Aging gracefully

It happens to all of us before we know it, and certainly before we are prepared for it: we start to age. A couple of gray hairs, a laugh line that hangs around after we're done laughing, a dark smudge under the eyes that doesn't wash off. People deal with this in a variety of ways, from undergoing thousands of dollars of plastic surgery and cosmetic treatments (think Joan Rivers - ouch!) to throwing up their hands and letting everything go to pot. Beauty maven Bobbi Brown takes the middle road, and in Living Beauty, she explains what that entails. She advocates healthy eating, nutritional supplements and lots of exercise (you know, just once I would like to find someone who advocates eating buckets of fried chicken and channel surfing). She also talks about how to use makeup to tone down signs of aging and highlight the attractive features of your face. She explains how to use concealer to mute the dark circles under your eyes, how to even out blotchy skin tone, how to hide signs of thinning hair, and what to do about skimpy eyelashes. Brown also gives advice on hair styles, coloring, and the types of clothing to embrace and avoid. Her book is full of before and after photos of lovely middle-aged women. The nicest thing about this book is that Brown is perfectly happy with a less-is-more approach to makeup: you can use it to bring out your beauty without looking like you've been trying to shoplift makeup by carrying it out of the store on your face. This book is a nice little affirmation that just because you're older doesn't mean you're not still beautiful.