Review: Fashion Insiders' Guide to Paris by Carole Sabas

I am travelling to Paris soon, so I am reading up on this mythical city at the moment. And when I saw that there is actually a fashion themed travel guide book to the city, written by Carole Sabas, I knew I had to get that, on top of the other Paris guide books I had already gotten.

And I am glad I did. Not only is this the prettiest of all the Paris guides I have (although the photos don't really do it justice, I think), it's also perfect for anyone into fashion like me. It has a lot of anecdotes about fashion designers, models and other people anyone into fashion would know about it. The topics covered are also ones that interest me, which is not always the case when it comes to all other guides.

You'll learn where to get facials, where to work out, where to shop, where to eat, where to stay and much more in this book, and all the recommendations are written in an interesting way, that really makes you want to go to all the places mentioned. Which might be a bit of a problem, since I will just be there for a week, but it's still a good sign!

Carole Sabas has also written a similar guide to New York City and I would definitely consider getting that too, if I have a trip to New York planned in the future, that's how much I liked this one!

Review: The Beauty Experiment by Phoebe Baker Hyde

I'm quite into all kinds of beauty products (you can read more about some of the beauty products I use and like over at my beauty blog, if you want), so to imagine not using any beauty products at all for over a year is really hard for me. But Phoebe Baker Hyde decided to do just that, and she also wrote a book about it, called The Beauty Experiment.

I must admit I haven't really been tempted to try anything similar myself, but I still wanted to know what that must be like, so I decided to read this book, which wasn't really only about swearing off beauty items, but also fashion, accessories and such, so it turned out to be a much bigger process for Mrs. Baker Hyde than I thought at first.

It was definitely an interesting read, but it didn't really convince me of the necessity for such a project, and I can't say that it was one of the more memorable books I've read. But that may very well be because I wasn't really into the idea of such a project to begin with. So I guess I would recommend the book to others who might be interested in scaling down on their beauty and fashion habits for whatever reason, but if you love beauty items as well as clothes and accessories as much as I do, this might not be a book that changes your perspective that much.

But I actually didn't get the feeling that Phoebe Baker Hyde wanted to convince others to go through the same process as she did, more that she wanted to describe what it was like for her. And I think she did a marvelous job at that!

I also liked the parts of the books where she described what it is like to be the wife of an expat in Hong Kong. Being an expat myself, I do enjoy reading about the experience of others, in other countries where I haven't lived myself.

In my opinion the book is not as on topic as you might have expected, given the topic of it, but I actually thought that was a good thing, since I liked the personal anecdotes and "off topic" stories quite a lot too.