How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Forget getting older gracefully--This is the beauty and style bible every woman has been waiting for!HOW NOT TO LOOK OLD is the first--ever cheat sheet of to-dos and fast fixes that pay-off big time--all from Charla and her friends, the best hair pros, makeup artists, designers, dermatologists, cosmetic dentists and personal shoppers in the biz. Packed with eye-opening details on hair color, brows, lipstick, wrinkle-erasers, jeans,… Product details and pricing info |
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174 Customer Reviews Posted
- No more lip liner for me and other helpful information you will learn
- This is one book which truly gives honest, terrific advice about what its title indicates: How Not to Look Old. I have especially benefitted from the advice on what stockings to wear with a dress. I used to wear nude stockings. Now I am wearing black tights and they make this 47 year old look great. The author was right! I also learned I should not wear dark lip liner with dark lipstick. I am trying to find the right shade of pink lipstick. I really liked that the author gives actual brand names of products to try. And she doesn't just stick to expensive department store brands. If you like the show on TLC, What Not to Wear with Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, you will love this book.
- 2008-11-19, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Positives and Negatives
- With books like this one, the reader can either approach the subject matter with an open mind, or take offense to all the flaws in yourself that the writer helps to continuously point out. My first reaction was to take offense when I realized just how many 'apparent' flaws I had. Once I got past my initial indignation and applied the advice a little less seriously, I realized there is actually some good information in this book. The trick is, take some of it on board to less the ageing process, but don't get caught up in the whole totally aesthetic and vain theme of it all. Woth a read, but probably not at the asking price.
- 2008-11-11, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Very helpful
- I read this book cover to cover in two days. I couldn't put it down. It was full of useful information. I had gotten comfortable with same "old" products, routine and dress. All I needed was a little tweaking which I got from the book.
- 2008-11-10, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Mostly simple tips, celeb pics, but not enough color tips for ethnic women
- This book offers a lot of tips--from the very simple and inexpensive to the costly and surgical-- that in the opinion of the author and experts help a woman not look old, but rather "young and hip." I'm gonna say right off, that while I don't want to look old and passe, I can't at 48 look young and hip. That would be silly and even desperate seeming. I simply want to look better for my age. This might serve as a career enhancer, however, for women in competitive careers where staying youthful is a necessity, not a luxury. Ageism sucks.
The cover pic of the author, btw, looks highly processed (as in airbrushed). The blond hair is fake (too light) and has darker brown roots showing. The teeth look done (ie capped or lumineered or something). Her figure is trim and her out fit is, indeed, flattering and youthful. Charla Krupp is an attractive woman who does, indeed, look high maintenance. You can tell she works at it.
However, when I saw dark roots and overbleached hair and overly white looking teeth and airbrushed looking pics, I start off thinking, "Did I buy the wrong book? Is this the person to advise ME?" I know, that's not a generous response to a pic, but that is what I thought. I don't want to be bleached blond, bleached teeth, and botoxed. Most of us just don't have the inclination, time, or money to keep up with such things.
I set aside my response to the photo and looked inside. Yes, she does offer helpful tips...
On to the book's specifics and pros and cons:
The tips are often part of the chapter headings, which are as follows:
1. Are you high, medium, or low maintenance?
2. Get bangs.
3. Lighten your hair.
4. Tame your brows.
5. Chic up your eyewear.
6. Lose the heavy eyeliner.
7. Unmask your foundation.
8. Manage your wrinkles.
9. Put on pink lipstick.
10. Whiten your teeth
11. Wear your own nails.
12. Unmatch your wardrobe.
13. Shorten your skirts.
14. Slip into the perfect pair of jeans.
15. Follow the three-bling rule when dressing for evening.
16. Learn to love shapewear.
17. Show some leg.
18 step into sexy heels.
Each chapter then goes into specifics, and ends with a "brilliant buys" page that gives you specific items/products that can help you bring the tip to fruition.
The book has a fun factor, for sure. It's easy to read, nicely laid out, lots of illustrations/photos, and helpful lists, such as "Ten things you can do in the next ten minutes to take off ten years" or "Ten things you can do for less than $100 to take off ten years."
She offers recommendations for products and also city-specific beauty professionals.
Because of this book, I did add back some bangs, which I'd missed using, but thought maybe I was too old for them. I also tried various shades of "pinkish" lip glosses and found some I liked. Previously, I avoided pink as too "white girlie girl" (I'm a dark-skinned Latina). I felt it was okay not to perfectly match bag to shoes--against the rules of my upbringing. And I began to try to define an arch in my already neat eyebrows (that took time and work!)
Before buying the book, I had already incorporated certain of things that show up as tips--dark-washed jeans, no dark nail polish on hand nails, shorter nails, shortened skirts, tamed eyebrows, anti-aging skin lotion. I already knew I was medium-maintenance, not high and not low.
But most of the tips don't work for me. I won't wear stilletos. Sorry. Pain is not something I relish, not are recurring trips to the podiatrist for foot ailments from wearing high-heeled killer shoes. I also am not gonna spend tens of thousands for teeth work. I'd rather not immobilize my face, either. And I will not give up red lipstick, even though I've added pink to my repertoire. :)
On the limited side: Charla didn't seem to go beyond her own color range to offer recommendations. It would have been nice if she'd had, after each chapter, recommendations not of just what she uses, but what excellent complimentary products were used by Latina and Black and Asian women in her circle. What would flatter a fair blond like Charla is not what would flatter a cafe au lait skin tone like mine. For example, Nars Orgasm is a very famed makeup product (the lip and cheek colors). But they're mostly suitable for the fair range of the scale. Darker women simply cannot carry them off.
I give this 3.5 stars for that limitation. If you're gonna write a book on looking younger for a wide audience, more care should have been taken to give better product recommendatiosn for a wide audience.
Still, for its good tips, the user-friendly set-up, and the loads of pics, this book is worth consideration by women of a certain age who want to hold at bay the effects of time and gravity either a little bit, a mid-sort-of bit, or a lot (depending on how much time and effort and discomfort and money one is willing to invest).
Mir - 2008-11-10, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- How Not to Look Older etc.
- Go to the library and read this book. I am sorry that I wasted my money.
- 2008-11-02, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
