I have a recent obsession with coffee table fashion and beauty books.  Maybe it’s because I’ve never had a coffee table (and always wanted one), or because they are so pretty to display.  In preparation for the condo that will soon be mine, I have been stocking up my collection as of late.

I read Lauren Conrad Style by Laguna Beach and The Hills star Lauren Conrad last year and was excited to hear that she was coming out with a beauty book in the end of 2012.  I quickly put it on my holiday wish list and on the first night of Hanukkah was “surprised” (well, not really, I ordered it with my brother’s debit card) to receive it.

Lauren Conrad Beauty is a touch larger than her style book and focuses on skin care, makeup, hair, etc.  It’s basically anything you would find in a typical beauty book.  Now because we all don’t have pale ivory skin (well, I do), and gorgeous long blonde hair, she has a tons of photos of models with different skin types and hair types to accommodate anyone.

Now if I were to choose between the style book and the beauty book, I would go hands down for the style one.  Lauren Conrad is a style icon to young girls, and aside from her winged liner and goddess braid, she’s not really the first person who screams “beauty” to me.  In Lauren Conrad Style there was a brief section on hair and makeup and she said that she doesn’t wear eyeshadow.  She says this again in her beauty book, with the exception of skin-coloured eyeshadow so her liner stays set.  That’s fine, eyeshadow isn’t for everyone, however, if you are coming out with a book about beauty, someone who just wears winged eyeliner, blush, foundation, mascara, and the occasional red lip, maybe shouldn’t be suited to authoring a whole book about cosmetic products and how to apply them.

There are some other interesting chapters in here like nails (in case you didn’t know how to paint them), beauty through the ages (pictures of LC dressed up as women in different decades), skin care (use a Clarisonic), party hair (how to use a curling iron), and more.  This book doesn’t really present anything new or different and some of the photos and descriptions are quite obvious.  With that being said, however, I did enjoy the section on what to avoid in terms of bad ingredients.

I’m rather indifferent when I think about what I thought about the book as a whole.  Lauren doesn’t give readers anything new or revolutionary in this, much like her style book, however, I found Style more interesting to get through.  I finished Lauren Conrad Style in a couple of days, whereas Beauty took me close to a month because I just couldn’t get that into it.

Unless you are a hardcore Lauren Conrad fan or love these kind of girly coffee table books, you would be better off just perusing beauty blogs and YouTube videos.  Lauren constantly references her glam squad who taught her everything she knows, so it’s basically just her reiterating tips and tricks she learned along the way.  Her makeup artist and hairstylist could have come out with a way better book, however, it wouldn’t have the star power (and money-making machine) that Lauren’s name has.

Finally, I know that Lauren Conrad did start up The Beauty Department, however, how many posts are directly from her?  Last time I checked, I see a lot of posts from Kristen Ess, her hairstylist, and Amy Nadine, her makeup artist…  Just putting that out there..

Have you read Lauren Conrad Beauty?  What were your thoughts?

Like what you read? Check out these related posts:

• Chic reads
• Book review: Lauren Conrad Style
• Book review: Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual
• Kardashian Kollection: a review