It appears the cosmetic industry has a social conscience after all! The beauty industry has been investing heavily into laboratory research in a bid conquer the seriously debilitating condition of ‘age angst.’ I decided to take a look at a few of these so-called ‘superfoundations’.
Reading the blurb one could be fooled into believing that without this ‘earthquake resistant’ make-up our faces might disintegrate as fast as the Irish housing market.
However if your face has already started to fall to pieces, you might try ‘Givenchy’s Photo Perfection light Evanescent Foundation’ with ‘expandable beads’ that promise to fill in all your cracks. It works a bit like expandable foam insulation, except it costs more. And let’s face it (no pun intended) with all the cosmetic surgery undergone over the past decade, there must be plenty of customers in the market for facial pollyfilla.
A leading Japanese brand claims its foundation, inspired by the technology behind earthquake resistant buildings, moves with your wrinkles. Working on your fear of major fault lines suddenly appearing in your face, they hope you will remortgage that crumbling house for a pot of Sukku’s ‘Frame Fix.’
If you do not live in Japan or San Francisco earthquake science may not mean much to you when you go shopping for a new face. If however you live in the west of Ireland potholes may be of some concern. Daniel Sandler’s ‘Waterbase Foundation with concealer’ includes ‘shock absorbing technology’ providing a ‘cushioning effect.’ Hopefully it has been tested against the shock of facial expressions caused by the credit card bill. At €32 it’s certainly not the most expensive brand in this category and probably targeted at the generation who are too young to need anti-age creams anyway but certainly old enough to max out daddy’s American Express. Fortunately their cash rich, insecure swinging sixties mothers may need to spend a bit more to convince themselves ‘they are worth it.’
Of course you get what you pay for and I’m sure the science behind ‘Longoza-Cellular Complex’ (whatever this means) doesn’t come cheap. Christian Dior’s ‘Capture Totale Serum’ based (somehow) on stem cell research, is a snip at just under €200. It claims to beam light into the deeper layers of the skin where it works its’ magic, repairing dermal fissures and potholes. It then bounces back up to the surface instantly giving, not 25% more radiance or even 30%, but exactly 29% more brightness. How they measure this is anybody’s guess, perhaps a spectroradiometer or photometer?
Calling these pseudo-scientific products ‘cosmeceuticals’ commands a premium and differentiates them from their predecessors such as the famous YSL ‘Touche Eclat’ that is now ‘oh, so yesterday.’ To handle today’s high definition cameras you really must have at least one ‘HD ready’ foundation in your kit. Revlon’s Photoready compact make-up.’ with photochromatic pigments lights from within, to create ‘pixel perfect’ skin.
For those early adopters who have already traded their antiquated HD’s for Plazma, Chanel’s ‘Vitalumiere Aqua’ alludes to RGD technology. It mixes red, green and blue colours to create pure white light that supposedly makes the skin glow with youthful luminosity. But wait a minute, how do you blend light in a foundation and if three primary pigments are mixed don’t you just end up with a muddy brown?
All very confusing but then cosmetology is a science isn’t it?
No comments:
Post a Comment