Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Forget getting older gracefully--This is the beauty and style bible every woman has been waiting for!HOW NOT TO LOOK OLD is the first--ever cheat sheet of to-dos and fast fixes that pay-off big time--all from Charla and her friends, the best hair pros, makeup artists, designers, dermatologists, cosmetic dentists and personal shoppers in the biz. Packed with eye-opening details on hair color, brows, lipstick, wrinkle-erasers, jeans, shapewear, jewelry, heels, and more, the book speaks to every woman: from low maintenance types who don't want to spend a fortune or tons of time on her looks to high maintenance women who believe in looking fabulous at any price. There's also too-old vs. just-right before and after photos, celebrity examples of good and bad style, shopping lists of Charla's brilliant buys in fashion and beauty products, coveted addresses of "Where the top beauty pros go," fun sidebars--and more.

Known to national audiences from her ten years on NBC's Today show, style expert Charla Krupp dishes out her secrets in this "ultimate" to-do list for looking hip and fabulous -- no matter what your age.

Rating : - "Clearly I look the best, and here's how to look like me!"
Style self-help books for aging Boomers and Gen-Xers are conspicuous on every bookstore shelf nowadays - Amazon alone has over 3500. I've read about 10 myself, from different authors, and gotten some good fashion and style advice. Charla Krupp's new book, "How Not to Look Old," purports to show those of us over 40 how to drop 10 years and 10 pounds in 10 minutes just by following her advice.

Most of her recommendations are basic fashion and health advice: lose the mommy jeans, get fitted for the right bra, don't show your thong, wear sunscreen, and most surprising for a fashion editor, don't wear heels over 2-1/2 inches. Some are more quixotic (wear only pink lipstick, wear nude fishnets) or financially infeasible (buy $300 sunglasses). Some are clearly off-base for anyone outside the LA-influenced fashion world (as a 43-year-old university professor, nude stockings are a classroom staple - bare legs are not an option in freezing Boston, and her recommended black tights with peep-toe platforms would look ridiculous), but she lost me when she recommends injecting Restylane into your earlobes to correct earring droopage! That's just gross.

Tiger Lily is right: Krupp's approach to Y&H (young & hip) is one-size-fits-all, and individuality is out. She wants to make you look like her. If you're in a fashion and beauty rut, this book can help you break out of it, but if you are relatively Y&H already, there's not much new here. I would recommend reading this book with a skeptical eye - many of her recommendations are good ones, but anyone with a modicum of common sense and the wisdom we have all gained at our age can separate the good advice from the narcissistic and nonsensical.