauty books I have read. Advertising that it offers beauty tips from the stars, the book delivers this and more.

Written in a witty and amusing manner, the authors collect and categorize tips from celebrities, makeup artists, and other beauty and fashion industry professionals over twelve chapters. Also thrown in throughout the book are celebrity gossip blurbs.

The categories/chapters run from the expected such as hair care, skin care, and makeup tips, to the less expected such as tips from pole dancers and tips for those over forty or pregnant. A chapter on diet is also thrown in. Although some tips involve expensive products, for the most part, the focus is on inexpensive items.

Generally the book has gotten good reviews. I have seen a few reviews complaining that the tips are all well known and taken from beauty magazines, but I found the book to be a fun compilation. Yes, I knew some of the tips covered, but I also found plenty of creative tips that I was unfamiliar with, or things I had meant to try once and never did. On the later, the book served as a nice reminder. For example, I had heard about staining lips with Strawberry Jello, but never tried it. Now I have, with some amusing success. I will write something about that on a later date. The book also suggests a more intimate use for strawberry jello as well. I’m keeping quiet on whether I try that one! I also found the book to be particularly refreshing in the areas not often covered by the magazines, such as the tips from strippers and tips specifically for those over 40.

The writing style is fun, yet informative, making the book an enjoyable, easy read. I didn’t get much from the celebrity gossip blurbs, largely because they were not what interested me in the book and because they left out the names. Celebrity gossip loses quite a bit of luster without names. But that was in no way distracting. It just wasn’t necessary for me.

For anyone wanting a compilation of interesting tips, or simply a quick and fun read, I highly recommend this book.

8 Comments

  1. Thanks for the review, I’ve been meaning to find this book.

    I can’t wait to hear the results of your strawberry jello experiment.

    I hope they weren’t as bad as some of the dying hair with koolaid stories I’ve heard.

  2. Hollywood has some greatest screats in its heart and this book really brngs them out. I have found this book to be really intretsing

  3. Interesting book. I agree that we may had read some of the beauty tips somewhere, but sometimes we don’t get to remember all of the instructions. Besides, its a good complication. We can let go of the clippings about beauty tips we had collected, on which in turn we completely forgot after some time 🙂

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