Bernadette Fisers - The Little Book of Big Beauty

The Little Book that gets to the heart of Big Beauty.

Bernadette Fisers has spent a career in fashion, hair and makeup, travelling the world to work on famous faces, and in this wise little book she shares a lifetimes worth of tips for creating the kind of inner and outer beauty that makes you glow.

Bern knows better than most that beauty is more than skin deep, so she explains how to cultivate simple truths like kindness, authenticity and acceptance as well as spilling her industry secrets. From the products you seriously cant live without to the ones you most definitely can, plus all the essential techniques, shell guide and empower you to make smart, practical choices so you can look and feel your absolute best with minimal confusion and expense.

In an hour, youll be on your way to a more beautiful you.

Why do so many of us feel its important for us to be thought of as beautiful? Were prepared to paint ourselves, inject ourselves and spend a small fortune in the search for attractiveness. There is a massive industry that I have been working in for over thirty years that pays homage at the shrine of beauty, while women worldwide offer themselves up to it on a daily basis. And me? Im a believer, a devotee who practises daily. But when we stop to think about it, are we doing it for ourselves? Are we doing it to compete with others? Or are there romantic reasons behind our continual quest?

The idea of the value of beauty is not new by any means its been around forever. Weve been grooming ourselves since the dawn of time, and without question one of the driving forces in this mission is to find a mate. Many of us believe that if we are more beautiful, we will have a better chance of success in that area and possibly there is some truth to that. But people were born not only with eyes, but with ears as well. Take Cleopatra, who was admired for her strength of character as much as for her beauty. We require much more than a look; we need a total package that combines inner strengths with outer beauty, and a healthy attitude to beauty means working on both.

Ive seen many women in London hurriedly applying their makeup on the train to work a mini mirror, a makeup bag and theyre set while in Australia and the USA its common to see application happening in the car. Its a sign of status to whip out a gold-plated lipstick and start coating our lips. A designer name and chic packaging are all we need to feel important. Were paying for packaging and we love it. We believe the marketing and we aspire to be like the models and celebrities who flog the products. Were buying the dream.

We spend hours at the makeup counters agonising over what colours will best suit us and magically transform our looks. We pay exorbitant amounts for miracle creams that claim to hold back time. These are mostly false claims made by a billion-dollar industry that loves to keep you on the brink of insecurity in fact, that is exactly where it thrives and feeds. The more we feel less than, the more we will spend at the makeup counters to help us feel enough. But in the search for that magic product we sometimes forget that true beauty is so much more than skin deep.

We become obsessed with particular products, thinking they are the only one for us like having a crush, we feel as though we cant do without them. When our favourite products go out of stock or have been discontinued: disaster. We frantically search for a new one that might fill the void. If we only knew that there are many twins of the same product sitting on the shelves that will cost us less than the original. Wed just disregarded them because they seemed too cheap, too available.

Dont get me wrong, I absolutely love cosmetics and what they can do for a person. I love the transformations and the confidence boost that they can bring. Ive just got past the bullshit. I know the truth and Ive seen behind the curtain. There is magic its just not where you think it is.

Ive spent my life applying makeup to various women, famous and not so famous. Women with egos so fragile that they cry with relief when looking in the mirror after Ive finished. Im always touched and humbled when this happens; it never fails to surprise me. This is the true magic.

We feel incomplete if we walk out the door without our makeup on. We hide in our bathrooms, sneak off to the mirror to fix ourselves up. It takes time to look like this. We invest portions of our life staring into the mirror, constantly trying to improve our appearance. Even though were smarter than ever, we keep trying to fix without questioning whether theres anything really broken. We find swarms of young females staring in nightclub mirrors, bonding and beautifying at the same time. Its a universal theme that ends in a selfie.

Physical beauty means different things in various countries and its also valued by each of us in our own unique way. It is truly in the eye of the beholder. Internal beauty is different its a worldwide human standard. We all appreciate kindness, humility, humour and respect. It speaks the same language no matter what country you are in. It doesnt vary with fashion. It just is. Its the type of beauty that doesnt come in a bottle, you cant buy it and you cant put it on yet its magnetic and memorable. Its truly valuable, and its available to everyone.

i love the humour, intelligence, kindness and humility that truly beautiful people show.

Over the years our idea of beauty has changed countless times. Its hard to get a solid grip on it because its a constantly moving target. We valued thin eyebrows in the 70s, bushy brows in the 80s and now its all about highly defined, structured brows. If you believe the cosmetics ads, one minute you need a smoky eye and the next a natural look. Whats changed is that makeup and beauty styles are moving with fashion, and the fashion cycle has gone into warp speed. Its hard to keep up with the constant new trends that drive sales.

What is considered attractive also varies on different continents. We Aussies like to look tanned and fit and will spend endless hours baking at the beach or applying fake tan and hours more working out at the gym. In the UK a lot of people also want that golden glow: one whiff of sun and the Brits are half-naked in the park, baking their lilywhite bodies until they are painfully cherry-red.

In Japan, the sun is seen as damaging and the beautifully fashionable will walk around with an umbrella delicately shading their porcelain skin. Models heading to Asia for work want to be luminously white lighter skin generally equals more work. Sometimes I think if they could glow in the dark they would! Whitening creams are bestsellers within the beauty market there, selling billions worth every year.

Stretched earlobes and lips in parts of Africa are a sign of beauty, as is an elongated neck for the Kayan tribeswomen in Thailand. Henna drawn in intricate patterns is an Indian staple of beauty. We are all different in what we find externally beautiful and there is no universal rule thats what makes the world so wonderful. Its not a beauty competition. How can you say a Renoir is more beautiful than a van Gogh?