Self-Seduction: Your Ultimate Path to Inner and Outer Beauty.

by Mikki Taylor, with photographs by Paul Lange One World/Ballantine Books, April 2003 $29.95, ISBN 0-345-44745-X

Who better than Mikki Taylor, the beauty director extraordinaire of Essence magazine, to create a guide to obtaining and maintaining inner and outer fabulousness?

While she gives plenty of wonderful tips on how to shape your eyebrows and care for natural hair, she also invites women to delve deeper. For example, her first chapter, "Are You Living the Life You Want?" emphasizes the value of balance and spirituality in our lives through whatever works best for us, be it meditation, prayer or a warm, fragrant bath. She reiterates the importance of creating our own personal definition of beauty and learning to be comfortable in our skin, which includes being gracious and taking time to honor and respect ourselves. Taylor also includes insights from women such as Halle Berry, Iman and Patti LaBelle. With her girlfriend-to-girlfriend approach, Taylor has crafted a very approachable and readable book. Luminous photographs by Patti Lange help to illustrate the message of an inner and outer glow.