The Mascara Advertising Experiment.

As some of you are aware I am a qualified make-up artist. Naturally this means that I have applied one or two coats of mascara in my time. It is also the reason why mascara advertising really gives me the pip. In fact there is one particular advert that really gets my blood boiling. Not only does the model photographed have blatantly obvious false eye lashes on, I would also say that the photograph has been heavily altered with a photo shop package. Either that or the model is actually from a species of space aliens who are related to camels and as such, have the longest, thickest, most voluptuous eye lashes EVER. Now in fairness to the cosmetic brand, they do state in microscopic writing that lash inserts (*snort* if you wanna call full bar lashes inserts) were used for consistency. But really, how many people would see that ? How many first time mascara users will scadoodle off to the shops and come home expecting an eye lash miracle ? And how many first time mascara consumers will compare their own lashes to the ones in the advert and think that they have done something wrong and will possibly give up on using mascara all together ?

I know, I know, I'm ranting, but I get frustrated because I constantly come across women who say "Oh, I don't use make-up, I don't know how." Of course it's hard when you are faced with unrealistic end result images.

So anyway, today I thought I would show you the difference between what you will realistically end up with, and what some cosmetic brands would have you believe your end results should be. And just for the record, I really like the mascara brand that I use. It may not give me the dramatic full body and volume it claims, but it has a great consistency, gives nice results and stays put in our humid conditions. That's three big pluses as far as I'm concerned.

No mascara

A coat of mascara which promised full body and volume.

With the addition of a line of bar lashes.


With computer enhancement.

So how about you ? Does this kind of advertising really annoy you or do you think it is just widely accepted that most of what we see in magazines these days is a created with smoke and mirrors.