Thursday, May 17, 2012

A Beautiful Truth by Diana Hayden - book review


A Groomed Goddess

Erstwhile Miss World and grooming expert, Diana Hayden, divulges in the essentials of grooming in her first book, A Beautiful Truth

Reviewer | Urmi Chanda-Vaz

We’ve read column after column on make-up tips, fitness, and skin or hair issues in magazines. We’ve seen lifestyle gurus offer advice on TV. But rarely, if ever, has there been a complete resource that a woman might turn to for quick, easy solutions to everyday questions about grooming. In what looks like a first, Miss World 1997, Diana Hayden has offered women a one-stop book offering complete grooming solutions.
The simple yet extensive book A Beautiful Truth: The Art of Grooming for Women has a self-explanatory title, and Hayden covers a host of issues that fall under the purview of female grooming. There are various categories including Body Shape & Clothing, Innerwear & Underwear, Accessories, Skincare, Make-up, Haircare, Bodycare, Posture & Poise, and Health & Fitness, in which she offers clear and precise mantras. Beauty and hair enthusiasts will find the sections on Skincare, Make-up and Haircare especially useful.
Hayden follows a simple format throughout all the sections, where there is general information about the subject, some DIY instructions, some Dos and Don’t’s, Tips and Tricks, and concluding them with three mantras she lives by. Notably, the author always offers safety advice, which is woefully lacking in most Indian writing.  
The thing that struck me the most about this book was how matter-of-factly it has been written; how wonderfully free of pretense it is. Hayden writes it like it is for a regular woman, and does not sound like a beauty queen in an ivory tower. She peppers the book with anecdotes and memories from her life that makes the advice seem real. Hayden tells you how to reach for the stars, but with her feet fixed firmly on the ground.

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This article appeared in the May 2012 issue of StyleSpeak - the salon and spa journal




1 comment:

Unknown said...

What does she say about how to apply makeup to prominent eyes?