An Atlas of Natural Beauty

Starred review from September 3, 2018
This beautiful guide from wife-and-husband team de Taillac and Touhami, owners of the historic Paris apothecary L’Officine Universelle Buly, introduces a version of health and body care that draws upon natural materials and can be easily individualized. The authors offers an abundance of information, botanical and scientific, in conjunction with recipes for ointments, washes, and masks made by harvesting and preparing items that can be grown in the garden. For example, they state, the oil from the seed pods of the nigella plant renders great benefit to those with skin blemishes and acne; pomegranate can be used for a “great quick scrub,” as well as an “instant beauty recovery mask”; avocado fortifies hair; and hemp oil “renew the skin’s firmness and radiance.” The final chapter poses the rhetorical question “Who Are You?” and answers it with descriptions of various skin types (“your face gives off a certain radiance”; “your face is shiny”; “your skin is prone to redness”). De Taillac and Touhami’s practical book, with its elegant illustrations, shows the way for better personal care with the ultimate purpose of, literally, feeling more comfortable in one’s own skin. Agent: Susanna Lea, Susanna Lea Assoc.