Foundation, Truth, and the American Way

So, it seems that every makeup brand has their method, their spiel to convince me to buy a certain series of products.

For Clinique, it’s cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize . So I buy the soap, the clarifying lotion, and the moisturizer.

The Mary Kay pitch is that everyone needs to cleanse, moisturize, and protect.

Now I agree that skin needs protection — SPF protection. But the Mary Kay ladies say that foundation is the way to protect skin.

(Note of explanation for the guys: Foundation is this goopy or powerdy stuff women put on their skin to make it look more, uh, skin-like.)

So, the theory goes, to keep pollution off our lovely faces, we have to put this goopy stuff on our faces to protect them. I’m not sure I buy that. I’m still not sure that smearing makeup all over my face actually helps it.

I also am becoming convinced that, while an expensive skin care regimen may help my face look better for awhile, once I stop the regimen, my face will look much worse. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.

All that said, I’m actually having a Mary Kay party at my house in a couple of weeks. Blogging ladies, if you want to participate, let me know. As long as I’m pretty sure you won’t burn down my house, I’ll send you an invitation.