Bought as a gift for a 15year old. I am sure she will get a lot of useful info. I looked through and was amazed at the pics.

Got this for my husband. he has been in special effects and makeup for a few years. Excellent read, great pictures, and even how-tos! A must buy for anyone interested in this line of work, or even just hobbyists who love this kind of thing. Plus, the pictures are incredible and some of the work is mind-blowing!

This book is great. It starts out with creating a basic make-up and take you through lots of special effects. How to use products, create molds, work with lots of styles. It's easy to read and follow, step-by-step guidance.

For background context: I have a fairly extensive art and sculpting background with costuming and cosplay on the side. I got this book for extra tips for techniques, eye candy, and inspiration. While I hoped this would be a good tutorial book, I didn't go into my purchase expecting it.

If you have at least intermediate level experience with sfx and costuming, this book is well worth it. Lots of inspirations within its pages and there's enough info for most projects that you could do something similar on your own.

I would not recommend this to a beginner as far as instructions go, as there are some projects where entire chunks of the process are missing or just not explained all that well. A major example of this is the "Owl" on pg. 40. There are two pics of the materials used, and the third pic is the start of the project showing a closeup of the almost finished mask being airbrushed, accompanied by a description to make a cowl to cover the wearer's head and build up the mask from there. No pics of what said cowl is supposed to look like or how to start the project or what to do with the materials shown. The pics just start 3/4s into the project with the assumption you know exactly what went on before. There's a bit more step skipping in other projects, but to memory, this is the only extreme case, hence only 4 stars instead of 5 despite how much I like the rest of the book.

I was looking forward to getting this book based on all the giddy reviews about it...even though the makeups on the cover looked amateurish and suspiciously poorly lit. I wish I had gone with my instincts on this one. Most of this stuff is not what I consider makeup. Its cosplay. Seriously...one of the featured "makeups" shows you how to bedazzle a burlap sack and wear it over your head.
Even the basics presented here I would have to say are misguided. For instance, it tells you to paint straight black into wax or putty scratches to give the appearance of deeper wounds. Really? That's what I used to do when I first started and didn't know any better.
In my opinion Debrecini's book is the best book on the market right now, Savini's books will give you more insight about ingenuity and artistry, and Dick Smith's Monster Makeup Handbook will continue to be pulled from my shelf a thousand times more than I will ever refer to this dog turd of a book.