I stumbled across Rae Morris’ books a long time ago, and bought Makeup The Ultimate Guide at (the now closed) Pageone bookstore.
photo: raemorris.com
Working as a makeup artist, I find it absolutely essential to know what other makeup artists are doing. No, not to compare, but to learn what they have to teach and share.
Rae Morris’ book does just that. With a stunning image of each look plus a detailed step-by-step guide, it gives the reader clear and concise explanations.
photo: raemorris.com
Although youtube has lots of videos on tutorials (Rae has a channel there too, check out her demos), books allow the reader to go through and understand the application at their own pace.
photo: raemorris.com
The fantastic lighting of the face through photography also helps showcase makeup details far better than video. As someone who learns visually, I like to be able to see a beautiful image and slowly take in all the details.
Books have also been a useful reference guide – I used to take them to shoots and discuss looks with the stylist/ art director.
I got to meet Rae Morris this year at her workshop in Australia and watched her demos. She is such a force in the makeup industry- makeup director for L’Oreal, working with supermodels like Miranda Kerr, while taking time to conduct workshops. She also gives talks at IMATS and has developed her own brush line! Where does she get all her energy from??? (She hardly ate during the workshop but had quite a few coffees)
Meeting Rae at her workshop!
I would totally recommend her books for anyone from makeup beginners (get Makeup The Ultimate Guide because it covers everything you need to know), to makeup students (trust me, school doesn’t teach you quite enough) and to makeup artists (great reference guide and as a refresher).
From Makeup The Ultimate Guide, some of the same looks for eyes also appear in her book Beautiful Eyes. I suggest just going straight to get The Ultimate Guide!
I have to make it quite clear that if you’re looking for cute makeup looks for asian eyes, like Taiwanese-styled makeup (we’re talking things like double lid tapes, huge pupils, massive false eyelashes etc..), this book doesn’t have anything like that. It only has four looks for asian type makeup.
However, I feel that asian features can still wear the different makeup styles as shown through her book, and the tips she gives are universal. For example, for women over 40s, one of her tips is “Wear more blush. As we age, we lose pigment in the skin, and in most cases the skin has less glow, so you need to step up the blush to restore it”. Asian or not, that tip holds true.
Her books are available in Singapore at Kinokuniya (http://www.kinokuniya.com/sg/). If you’re in Australia, you can get them on her website (http://raemorris.com/collections/books). If you’re in the US, they’re on Amazon at a real steal.
Price:
Makeup The Ultimate Guide, S$ 51.36 / AUD$39.95 / US$21.92
Her other books are priced from AUD$19.95 – $39.95
