Get Gorgeous: Twenty-One Days to a More Beautiful, Confident You

Get Gorgeous proposes a mighty tall order—especially if the reader ascribes to the possibility of actually accomplishing this near impossible feat. If this was possible to achieve by just reading and obeying the 21 days’ prescriptions, imagine the abundance of beauty we’d find around us as a result. It is difficult to fathom that any reader will believe that a book full of helpful hints, awash with glittering generalities, sweeping declarations, emphatic pronouncements of style, and false assumptions about all women will achieve the end goal of being “a better you.”

A lot can be said about the book’s content which boils down to a lot of do’s and don’ts but it is the supposed result that needs to be considered. Unquestionably, the authors offer up some rather inventive, maybe even insightful and helpful ideas about anything from cleaning closets to making mood boards, hair treatments, make up, and shoe selections all of which, according to the authors, will yield in the ultimate goal of getting gorgeous.

According to these writers accomplishing each of the tasks and projects of the 21-day regimen will end with nothing short of earthshattering results. A mood board by definition (an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc., intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept) is meant to evoke or spur a direction usually in design and it can be reasonably assumed or possibly proven that no one has ever altered their life path by creating a mood board.

Let’s say that if the reader takes much of the “maintenance” advice as gospel and follows the recommended or mentioned beauty products then there is no question, she needs to either be independently wealthy, a trust fund baby, or a totally gullible, narcissistic, and insecure woman with a penchant for thinking there is a magic bullet for everything that is “wrong” with her body. In general the book is definitely skewed to a reader of means or to one who has a reasonable amount of disposable income as well as time to spare.

There is also a plethora of contradictions, for instance, on Day 10, Getting Dressed in 10 Minutes, the authors clearly write “wearing flashy clothes or a go-anywhere uniform does not produce the same effect on people around you. I am nevertheless convinced that the way we appear to others is critical.” On the very next page, “the best advice to keep you from tearing your hair out every morning is to choose a uniform.” Well, make up your mind, what is the message you wish to convey? And if you are going to contradict yourself, at least don’t do it on the following page of the same chapter.

As for the promised celebrity advice, that appears to be nothing more than a highly curated assortment of models, actresses, and editors offering their replies to a series of questions that pertain to them personally. It seems to be all rather informational rather than helpful.

Then of course there is an issue made of “everyone is beautiful in their own way” referring to the body shaming issues and how we are all programmed to see female beauty in a very specific way; please explain how helpful wardrobe hints such as short shorts, spiked heels, and a camisole can be perceived as helpful to anyone above a size six or for that matter above the age of 30.

The book is rife with contradictions and once again raises the idea of just because you stand in a garage (being around fashion) you will not be a car (equipped to advise on all matters fashion) meaning always consider the source, their frame of reference, and their qualifications before you heed advice. These authors seem to possess a less than universal concept of beauty and skew their tips toward a very specific audience.