Looking for some great fashion books to give away as presents?

Well, in that case the fantastic website Fashionista has compiled a list of 25 hot fashion books right now, which is well worth looking into for some present ideas. You can see the list here, and I know I want several of the books featured in it!

Review: Amazing Face by Zoe Foster

While I love make up, I must say that I am not an expert on applying it and trying new styles, since when it comes to beauty, I tend to focus on skin care instead. I've always kind of wished that I could create amazing looks by myself, and I also have to admit I've learned everything I know (or think I know) about beauty products by trial and error, and to some extent from blogs. So I decided a while ago that I should get some beauty books, in order to try to improve my knowledge on the matter.

The first beauty oriented book I got was Amazing Face, written by an Australian beauty journalist called Zoe Foster, who has been working in the industry for years, which means she has worked with a huge amount of cool make up artists and has tried most talked about beauty products. So I figured she would know what she is talking, ehm, writing about.

And it turns out she does! While beauty is a huge interest for me, I still found plenty of tips in the book that I found useful, and Zoe has a really cute way of writing too, since she mixes some short jokes with actual tips, and the book covers everything from skin, make up, eyes, complete looks and much more, so if you want to improve your knowledge on everything related to beauty, you can really get started pretty well just by getting this one book.

I also liked that Zoe actually gives tips for actual beauty products to try. Because what good does all this theory do if you have no idea on how to try it yourself? So not only will you learn, for instance, how to apply foundation or eye shadow in the best possible way, you will also get advice on what kind of foundation or eye shadow you might want to consider buying to do so.

Oh and by the way, this is a book to fit all ages, since she gives tips based on your age too. So no matter if you are young or a bit more mature, you'll probably find this book useful! Highly recommended!

Review: Normal Gets You Nowhere by Kelly Cutrone

I am not very familiar with Kelly Cutrone, besides knowing who she is and what she does, that is. I haven't watched any of those reality shows she's apparently on, for instance, and I also haven't read her first book If You Have to Cry, Go Outside, but when I saw her second book Normal Gets You Nowhere, it seemed interesting, so I picked it up and got it.

And despite not being a huge Kelly fan (because I simply don't know enough about her to be a fan), I really like the book. It's basically about being yourself, instead of striving for being normal, since Kelly believes normal people are less interesting than people who are really unique, a statement I would have to agree with. Kelly also gives you tips on how you can reinvent yourself, become your own brand and she also promotes being a good person and caring for others, which is just wonderful, and probably not something that is very common in other books written by celebrities in the fashion industry.

So this book is well worth reading, but I think you might enjoy it even more than I did if you are a fan of Kelly Cutrone, since the book includes a lot of anecdotes from her own life as well.