The ASA claim that images in the ad are misleading to the public and may actually exaggerate the product’s benefits.

I’m sorry.. Anyone who has so much as glanced at a make-up product ad will tell you that it’s been re-touched to hell.

Sadly, I’m one of those people who see a mascara ad and literally *have* to go and buy the product. Remember the L’oreal Telescopic Mascara? Yeah… it’s living it’s days out in my eye make-up bag. My eyes certainly didn’t look like Penelope’s at all..

I remember seeing a Julia Roberts Lancome mascara ad and an Eva Longoria L’oreal ad and thinking how magical this product must be in order for it to make your eyelids grow their own LONG, synthetic, perfectly curled eye lashes AND also make your skin look like a baby’s behind. And you cant forget that they’re all wearing a boatload of eyeliner too…

Julia Roberts’ mouth also looks a little bizarre.. but that’s probably caused by another one of Lancome’s products.. And Eva Longoria’s eyelashes are SO not real!

But back to Kate Moss and Rimmel. Apparently, the agency behind this campaign told the ASA that Moss was wearing fake lashes, but couldn’t support this claim. The ad in question is for Rimmel’s Magnif’eyes mascara. What do you think?

I think that taking one look at that should be enough to convince anyone that there is some kind of eyelash trickery going on there.. both in the fake eyelash and photoshop eyelash tool department.

So the ASA is concluding that Rimmel is no longer allowed to run this ad, and any subsequent ads that feature any kind of eyelash manipulation (synthetic or digital) are to carry a disclaimer.

Yeah right. Can you imagine..?! then EVERYTHING would need to have a disclaimer on it. Underwear ads, toothpaste ads, perfume ads, shampoo ads, car ads.

The next Victoria’s Secret ad is going to say something like:

“This push up bra will not make you look like Adriana Lima. This push up bra will not make your hair look flowy and perfect. Nor will this push up bra make your legs look 17 feet long. This push up bra will not make you tanned. Photo editing, wind machines and special leg-lengthening camera angels were used in this advertisement”

Girlfriend, please.. This is what makes people buy stuff. And lets not even start with store mannequins who are pinned into the outfits the stores. “This mannequin is pinned into this outfit. This outfit will not actually fit you like this. Sorry”

And while they’re at it, they might want to approach Subway and McDonalds. No sandwich or burger I’ve had ever looks like the pictures. Sauce all down the side, lettuce sticking out everywhere, fries coming out of the container in about 50 different directions.

False advertising? Well it worked didn’t it? Of course, I think to myself as I eat my lopsided burger with Big Mac sauce running down my hand.

Maybe she’s born with it.. Maybe it’s Maybelline.. or maybe it’s just good old Photoshop!

One of my friends here in Budapest is taking a manicure class, and when she started her course in June, she asked if I would go to the class with her to be her model/guinea pig. Which is SUPER exciting! I used to LOVE going to get my nails done!

But then I realised if she has to do hand nails, then she would probably have to learn foot nails… She called last week asking me to go this coming Wednesday for a manicure and a… PEDICURE.

EEK!

Alright, how do I say this without sounding like a crazy person…??

Ok, well, I have a major issue with my feet being touched.. Actually, even seeing someone else get their foot touched makes me uncomfortable.. Those of you who had the pleasure of living with/near me in school will remember me promptly running from the room when one of my room mates was getting her feet rubbed… *shudder*

Anyway, needless to say, I’ve never had a pedicure before. Just thinking about it made a giant knot form in my stomach.

So my friend came over yesterday, and brought all of her manicure/pedicure bits and pieces with her. She wanted to explain to me what she would have to do – because she knew that I was mildly freaking out about it. Which was actually really nice of her.

She got out this pretty pink case and opened it up to reveal what appeared to be surgical instruments. So I started laughing – a little manically – as she began to explain what scraper was used for what. (“You’re going to do WHAT with that big giant CLEAVER??!? and what the hell are those secateurs for?!?!!?”)

And as she was talking, I kept saying to myself “it’s not going to be that bad”.. Which, if I think about it rationally, is true. I mean, nothing bad is going to happen. (I guess the worst that could happen is me accidentally kicking her… :s) But she did say that she’s only going to do 1 foot.. A semi-pedi!

Hey, I might even like it enough to get the other foot done!

I guess I should explain my little compulsion to those of you who probably think that I should be institutionalised…

I don’t like the feeling of my foot being touched.. It makes me feel nauseous. That is all. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m just weird. But that’s how it is.

My boyfriend could accidentally brush his hand past my foot and I will literally jump 2 feet away from him and start squeaking at him “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING MY FOOT??”, while staring at him with full-on crazy eyes. And then he will roll his eyes and tell me that I’m crazy and tell me that its not like my feet are ugly or weird and that I’m being a drama queen. I don’t know..

We’re all a little crazy, right? Some slightly more so than others.. *ahem*

My favourite thing to get was these individually packed face masks. They had so many different kinds – warming ones, relaxing ones, exfoliating ones. There was an entire rack of them! Whenever they were on special, I would turn into a crazy Chinese lady and buy a basket full.

Anyway, since being in Budapest, I sort of forgot about my face mask stock piling – until I hit the drugstore this weekend. They had these masks on special for something ridiculous like 150 Forint for a pack of 2 (which is like 50p or 75 cents or something). So naturally, I got 6 packs. (As I’m typing this, I can’t believe how much of a “crap-on-special” hoarder I am.. despite the fact that my skin is VERY fussy as to what it likes and doesn’t like.. which apparently I forget when I’m in the middle of some bizarre mask-hoarding spree.. I digress…).

Even as I was buying them, I thought to myself “what if they’re crap? I’m going to have 12 packages of rubbish..”. But of course my inner hoarder took over and pushed the voice of reason aside, and I went to the cash with my treasures.

A few days passed, and I decided to try out one of these masks. They only had 2 types – reviving and cleansing (the fact that there was only a choice of 2 kinds should have meant something too…). I went with the pretty blue cleansing one. Everything was going perfectly – until it came time to rinse it off. It came off my face, but left me with a few patches of blue.

After much scrubbing, the patches became sort of a bluish tint. It wasn’t overly noticeable, but of course, I thought I looked like an Avatar creature.. minus the sparkly face designs. Sadly/thankfully, there is no photographic evidence.

The moral of the story is… If it can be classified as cheap crap, don’t buy it, because it might actually be crap and you may end up with a blue face. More importantly, don’t stock pile it. Hoarding expensive, high quality crap is fine. But hoarding cheap, rubbish crap is what compels people to label you as a crazy person.

I’m all for saving money. I think the urge to be frugal comes as our age increases.. You know you’re grown up when you start looking at the cost per sheet on the loo roll…

As I mentioned in a previous post about beauty on a budget, only buy things that you need and that you’re going to use. There’s no point saving money on stuff that is going to spend the rest of it’s days hiding in a drawer. Or, as I learnt this weekend, there is no point saving money by paying for a sub-par product. As my mother always says “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.

I was just at the grocery store, minding my own business, buying some bits and pieces for supper. When I got to the checkout, I found myself standing behind a girl – probably around my age. Suddenly, she turned around, and gave me what I can only describe as being “the mean bitch, look up-and-down, death stare”. I actually turned around to see if this mean-bitch-death-stare was directed at some poor soul behind me.. But alas, there was no one there. It was definitely intended for me.

Now, I’m not the confrontational type at all. Even if there were no English/Hungarian language barrier, I wouldn’t have said anything. I figure I’d be a loser and write a blog post about it instead! (Insert smart-ass “the pen is mightier than the sword” comment here).

Ok, so now that we’ve concluded that I’m a chicken, back to my point. What the hell makes people give people the stare-down like that?! I mean, honestly, it was as if she’d caught me trying to pick up her boyfriend OR like we’d been at the same club wearing THE SAME OUTFIT! ¡Qué escándalo! Then I’d *maybe* understand the reason behind having a death stare thrown my way. But at the grocery store?! Was she serious?! Well, yes, actually; she was definitely serious!

Maybe she was giving me the stare down because I looked like crap compared to her and her bleached hair extensions, and her “Szolárium” tan, and her fake eyelashes and 60lbs of makeup. That must be it. How dare I stand so close to such an exquisite specimine of female beauty?! What was I thinking?!

Oh no, She must have been on her way to the Louvre to replace the Venus de Milo as the personification of grace and elegance – I mean, clearly, she’s the epitome of beauty.. AND she has arms!

And once again, back to my point. Girls are mean. You don’t see guys giving other guy the stare down and muttering stuff like “dude’s highlights look like a busted piece of roadkill landed on his head”, or “eww, homeboy left his house with a nail extension missing?! Yuck!”, or “ugh, look at this trick, streetwalker much?!”.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why girls are mean. Because, clearly, I am just as bad as the girl in the store who gave me the death stare. But, after venting, I do feel better! Although, I do still hope that she chipped a nail opening the ice cream she brought.

After the initial reports that Demi Moore’s photograph had been retouched just a little too much, comes new speculation that the body in the picture is actually that of 26 year old Polish model Anja Rubik.

This was posted yesterday on Oh No They Didn’t and has spread across blogs all over the web. French Elle even have it on their site.

Demi Moore hit Twitter saying that it wasn’t true – even posting the “original” photograph on her twitter page. An actress lying…? I’m shocked! lol.. No but really, the mini dress looks exactly the same on both of them. I know its the fashion industry and most of the time models are sewn into their clothes to make everything appear perfect, but they shouldn’t look THIS similar should they?!?!

Demi Moore on W Magazine's December Cover in the Balmain mini dress.

On the right, Anja Rubik from the Balmain Spring 2010 Show modelling the exact same mini dress.

What do you think? Same dress, different body? Or same dress different head...?


The black platform stilettos in the runway pictures are HOT! x

Photographer, Anthony Citrano, saw her tweet and challenged the actress saying “$5k to charity if that’s really the original”. Demi has yet to respond…

But there is speculation about this all over the internet. I’d be here until next Christmas if I read through all of it. There are a lot of arguments both for and against this “conspiracy” – that has now been dubbed “W-Gate”

The Huffingdon Post has a poll asking readers what they thing of the photograph, and 72% think that her body was replaced, 19% think that they JUST retouched her hip whereas only 9% think that Demi Moore is all natural.

I don’t know – what do you think? In terms of height, Demi Moore is 5ft 5, whereas Anja Rubik is 5 ft 10.5. I know people come in all shapes and sizes, but their bodies are exactly the same – torso length, etc – despite this height difference. Even their arms appear to be the same length. And as much as I think digital retouching is lying, I think it just has to be accepted as the industry norm now. EVERY magazine does it. Beautiful people sell things – that’s just how it is.

NYmag.com posted this shocking statement: “Our retouching expert notes celebrity heads are often only Photoshopped onto models’s bodies for advertisements”. What do you think of that!?!!?

I kind of see it like wearing makeup all the time. Some people have to wear makeup every waking second of their lives, and unfortunately, when they don’t wear make-up, they feel ugly and horrible. They sometimes even appear unrecognizable! Then think about all the famous people who are made to look flawless in these photographs, so everyday they have to go out done up to the 9s, otherwise they get a whole string of “not so flattering” pictures posted all over the internet and glossy mags. It’s not fair, but that’s how it is. It’s the kind of stuff that causes people to have eating disorders and crash diet for no good reason. And it’s also the kind of stuff that keeps cosmetic doctors, dentists and surgeons in business. Everything has to be perfection.

Honestly, I think that at the end of the day, it doesn’t really make the slightest bit of difference whether or not the body is hers or not, or whether or not it was photoshopped to make it look ridiculous. What can you do about it? Do I think it’s right to photoshop things? No. Do I think superimposing faces onto different bodies is right? No. But I’m not the fashion industry, so unfortunately, in the long run, what I think really doesn’t matter.

OhNoTheyDidn’t – You’ve been Punk’d
Huffingtonpost.com – Photos & Poll
Elle.fr – Post is in French
NYmag.com – Demi’s W Cover Conspiracy
Photoshopdisasters – Believe’s the photo is “original”

You must have seen the ads.. Penelope Cruz with gorgeous eyelashes and perfect make-up. Did you buy into the hype of the New Breakthrough Mascara? Yes, it’s brush does remind me of those spikey acrylic earring beads in crazy neon colours that the skater kids wear, but I definitely got sucked in by all the ads.

I went to buy the L’Oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara today and I LOVE IT!!! The little tiny brush is amazing. You can get to all of your eyelashes – even the baby corner ones, it’s not clumpy or too heavy. Basically, it’s great.

And then, I was sitting here thinking what else to write – well, because that’s pretty much it, and I thought, “this L’Oreal mascara looks REALLY big… I wonder how much bigger it is in volume compared to the Maybelline mascaras. It’s going to last forever!!”. So I dug out all of my Maybelline mascaras and a CoverGirl one, for good measure, and started googling the fl oz and ml of all of them.. And to my complete surprise, the volume of the L’Oreal one is actually less – but CoverGirl was surprisingly the smallest of them all. Check it:

** Oh my god, right?!?! I know!! **

Who’d have thought that the tiny baby Great Lash mascaras had more product in them compared to the others. And the pictures above ARE to scale.

In terms of the L’Oreal product, I figured it’s the packaging. It’s deceiving. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Most things are like that. Wine bottles with the big indent in the bottom of them… They could fit a few extra gulps in there if they levelled out the bottom… Face creams in boxes that have hidden empty compartments in the bottom of them – so you think the tub of cream is GIGANTIC, but you open it and to your dismay it’s miniscule.. I could keep going, but I won’t.

But this mascara, in the packaging, looked really big. And with the cap on, it’s enormous. Nevertheless, this is just a minor thing, and I will keep using it and continue loving it! Also, I do enjoy the name – Telescopic Explosion! Say it in a gameshow host voice! It’s very amusing!

The retail price for this is around £10.00 in the UK and around $12 in Canada.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

L’Oreal Telescopic Explosion
CoverGirl LashExact
Maybelline Define-A-Lash
Maybelline Great Lash – Clear
Maybelline Great Lash – Very Black

It makes me think that they did it on purpose. It’s such an obvious mistake. But why would they print something like that on the cover of their magazine? People aren’t going to buy their magazine because their photoshopping peope messed up. It’s not like this will get them any good publicity. It  makes them look like they don’t care. If it was a tiny picture on page 60, then ok – maybe it wouldn’t be noticed.. But this is the cover picture! It’s like the MOST important page!!! What if they accidentaly airbrushed one of her eyebrows off?! Or even worse.. What if they left that tiny bit ofhip in the picture!!!! OH NO!!! Can you imagine?!?!

Demi Moore is beautiful. At 47, she has an envyable body, beautiful skin, husband half her age, the list goes on.

According to spokespeople from W Magazine, the retouching was done in-house and nothing “unusual or out of the ordinary” was done. Unless Demi Moore is deformed in the hip area, I think these people are lying. They deleted a piece of her hip!!! How is that not unusual?!

Is there not an editor at  W Magazine whose job it is to check for these things before their magazine goes to print? Anyone who spent more than 5 seconds looking at this picture could see that something is clearly wrong. It’s like the Ralph Lauren ads where the model’s waist was digitally minimized to the width of her head.

I have huge issues with retouching pictures, and I honesty think that it is lying. It’s glorified lying that distorts people’s perception of what is truly beautiful. It also diminishes the our understanding of beauty when we see a real and not retouched picture. The colours just aren’t bright enough, the contrast just isn’t strong enough, the skin/eyes are the wrong colour, there’s too much arm fat, etc.. It’s getting a little ridiculous.

It makes me think that they did it on purpose. I mean, it’s such an obvious mistake. But why would they print something like that on the cover of their magazine? It can’t be to boost their sales. People aren’t going to buy their magazine because their photoshopping people messed up. It’s not like this will get them any good publicity. It  makes them look like they don’t care. If it was a tiny picture on page 60, then ok – maybe it wouldn’t be noticed.. But this is the cover picture! It’s like the MOST important page!!! What if they accidentally airbrushed one of her eyebrows off?! Or even worse.. What if they left that tiny bit of hip in the picture!!!! OH NO!!! Can you imagine?!?!

I love the feeling of going out to buy new make-up. Especially at the high-end counters when you get free things! I love free things – even though it normally means buying a lot of things to get these so-called “free gifts”! Just thinking about it makes me want to go out shopping! But, sometimes, we do have to be frugal. With Christmas coming up, birthdays and lets not forget the economy, we have to save money whenever and wherever we can!

Here are some things that I do to save some pennies!

Brown Sugar & Honey Exfoliator

This is a great natural exfoliator that you can use in place of those costly store-brought scrubs. It’s just as effective, smells great, and you know exactly what it’s made from!

Deep Treatment for Dry Skin

All you need is olive oil, some cotton balls and a sink full of hot water. Dab the olive oil onto dry skin areas with the cotton balls, and then steam your face over hot water to help your skin absorb the oil. Be sure to avoid break out areas. Your skin will feel great afterwards!

Double Duty Products

Instead of forking out money for both a shimmering highlighter for the eyes and face, just buy a single shadow and use it for both purposes. Also, pink eye shadows can double as blush, and you only need to use a small amount!

Old Lipsticks = New Shades

When you start to get tired of your current lipstick or lip gloss selection, you can mix lipsticks & glosses together to create new shades. Sometimes you find a GREAT combination, and all your friends will want to know where you got it from!

You can do the same thing with nail polish! It’s fun to see what kinds of different combinations you can come up with!

Lustrous Liquid Liner

Forking out big money on liquid liner? You don’t have to! Use a small angled brush and a little Visine or water in your favourite eyeshadow. And Voila! You have a beautiful liquid liner in your favourite colour! This is great if you need a funky coloured liner for a party or if you want a change from classic black or brown.

Also, if there are sales or promotions, like 2 for 1 or 70% off, then stock up! You have to be like the Chinese lady in the grocery store with a cart full of toilet paper!

But only buy things that you need and that you’re going to use. There’s no point saving money on products that are going to sit in a draw somewhere.

Spend wisely, and look fabulous!

So I decided why not, and clicked on the link. I thought to myself, ‘I’ll just X the window when it requests my credit card information’ – but surprisingly, it never did. I signed up, and it asked me to upload a photograph. So my boyfriend took one of me – a pretty bad one at that… It had everything, raccoon bags, flat hair, un-sculpted eyebrows. This photograph really would put their Makeover Studio to the test!

After uploading this monstrous picture, the site asked me to map out various points on my face: around the eyes, lips, head and eyebrows. Which I did, growing more and more impatient with every click – I just wanted to play with the make-up!

And finally, I was done! It brought me to a page where I could try on thousands of beauty products and accessories, from concealers to lip-glosses, and contact lenses to hair styles. I was slightly put off at first because at first I only saw super high end products like Dior, YSL and Givenchy to name a few – and I even joked to my boyfriend that they should put the prices of the products so that you can see how many dollars worth of make-up you end up with on your face when your transformation is complete. But then I noticed they actually do have high-street brands like Victoria’s Secret, Maybelline, CoverGirl and Revlon.

The first point of attack was to apply concealer to my raccoon eyes, and foundation to even everything out. The makeover studio has every shade of concealer and foundation – from geisha white to fake’n'bake orange. I was pleasantly surprised at it’s effectiveness at removing my bags and blemishes – and making myself orange was fun!

Next I moved onto the eye makeup. The options and combinations were staggering! And because of the face mapping feature, I could choose exactly where I wanted the products to be applied. Also, since I have an asymmetrical face, I could map the areas around my eyes accordingly so I didn’t end up looking like a crazy person who let a 3 year old apply their makeup.

Another thing I found very cool was how you can change the style of the eye shadow (mono wash, two tone, three tone or smokey), liner (top, inner or outer bottom, water-line, etc) and mascara (top, bottom, etc). It also allows you to choose the amount and thickness of the product, which was great as I found the eyeliner had a very harsh line.

I think the best part of this site was the brow thinning tool. It was realistic and really completed the make-up part of the makeover.

Then the fun *really* began. HAIR! I think I spent around 2 hours clicking and trying on all manner of hairstyles – from the huge collection in the site’s gallery and also Celeb styles. They have Lady GaGa, Rihanna, Heidi Klum, as well as many ’10 Fashion Week styles. The fun thing about the hair styles is that you can flip them, rotate them and adjust the width and height to fit the shape of your head. There are also a whole array of accessories to try – glasses, sunglasses, contacts, necklaces, etc. They have elaborately embellished hair sticks which you can choose to place anywhere, and a huge selection of hats and berets.

If you don’t feel like clicking away through all the different products, you can try the 1-Click Looks, where the website offers a selection of pre-programmed looks that they will apply to your face. I found these made me look like a Vegas show girl, but it was still fun and gave my boyfriend and I a few laughs!

The only downside was the lag time, it was quite slow to load – but then again, when you take into consideration the amount of information it has flying back and forth with the colors and styles, this can be forgiven!

I strongly recommend trying this site out.

http://www.dailymakeover.com/makeover/virtualMakeover