Many of you read or heard the news story relating to a class action lawsuit settlement in which the cosmetics industry agreed to provide $175 million worth of free products to consumers whether or not they purchased from any of the brands cited in the lawsuit. I found out about the pending lawsuit in 2004, when the legal firm filing the class action against several major department store chains and several of the cosmetic companies sold there called me for my opinion on the topic. By the way, I declined to comment, and I’ll explain why in a moment.

The issue was price-fixing of cosmetics, including fragrances. As all of us know from simply shopping at most any department store from Macy’s to Nordstom or Neiman Marcus, cosmetics never go on sale. Department stores always run sales and clearances in all areas of the store….except cosmetics. What the suit alleged, and what seems blatantly clear, is that cosmetic companies don’t allow department stores to sell their products below the suggested retail price. Why? No doubt because doing so lowers the prestige such companies as Dior, Chanel, Clarins, Estee Lauder, and Lancome strive to maintain.

Somehow a Lancome or Clinique antiwrinkle cream isn’t as special or elite if it’s 20% off the retail price. Cosmetic companies want women to believe that the expensive products they proffer are worth every penny and of course that means it can never go on sale. How do you reduce the price of a miracle cream or lotion? What those companies want you to believe is that you can’t look younger or more beautiful or like your favorite celebrity on a budget.

All major U.S. department stores are part of this settlement; beginning on January 20th and running for the next week, you can stop by Nordstrom, Macy’s, Saks, Bloomingdale’s, and many others to obtain one free product, no proof of purchase required. The catch? Only a select group of products are part of this settlement, and they were chosen by the cosmetics companies affected by the lawsuit.

Further, not all stores will have free items available from each brand. Nordstrom may offer freebies from Clinique and Estee Lauder, while Dillard’s will have freebies from Guerlain and Chanel. No rain checks will be issued, so it’s first come, first served—and you can expect to wait in line for this perk, possibly as long as an hour.

The list of eligible free items is available at www.cosmeticssettlement.com. Personally, I was disappointed to see most of the products contain fragrance or are simply fragrant body lotions, throwaways for the cosmetics companies and not their best sellers. The skin-care and makeup products are a mixed bag, with many skin-care items not being full retail size but rather deluxe sample sizes. It’s as if the cosmetic companies disassembled their gift sets and used those products to give away as part of the settlement.

I suppose this is consoling or at least exciting for some consumers but the bigger picture is that this week of free cosmetic loot isn’t going to change anything. The cosmetic companies settled with a cash payment to the attorneys and this giveaway to the consumer. They admitted no wrongdoing. You are not going to see sales for Crème de la Mer anytime this millennium.
Department store cosmetic companies will still be charging too much for their wares, and women will continue buying them under the mistaken notion that expensive means better in the world of cosmetics. All it takes is a new product with a slightly different claim, a few eye-catching fashion magazine ads or mention in an “editorial” and a celebrity endorsement to get many women to the cosmetics counters over and over again.

Of course there are some excellent products sold from department store lines; the reality is that in most cases spending the extra money isn’t going to make you $20, $30, or hundreds of dollars more beautiful. I’m afraid all this settlement will accomplish is dangling a shiny carrot in front of consumers to distract them just long enough so they don’t notice that, come February, it’s back to business as usual and the attorneys got their take because their concern wasn’t the consumer. Cash or charge, ma’am?

A few months back headlines in the British news mentioned that an ad for mascara in a popular fashion magazine wasn’t a picture of the model wearing the advertised mascara but, horrors of horrors, she was really wearing false eyelashes. When a U.S. reporter called to ask for my opinion about this revelation my immediate reaction was, you’ve got to be kidding. I thought this can’t be the first time anyone noticed this! In the 30 years I’ve been part of the cosmetics industry I’m fairly certain I have never seen an ad for mascara where the model wasn’t wearing false eyelashes (at least individual false lashes, meticulously placed).

What I found jaw-dropping is that these reporters and editors thought this was newsworthy. How can this possibly be considered news of any kind? Have these reporters (all women) never really looked at an ad for a cosmetic that closely before? Are we so easily fooled by something this obvious? Talk about missing the elephant in the room! Next thing you know the news will be reporting on the revelation that pictures in magazines are extensively retouched via sophisticated computer programs or that the makeup on the model is rarely, if ever, the product or products being advertised. And any model over age 35 without a trace of visible wrinkles? Give me a break!

Respectfully, I know that on some level we know these ads are phony, but the desire to believe otherwise, to want the fantasy that a mere purchase of a mascara, foundation, or anti-wrinkle cream can truly alter our everyday appearance to the sublime is overwhelming for most women. That’s where our hope turns us into gullible, susceptible innocents at the mercy of the cosmetics industry. We’re ready to believe whatever they tell or show us. And don’t think you aren’t influenced, because you are. Those ads generate humongous sales or companies wouldn’t endlessly spend millions of dollars every month on myriad ads in major fashion magazines and on television to get your attention.

If you want to avoid getting sucked in the next time you pick up a fashion magazine or see an ad on television, here are the basics to remember:

1. Models and celebrities in fashion advertising are already gorgeous, with perfect skin and features. They can be enhanced but they started out with the bar already set above us mere mortals. Every model has been further transformed by talented makeup artists, hairstylists, stylists, and lighting experts.
2. Even after all the coifing, styling, makeup, posing, and the thousands of pictures taken so the best one can be selected, the picture is still extensively touched up to remove or drastically soften any flaws. I’ll never forget the time a model told me that she doesn’t look as good in real life as she does in pictures.
3. The women in hair dye ads do not get that color from the dye being advertised. Those highlights and flowing tresses took experts a great deal of time to achieve. The look was accomplished in a salon after hours of processing and styling, not in the model’s bathroom!
4. The women in the ads for shampoos and conditioners did not get their hair to look that way because of any shampoo or conditioner. It took lots of highlights, blow drying, flat ironing, curlers, styling products, and on and on to achieve the look that finally gets photographed for the ad.
5. Regardless of the claims asserted and the claims about what studies show, if it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t true. All cosmetic companies hire labs to create studies that prove their claims. My favorite example is ProActiv. Their results are stilted and embellished. The research on acne treatment does not support what they claim is true for their products (even Jessica Simpson on her own reality show said Accutane is what cured her acne!).
6. Wrinkle creams don’t replace plastic surgery, Botox, dermal injections, lasers, or light treatments, regardless of the name brand or who is selling the product (and it’s often a doctor who performs the real deal procedures, which is incredibly disingenuous).

There are many products out there that can make a noticeable difference in your appearance. But trying to live up to the images used to sell these products—expecting your results will be the same—is the stuff dreams are made of!