Daily Chai

I really wanted to like Bare Escentuals

I really wanted to like Bare Escentuals: it's beautiful in pictures, it sounds like a minimalist approach to makeup (always a good thing), and so many women swear by it. Just tonight, I heard a radio ad with women talking about how this makeup had changed their lives and I'm thinking I really need to give it a try. I know, I know ... it was an ad paid for by Bare Escentuals. But still, if they feel confident enough to float claims about changing lives, you think there's got to be something there.

Let me tell you about my experience with Bare Escentuals. I popped into the Bare Escentuals store in the mall one day when day when I discovered that Bloomingdales was out of my usual makeup. It happened to be the Thursday before Labor Day and the store was packed with teenagers buying back to school makeup. Since I've used other brands of powder for some time, I had a pretty good sense of the color that worked for me. Still I was told I couldn't just quickly make a purchase. I had to wait in line for a consultation ... behind all the teenagers.

I left the store with a basic powder and a bronzer. And although I really do like the idea of a powder as opposed to a liquid makeup, I did not like the consistency of this powder. It was not light and airy like powder should be, but gooey, gluey and a little bit hard to work with. I found it impossible to apply it lightly. Later that weekend, my ten-year-old niece told me I looked pale. It was the makeup. And I don't think it was just the color: it just went on too thick. As for the bronzer, well there are about a hundred lifetimes of bronzer in that little container I purchased. It is so potent that I rarely apply it: one speck too much and I look like a clown and my bathroom sink is stained just by the fumes.

Something old and something new from Estee Lauder

I never experimented with skin care creams much because I was so happy with the results of one of the very first ones I tried, Fruition from Estee Lauder, that the search was over.

I could watch a hundred different television news magazines exposing the supposed fraud behind expensive skin care items that are supposedly no better than Vaseline, but it didn't matter. I knew Fruition was making a positive difference in my skin, smoothing the texture, softening the lines and preventing them from appearing in the first place, adding a subtle but definitely noticeable glow, that I missed at times when I ran out and couldn't immediately get to the mall for a replacement bottle.

Well during a recent replacement trip to the mall, I discovered they were temporarily out of Fruition, but had a whole line of new (and probably some not so new) skin treatments. On the salesgirl's recommendation, I bought Idealist, a different product that promises to shrink pores and even out overall skin tone. The next day, I applied it, with not much expectation. It was like a second honeymoon, reminding me why I'd fallen in love in the first place. My skin had not been so soft in ages. When I finally can replace my Fruition, I'll use that at night and Idealist in the morning. Clearly this is not an exhaustive review of Estee Lauder's skin care products, since I've only tried two of them. Both of those were wonderful. 

   

30% good advice; 70% silliness

How Not To Look Old does have some good advice, though much of it is stuff that the resonably style-minded woman might figure out on her own, like how dark red lipsticks are just not flattering over 40 and how highlights around the face soften the appearance of wrinkles. It even contains a few bona fide tips, like the recommendation of a certain primer that supposedly works wonders under foundation. (Need to check that one out!) And, it argues against facelifts, which the author maintains, serve only to make you look like you are old enough to have a facelift, since "young people don't do that."

But I am surprised by the generally great reviews of this book, which all in all is more one long recommendation for sporting a slim, long blonde haired look, than for looking young, whoever you are. Now, I, like the author, don't believe so much in aging gracefully. I think that women who let themselves go gray before their time are making a mistake -- at least usually. And I think that it's better to try to appear youthful than to embrace your wrinkles and extra fat and dowdy clothing. In essence, I see no problem with fighting age. But I also believe that you can do this without looking like the author herself on the cover of the book ... a lovely look she has, but I don't think you need to become a clone of her to fight age. I think that while maintenance is important, looking young is more about finding your personal style than on following her all of recommendations, including no hair bands and no ballet flats, which after a while start to sound sort of random.

Even stranger, right after she condemns dark hair and hair without bangs, she includes a picture of Demi Moore, complete with her straight long and very dark hair, in a "young and hip hall of fame" in the back of the book. And right after insisting that Uggs are out for anyone over 40, she offers a photo of the book's models, all of them mothers over 40, and guess what? Two of the three of them are wearing Uggs.

Oh and guess who else she includes in her Young and Hip Hall of Fame? Oprah. Don't suppose Krupp had any ulterior motive there.