Pretty Iconic: A Personal Look at the Beauty Products that Changed the World

A gem of a book; could not put it down. I love reading about the products from the past (had almost forgotten Cher's 1987 fragrance which was a must-have that Christmas), and the present (always looking for good-value anti-aging products). I enjoy reading the background on a product, such as info about the founder. I also bemoan the passing of many products/brands, such as Flame Glo Kohl eye pencils, Maybelline Cinnamon lip gloss in a pot, and Pond's eye shadows in the lollipop-shaped compact (the applicator was the stick). I have to confess that I keep a notebook (going back 20-plus years) of the monthly directory feature from 'Allure' magazine, so this was a welcome addition to that tome. This book is a must for any beauty junkie or junkie-in-training. A treasure to hold on to.

A wonderful little book! Well written and a fun read, I'm really enjoying the little tidbits of info on so many of my favorite beauty products. I'm not as interested in the author's reminisces of her personal experiences with the products, I don't really relate to a lot of them, but I'm okay reading around them to find the gems of history and interest.

Plenty info about beauty products. Really enjoyed it.

A lovely walk through my beauty memories. This book made me smile and laugh so often that my family asked what the heck I was reading.

Amazing book, not as relevant in the US as the UK but I loved it!

This is a book written by a beauty lover, for beauty lovers. It is split into sections, covering true beauty icons, nostalgic products, game changers, rites of passage, and future icons. Each product is accompanied by a short essay about why it was chosen, what is so iconic about it, and Sali’s personal thoughts about it. It is accompanied by stylish pictures, and a physical copy of the book would look nice on a coffee table. I read this in electronic format, and the pictures and layout were still good.The strength of this book is Sali’s writing. Her prose is elegant, thoughtful, and polished, and she skilfully combines technical information with personal anecdotes. Pretty Iconic is lovely to read, and I found myself actually limiting the amount of pages I read each day so that I could extend out the experience.What is unique about this book is that Sali is not a fan of everything she includes, and she isn’t shy to say so. In fact, she actively dislikes some of the products. I think this makes for a more honest and interesting read – she may dislike the product, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not iconic.I really loved reading this book, and it would make a wonderful gift for a beauty lover. I also ended up finishing the book with a shopping list, which was good for my beauty routine but bad for my wallet!

I enjoyed going through the list of "iconic" products and seeing which ones I agreed with.

This is an excellent book for gifts. I’m giving it to friends!

Pretty Iconic: A Personal Look at the Beauty Products that Changed the World ]Somebody very kindly lent this lovely chunky book to me after learning I was a big fan of Sali’s beauty column in The Guardian. Immediately, knowing this was going to have to be returned at some point, I delved into the volume with pen and paper to hand to take notes. Soon I was thinking I need to get my own copy, as there are so many good products I need, and my list was getting so long well before I reached page 100!A nice silky attached bookmark would have been the cherry on the cake, but maybe I’m being a tad picky here. The deal breaker was/is the superb Index, essential for a non-fiction eBook. The photos are b/w on my Kindle, but it downloaded super-fast. I think I should write further on the Index, as this is a review and should be useful as well as a shameless piece of ‘vanity’ publishing about my good old days. As stated in the eBook, the page numbers relate to the printed version of the book. They don’t match the pages of your eBook. Now for some reference books, this could well be a problem if you are flipping backwards and forwards and your particular reference point is repeated numerous times, as you will have to skim down through pages of your searched word to find the correct page. With me so far? Good. Now with Sali’s book, I didn’t find this a problem, and was quite happily able to use my search engine on my Kindle to dip in and out. I would argue, however, that it helped I was already familiar with the hardback version, so I had a good feel for the text and content.Sali has a wonderful way with words, despite a few points being lost on me in her enthusiasm in getting the whole 360 degree picture across. I read the whole book from cover to cover. OK, I cheated a bit now and then by flicking through the final third of the book and picking out a few of my old must-haves. Favourite quote? The following resonates for me on several levels: ‘You can’t polish muck, but you can roll it in glitter.’So many of these iconic products have an interesting story attached, and I swear I could smell them as they were described. It is quite moving when Sali relates the memories of visits to her grandparents, attaching them to the smell of Old Spice and Max Factor Crème Puff. Even if Sali does not especially love a specific product, she gives her reasons why, but more often than not empathises with those who do love it, and reiterates that sometimes this beauty item has set the bar for others. These may or may not suit your particular skin more, but as we know, the beauty industry is constantly seeking to improve itself. That said, there are some products which have been through changes, and then been returned to how they were. Other products, Sali argues, may have a cheaper alternative, but if we stop buying those originals then they could be lost forever.If you are interested, read my damning review of Bourjois 1 Seconde Mascara Waterproof , and my search for a good alternative. I have just gone back to look at my review, and am stunned to see the product has been given a sprinkling of five star reviews. Perhaps there are a lot of panda wannabees out there, who knows?! No. 7 was recommended; and ditched after a few attempts because of the strange black tics that appeared on my face. Currently I am using MAC, but Sali has given other makes a recommendation such as Diorshow, Lancome, and Maybelline which I will certainly add to my list.Miners; Buf-Puf; Minty roll-on lip gloss, oh joy; though I never had any luck with Sun-in; miss Prescriptives like an old friend, and am still waiting for a Girls’ World! I wish they’d had Bioré Pore Strips when I was seventeen. I think Terracotta (Pour Homme!) was the highlighter cum blusher cum gritty yet exotic fake tanner I invested in back in the late Eighties, which ended up all over the bedroom carpet when Mum was babysitting, and greeted me with a ‘He gets into all your things!’ If only I had known about Avon’s Skin So Soft Original Dry Oil back then. It would also have been handy in Italy and Malta. Just don’t get me started on Tanfastic, please. I was doing the orange face look way before it became super-trendy, kidding myself I looked as cool as the Charlie Girl. No, not really. But I did aspire to have that thing going where everything you did as a girl about town looked as if filmed in slow motion. And Shanida was my signature fragrance once upon a teenage time.Whatever happened to those cute little barrels of Linco Beer? Right, enough of the trip down memory lane, I’m off with my shopping list! I shall be in budgeting and cost-effective mode. Like Sali, I have found various products have imbued with me with as much enthusiasm as a Brexiteer looking to stay within the EU. Certain monikers also make me cringe in the same fashion as idioms such as wifie, hubbie, other half, and my all-time nemesis ‘the missus’. That aside, I think I shall be working through Sali’s recommendations for years to come! Pretty Iconic: A Personal Look at the Beauty Products that Changed the World

What's not to like about Sali. She is such an intelligent and articulate writer and broadcaster and I'm always drawn to her work whatever the subject matter. This is a perfect coffee table book for anyone who likes their beauty or for nostalgic souls generally. Elegant, stylish, just the right amount of kitsch but equally well researched and executed. If you are a nineties teen like me you will love this. Rimmell Hide the Blemish - I kept them in business back in the day :)

Sali Hughes does beauty. She knows everything about beauty, and everyone in the beauty business. She knows that every Saturday, thousands of women turn to her beauty column in the Guardian. They hang on her every word, and so does the industry.We hang on Sali’s every word because she is funny, knowledgeable, and never forgets that beauty is precious. Beauty products marks the passage of our lives, from spot cream to creme de la mer. People choose to see or ignore us on the basis of how we look, whether we are teenagers or senior citizens. And Sali knows that we don’t have time or money to mess about. We want results, and to present the best possible version of ourselves.And that is what Sali celebrates in this book. Sali’s roughly my age, and she documents our generation’s lives in products: the best of the new crop circa 2016, and the products she saved up for or pinched from her mum when she was growing up or running away, or starting out as a journalist.Part memoir, part guide to the best beauty products of the last century, it is a funny, insightful, joyful look at a life lived through beauty. It includes lovely anecdotes: the power of a perfect red lipstick when her friend Carey was terminally ill, and how Revlon got her enough so everyone at Carey’s funeral could take her signature red lipstick home. There are many more.It is, in every way, a beautiful book. If you love beauty, you really will love this book.

I loved this book. It was absolutely fascinating. I am not a huge fan of beauty products. I use them intermittently and am rather lack lustre in my grooming habits, I am however, a fan of Sali's writing and have been reading her columns for a long while. I like how straightforward she is and how she demystifies a lot of the nonsense written about beauty. I loved the eclectic nature of the products she had chosen and she writes with passion and a clear love for her subject which made this thoroughly absorbing.

Oh how I love this book! It took me on a huge trip down memory lane - remember bath cubes, Hawaiian Tropic, hair scrunchies, large tubs of hair gel, Rimmel hide the blemish, Body Shop Raspberry Ripple Bathing Bubbles, Sun-In, Shaders & Toners... The book also contains lots of tips. I know I now need a new hairdryer and tweezers and have a sizeable list of wants. Great read.