The ultimate shopping buddy (The Handbag Beauty Bible - Sarah Stacey)

Member Name: carly_pussycat

Product:	The Handbag Beauty Bible - Sarah Stacey
Date:	02/07/07 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively cheap book which should guide you to the right products

Disadvantages: Not all brands seem to be included in testing - more green brands

The Handbag Beauty Bible is brought to you by the same authors as that of The 21st Century Beauty Bible, which is a large pink book leading you through the minefield that is cosmetics shopping. That book had a wealth of beauty information but its biggest strength, in my opinion, was its ‘Tried and Tested’ sections which would give a number of products to a handful of women and take their average rating out of 10 to evaulate a product’s efficacy, with different brands of product set against each other in a category such as ‘best fake tan’. This book is relatively small and 99% full of Tried and Tested products with little extra info, so it’s intended to be a handy companion whilst out shopping for new cosmetics.

I was actually lucky enough to be one of the 2,400 or so females quick enough to respond to the Beauty Bible website’s (beautybible.com) request for volunteer testers, so naturally I wanted a copy of the book when it was released to see what the results were (of course I’d have bought it anyway!)

It begins with a two page intro from the authors Sarah Stacey and Josephine Fairley. This explains how they intend the book to be used and how the Tried and Tested works. Basically they give the testers 10 products each to try, evaluate and give a rating out of 10. In this book they have carried out tests in 70 categories including 280 cosmetic brands. They also judge the ‘natural’ claims of many products by awarding two daisies if a product is 100% natural, and one daisy if it contains genuinely high levels of botanical ingredients, which I think is fair enough. This is helpful for the growing number of people concerned with the amount of unnatural and chemical things contains in products intended for use on skin/hair. Also useful for quick reference when looking at the Tried and Tested products is the ‘Beauty Steal’ logo, which signifies that the product represents good value for money considering how well it works – no use buying a cheap product if it’s rubbish and you throw it away!

Each product with a rating is laid out in the same way – there’s a detailed description taken directly from manufacturer which normally contains claims of what the product will/should do. Following that there are a few sentences of comments from the testers. In almost every category you’ll find a “We love…” box containing Sarah and Jo’s favourite products in the category (regardless of whether they got shortlisted or not) and also a ‘Tip’ box which could contain anything from detailed application tips to advice from professional makeup artists.

Next comes the contents, which might not be something you refer to often when reading a book but it is actually really handy to have across a double page spread in this book because it means you can easily scan the pages quickly for the exact product category you want rather than flicking through the entire book. The book’s contents are split into sections:

Shopping – This is a relatively short section as it just contains a few useful tips on how to shop for cosmetics, what kind of things you need to be buying, and how to keep them hygenic. It also includes a couple of pages of manicure/pedicure tips. This chapter will serve as a useful guide to anyone who’s just starting out buying cosmetics, but obviously only touches on the basics because the book is small and this isn’t its main feature. If you’re really clueless you will need to read something larger like their original 21st Century Beauty Bible for more detailed help.

Makeup – From this section onwards we are into the Tried and Tested categories. The makeup section is the longest in the book and categories are as follows: makeup primers, skin brighteners, mattifying products, all-in-one compact foundations, stick foundations, concealers, cream blushers, cheek tints, 3-in-1 products, cream eyeshadows, mascaras, waterproof mascaras, brow pencils/powders, eye makeup removers, tweezers, eyelash curlers (the comments for this product were written by ME!! :D ), lip glosses, lip balms, lip liners, long lasting lipsticks, lip plumpers, pressed powders, loose powder and facial mists. I found the list to be pretty exhaustive and so therefore helpful for anyone attempting some makeup shopping. I guess ‘powder eyeshadows’ could have been another category but I find those to be less hit-and-miss than something like a cream eyeshadow so maybe that’s why it’s not included.

SOS – This is a short little section for when your face is just looking horrible for one reason or another. Categories are: Spot zappers, oil-blotting sheets, instant face savers, treats for tired and puffy eyes and multi purpose balms. It’s great to see a handful of cheap (under £5) products making their way into this group of products so that hopefully you won’t need to spend a fortune to keep a bad face day at bay.

Hands and Feet – Pretty self explanatory in its title this section covers: Long lasting nail polishes, nail quick dries, nail polish removers, nail treatments, hand creams and feet treats. There are a few decent ‘tip’ boxes in this section, and it’s good to see more cheap but effective products shortlisted.

Glow-getters – Products to fake a suntan and also to protect yourself from the sun’s rays are: Bronzers, facial self tanners, body self tanners, instant leg tints, SPF15 facial suncare, SPF15 body suncare, after suns, SPF15 moisturisers and SPF15 lipsticks.

Skin – This is all the stuff you slather on to make your skin naturally look better, and then stuff to remove all the rubbish you’ve put on there. Categories are: Suits all skintypes cleansers, cleansing wipes, skin toners, facial oils, moisturisers, tinted moisturisers, anti aging eye treatments, miracle creams, neck creams, line smoothers, facial exfoliators, face masks and beauty supplements.

Body beautiful – Keep your body smooth, soft and relaxed with a selection of these products: Body moisturisers, body oils, bust boosters, cellulite treatments, uplifting bath treats, relaxing bath treats, body scrubs, natural deodorants and hair removers.

Hair – Sort out your barnet with any of the following: Frizz beaters, hair masks, hair mousses and hair waxes.


The most important thing to know about this book is the categories included, because as I said before this makes up 99% of the book and so it will be what you’re interested in if thinking about buying this.

The sections are clearly laid out and also appear to conveniently be in sequential order eg. makeup primers and things to make a base for your makeup, then it moves onto things like foundation and eye makeup etc. so it is easy to work your way through.

The only down side to this book when compared with the Tried and Tested pages in the original 21st Century Beauty Bible is that they don’t include any negative comments associated with the products – whereas in the larger book you could see if maybe any of the downsides might annoy you (for example if it said something like “product works well but maybe not as well if you tend toward oily skin” it gives you the chance to consider the other winning products.).

Overall I would say that this book would be especially helpful if you’re considering the more ‘green’ approach to makeup and skin care rather than going for any product because it seems to me that the authors have included many organic/green brands for testing and brands such as Urban Decay and BeneFit don’t make an appearance despite (in my opinion) having a lot of successful products that work. Anyway, the green aspect is just an added bonus as the book is very handy if you want a certain type of product but have no idea where to start. I have found that several of my favourite products are included in this book, which is good to confirm that I don’t just like them for how they look/smell, they actually do work! I have also tried some things on the book’s recommendations, some of which were good and one or two which failed miserably, but I think on the whole the book has been a worthwhile purchase as I have managed to avoid a few rush purchases.

The book has an RRP of £8.99 and costs £6.74 from Amazon

Summary: A useful book to have if you want to find a good cosmetic product