Beauty books for experimental makeup, wellness and more

Le Labo changed perfumery when it opened the doors of its New York store in 2006, pioneering an approach to the art form that has now become commonplace but was then quietly revolutionary. At a time when high-gloss, celebrity-fueled advertising was the norm, Le Labo cultivated a pared-back, laboratory-inspired aesthetic with perfumes that were made to order rather than mass-produced, gender-neutral, and stripped down to only a few ingredients.

To celebrate its twentieth anniversary, Le Labo has released the book Le Labo: The Essence of Slow Perfumery. Filled with essays and imagery documenting the brand's history, The Essence of Slow Perfumery was compiled by brand creative director Deborah Royer to capture the ‘essence’ of Le Labo and chart its impact on the industry.

#Hairtests by Gudio Palau is a collection of iPhone photographs the famed hairstylist took behind the scenes of fashion shows for Prada, Valentino and more.

In Palau’s hands, the profile shots of fashion’s idiosyncratic beauties become coolly minimal documentations of today’s anti-perfectionist, self-expressionistic beauty standards. ‘This is a really exciting time because the boundaries of beauty have really broken down,’ says Palau. ‘Everyone is beautiful in their own way. I hope this book captures that.’

Stéphane Marais' Beauty Flash is a classic of the beauty book genre. Difficult to find but worth the hunt, the book features Marais' own behind-the-scenes polaroids of some of the 1990s' most memorable make-up moments. Prepare to see the best faces of the Supermodel era--Linda Evangelista, Crissy Turlington, Carolyn Murphy-- in the smoky eyes and blood-red lips that defined the time. 

Part documentation of technique and part charter study, Beauty Flash is an intimate portrayal of the fashion industry during its most decadent period, showcasing all the mess and glory behind creating makeup looks for the 90's glossy editorials and over-the-top fashion shows.

Since beginning her career as the choice makeup artist for the Antwerp Six and Martin Margiela in the mid-1980s, Inge Grognard has cemented her status as one of the industry's most prolific and innovative proponents of subversive beauty. 

Inge Grognard, Makeup 1989-2005 charts the early days of Grognard’s career through images by Ronald Stoops (Grognard’s creative and life partner) that depict a model with a painted-on unibrow, or deliberately misapplied mascara, or blanched, monochromatic features. The resulting collection is captivating and also challenging, posing philosophical questions about our perceptions of beauty as much as they titillate our aesthetic sensibilities. 

In the photography book Bodybuilders, London and Milan-based artist Alien celebrates the malleability of the human form through their portraits of UK club kids and queers in drag. The book is, as its title suggests, a showcase of talented bodybuilders; but here the personalities involved transform their physical form through rigorous artistry rather than athletics. Prosthetics, make-up, and clothing make the human body as pliable as clay, capable of whatever contortions the imagination can manufacture.  

'Most of these kids in the community get noticed through social media,’ says Alien about the project. ‘Too fast and volatile sometimes. I felt the desire, and maybe a little bit the need, to photograph and represent them in a physical format, like film and the printed form, a medium that has the power to stay regardless of the algorithm.’ 

If you were to analogise make-up artistry to painting, Thomas de Kluyver would be the abstract expressionist among the profession's more line-abiding figurative artists. 

It makes sense, then, that de Kluyver is Gucci's first global make-up ambassador, creating campaigns for the brand's expressionistic makeup line that include smudged red lipstick and clumpy eyelashes.  

His first book, All I Want to Be, is a compelling document of our era's 'anti-perfectionism' take on beauty. Featuring imagery from the likes of Hailey Weir and Lea Colombo, the book emphasises that make-up is a tool of expression rather than perfection. 

The Art of Colour explores the vibrant history of Dior cosmetics through a kaleidoscopic lens. The book is divided into twelve chapters- White, Silver, Nude, Pink, Red, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Gold, Gray, and Black- that explore the use colour with Dior Beauty's many iconic campaigns. 

Work by some of the great masters of makeup is on display here, including Serge Lutens, Tyen, and Peter Philips, as captured through the lens of photographers like Irving Penn, Guy Bourdin, and Richard Burbridge. 

Carlijn Jacobs is not a makeup artist, but her first book Mannequins is a must-have for any devotee to the craft. Jacobs has produced some of the most innovative beauty photography of our era, with colourful, surrealist imagery that is evocative of Guy Bordian's best shots but reworked for our more cosmetically experimental time.  

Mannequins is a stylish, but probing, look at popular culture's fetishisation of beauty. Stiff-limed mannequins are styled as if they were breathing models for a series of glossy, uncanny shots. To create the looks, Jacobs worked with some of the most innovative artists in the industry, including hair stylist Sarah Jo Palmer, nail artist Sylvie Macmillan, and makeup artist Bea Sweet.  

And if Mannequins piques your interest, you should also explore Jacobs newest book that explores childhood face painting, Making Faces.

Tomihiro Kono's cotton-candy coloured wigs are a sweet treat for the eyes. His book Personas 111 showcases some of his most delectable creations, from wavy platinum locks to cobalt blue mullets. 

The wigs are all modelled by photographer Cameron Lee Phan, who looks like a different character in each image. The result is a catalogue that demonstrates the particular power hair has in shaping our perception of an individual’s character. 

‘Wearing a wig also enables us an instant transformation,’ Kono writes in the book. ‘It is fun to create multiple characters that exist in ourselves – it is almost like choosing your outfit of the day from your wardrobe.’

Although not a beauty or wellness book per se, Colours of My Body sees the celebrated photographer Lea Colombo explore how colour can be used to unlock spiritual energies. Colombo, who is best known for her colour-saturated fashion images, uses a combination of self-portraits, drawings, and collages to ‘explore our relationship with self, the balancing of masculine and feminine that are achieved in the process of individuation.’ 

It's a vibrant form of self-examination that electrifies the theories behind vibrational energy, aura healing, and other forms of spiritual exploration and enough inspiring imagery that it's a compelling read for those who are interested in alternative healing or those who aren’t. 

The Beauty of Time Travel: Officine Universelle Buly and the Work of Ramdane Touhami is a brilliant 400-page book that takes readers through creative director Touhami's reinvention of the historic brand.

Touhami is known as one of the most innovative designers working in the beauty industry today, spearheading the rebrand of Cire Trudon before recalibrating the aesthetic identity of Officine Universelle Buly 1803 with Victoire de Taillac in 2014. 

Under Touhami and de Taillac’s guidance, the 19th-century pharmacy has turned into a veritable Wunderkammer of strange and dazzling products from around the world. Think volcanic stone from Sicily that is used to remove calluses, precious perfume vials from the oldest porcelain manufacturer in Japan, Brazilian Tucuma seed oil for preserving your tan, and more. 

In The Beauty of Time Travel, Touhami discusses every aspect of Buly's rebrand from his management philosophy to the typefaces he has designed for the brand.