Because I have a teen, I'm thinking more these days about make-up, fashion, style, body image, and modesty. So when I heard about a new style guide for women, I asked the publisher for a review copy. Shari Braendel has written a no-nonsense guide complete with photos of women with all body types. Here's a short interview with the author:

Tell me a little bit about your background.

I’ve been in the fashion and beauty industry since graduating from college with a degree in Fashion Merchandising. I’ve owned my own image consulting business in Miami, Florida, was a Pink Cadillac driving sales director with Mary Kay Cosmetics and now speak nationally for Proverbs 31 Ministries about fashion, beauty and modesty.

What are the major themes of the book?

It is a guide for women to know exactly how to dress, how to make up their face, what eye frames, hairstyle, jeans, and swimsuit they should buy all based on their individual body shape and coloring. There’s even a shopping guide available that tells women exactly what style and brand of clothes to buy based on their budget and their clothing personality, which they identify in the book. Modesty is an overall theme, and understanding that you are beautiful exactly the way you are, no matter your size, is a major theme throughout. It is also full of pictures with real women of all shapes and sizes and is a full color book for only $14.99. We’ve become a society of women who wear what the salespeople in the stores tells us to wear, and for the most part, most salespeople are uneducated in knowing about colors and body shapes for an individual. If black is in style, the salespeople insist it will work for you, even if it doesn’t. They just want to sell clothes, and you can’t blame them, because they haven’t been trained. This book will give a woman complete confidence in knowing what works for HER and even gives checklists as to what she should have in her closet.

What do you hope readers will take away?

That when a woman finishes this book, she will say, “Oh my goodness, I never knew it was this easy!” I hope she will look in the mirror and finally be convinced that she is beautiful exactly as she is and now has the knowledge and confidence to dress her beautiful self so she feels good every time she goes to her closet because she’ll know exactly what to wear for any occasion. Impulsive shopping nightmares will become a thing of the past because she’s armed with the knowledge.

You can find this book on Amazon.