Beautiful Skin of Color: A Comprehensive Guide to Asian, Olive, and Dark Skin

It's a fact of DNA: If you can trace your roots back to Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, India, Latin America, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the South Pacific, or any group of Native Americans, your genes react similarly to genes in the darkest skin. And chances are, you may have received confusing advice -- or no advice at all -- about how to care for your skin. Although nearly half the population of the United States shares the hallmarks of skin of color, many dermatologists and beauty consultants routinely prescribe remedies created for Caucasian skin without understanding how sensitive and easily damaged skin of color is. It's no wonder, then, that many women and men of color continually battle skin problems, and it takes a terrible toll on their self-esteem.

Finally, Beautiful Skin of Color unlocks the particular secrets of your skin and provides the answers you've been searching for. Dr. Fran Cook-Bolden and Dr. Jeanine Downie, internationally recognized dermatologists and women of color, and Barbara Nevins Taylor, an award-winning reporter on skin and hair issues, offer clear, specific advice to help you achieve and maintain a healthy, gorgeous complexion.

In a quick-reference, A-to-Z format, using examples drawn from personal and professional experience, Dr. Cook-Bolden and Dr. Downie explain why problems occur, and then prescribe reliable remedies and groundbreaking new procedures specifically created for skin of color.

Throughout this comprehensive guide, the doctors show you how to work with your skin and hair -- and your dermatologist -- to create your own unique skin-management program. A long-overdue and much-needed resource, Beautiful Skin of Color is certain to help you look and feel your best.

Jeanine Downie, M.D., is director of Image Dermatology in Montclair, New Jersey, and is an assistant attending physician at Mountainside and Overlook Hospitals. In addition to traveling across the U.S. and in Europe and Asia as a leading lecturer on skin of color, she has appeared on The View, The Weekend Today Show, and Living It Up with Ali and Jack and in InStyle, Cosmopolitan, O, Essence, and other publications. She lives in West Orange, New Jersey.

Fran Cook-Bolden, M.D., is a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University, director of the Ethnic Skin Specialty Group, and has a private practice in New York City. She is an internationally recognized pioneer on the use of lasers in ethnic skin and provides cutting-edge research advice to the health and beauty industry. Her advice has appeared in Essence, YM, Honey, Lucky, Heart and Soul, and Black Men. She lives in Westchester County.

Barbara Nevins Taylor is a ten-time Emmy Award–winning investigative reporter for UPN 9 WWOR-TV in New York. She has won dozens of journalism awards, including a Laurel from the Columbia Journalism Review. She has written for the New York Times and other publications. She lives in New York City.