About the Author

Mary Lisa Gavenas, author of Color Stories: Behind the Scenes in America's Billion-Dollar Beauty Industry, has worked as both a beauty editor and scholar of the beauty industry-especially as it relates to cultural history-and was recently named a Fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography. A former editor at Glamour, In Style, Mirabella, and a columnist at Elle, she was a member of the advisory board for The Dove Report: Challenging Beauty and has been cited as an expert source in media ranging from The New York Times to BBC-4. Visit her at the Gotham Center for New York City History: www.GothamCenter.org.

Reviews

Paco UnderhillAuthor of "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping"Every cosmetic purchase involves a moment of reverie, where the woman is transformed from the person she is, to the person she'd like to be. This book is about the industry behind that moment. Welcome to the beauty business, more corrupted than Anna Nicole Smith, more jaded than Jacqueline Susann, and deliciously portrayed by Mary Lisa Gavenas.

Ruth P. Rubinstein, Ph.D.Author of "Dress Codes: Meanings and Messages in American Culture"There is more to "Color Stories" than makeup. There are stories about women's complex interactions with other women and surprising observations about how the top cosmetics companies market their products. Gavenas shows us that what a woman wants from make-up can't always be quantified.

Paco Underhill

Author of "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping"Every cosmetic purchase involves a moment of reverie, where the woman is transformed from the person she is, to the person she'd like to be. This book is about the industry behind that moment. Welcome to the beauty business, more corrupted than Anna Nicole Smith, more jaded than Jacqueline Susann, and deliciously portrayed by Mary Lisa Gavenas.

Author of "Dress Codes: Meanings and Messages in American Culture"There is more to "Color Stories" than makeup. There are stories about women's complex interactions with other women and surprising observations about how the top cosmetics companies market their products. Gavenas shows us that what a woman wants from make-up can't always be quantified.