I had an interesting discussion with a producer of an infomercial last week. Because of confidentiality I can’t tell you which one, but it really doesn’t matter because they are all the same and they all lie through their teeth the same. This producer knew that the script she was going to be videotaping was mostly misleading or untrue. Don’t get me wrong, she was very nice and she appreciated my research and critique of the topic, but of course there was nothing she could do about it. And nothing I could do either.

There are things I put up with in the world of beauty that just drive me crazy, and I mean a lot of things. Of course I put up with it because what else can I do? I can’t struggle with everyone I encounter (well I could, but there just isn’t enough time!).

One of the more irksome moments outside of the industry is the number of women I encounter who love bragging that the skin-care products they use that are all natural. Once they tell me what products they are using I know there is no way in hell what they are putting on their face is all natural or even part natural, except for the 70% to 80% water content the product contains. There just isn’t time to explain why what they believe isn’t true.

Or women who insist that they simply love the $$$$ anti-wrinkle product they are using. I bite my tongue because what I want to say that I can’t say is, you’ve got to be kidding. Can you really be that clueless? And of course the answer is yes, lots of women are that clueless. There is no way that product is worth the price (and it’s often in a jar package which makes it practically useless). No one should love anything that costs that much money when it’s just a moisturizer and often it isn’t even a well-formulated one at that. What does it take for women to realize that expensive doesn’t mean better in the cosmetic industry? There just isn’t time to explain this to the women I meet who don’t know my work.

What most women don’t realize is how everyone in the beauty business knows how the marketing and advertising for cosmetics is all BS. They all talk about it. They all know it. They shrug their shoulders and say, well it’s a living. Or they laugh about it. Either way, they meet women every day that are being suckered into products that can’t possibly perform as the claims on the label assert.

See what I mean about frustrating?