cover image The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Beauty Guide for Skin of Color

The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Beauty Guide for Skin of Color

Iman, with Tia Williams. . Putnam, $29.95 (162pp) ISBN 978-0-399-15318-1

Discovered when she was a university student in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1975 by photographer Peter Beard, Iman went on to become an international supermodel. To address the needs of women of color, she launched a line of cosmetics, Iman, in 1994, and with this beautifully illustrated coffee-table book geared to black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Asian women, and timed to coincide with the debut of her second cosmetic line, she's poised to become the voice of beauty for this underrepresented group of women. In a conversational tone, Iman shares solutions to basic makeup and skin care quandaries (how to use blush, test foundation and choose tools) and debunks myths (dark skinned women don't need sunblock, ethnicity determines skin color). Other sections show how to "get the look" from "Ghetto Fab" to "So Fresh So Clean." Gorgeous photographs of well-known faces (Salma Hayek, Tyra Banks, Ling) with personal tidbits of advice and real women makeovers, from teens to women over 50, round out the offerings. Fun and flirty, with a confidential, insider feel, this combination of celebrity and self-improvement, capped with artistic portraits of women famous and not, indicate another success for Iman. Agent, Suzanne Gluck . (Oct.)