Go ahead, make(up) my day!

I met my friend, Donna D,  for lunch at Saks today and started chuckling at the window displays. They weren’t designed to be funny, but they were amusing because each was promoting a different beauty brand promising to lift, lighten, regenerate, revive, restore and replenish. The beauty industry can come up with more promises than a used car salesman and more tricks than a magician.

Cosmetics manufacturers sell products for oodles more than what they cost to produce, so they can afford to spend oodles to package and advertise them. But snazzy packaging, clever copywriting and fancy windows on Fifth Avenue don’t a good moisturizer or eye cream make.

What’s a FOF woman to do? Which anti-aging formula should i choose among the 7,200 varieties on the market? Will that eye cream really take away the dark circles that I’ve had under my eyes forever? Which miracle mascara is the most miraculous?

I guess there’s no right answer. The beauty industry sells dreams. It hopes we don’t wake up.

P.S. Sephora just sent me, and millions of other dreamers, an email that touts “7 genius innovations.” That’s in addition to the thousands of other genius innovations already created. One promises to ward off underarm odor and sweat while minimizing hair growth. That’s definitely one for the books!