I was up late writing, trying to finish the last section on the new edition of The Beauty Bible. Every now and then I take breaks from writing and flip through channels on the TV. It was 2 a.m. and I stopped on one channel that had a woman dressed like she was getting ready to pose for Playboy or Hustler magazine. She was selling a male enhancement product. I could barely believe it. I was transfixed.

I thought only women liked being lied to about skin care products building up collagen and getting rid of wrinkles. But men believing that these types of products would make their private parts grow? I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

This perky spokeswoman, with balloon-like fake breasts, deep revealing cleavage, a waaayyyy too short skirt, and long tousled hair was explaining how the testimonials from men who use this male enhancement product she was hawking had amazing results.

In a breathless voice she said one grateful man said he had gained an inch. Of course my immediate reaction was give me a break…no one believes this crap. Could some men not discern that if this product could grow their privates an inch, then if they kept taking it, their privates would keep growing? That first inch would become 5 inches and then 10 or 15? They’d eventually need help carrying it around!

The final thing she said that just floored me: “We will send you a week free trial, would we do this if we thought it didn’t work?” Now there’s a claim. Pose a question without stating the fact. I could see where some men would exclaim wow, then it must really work, as opposed to thinking it’s just marketing nonsense. Of course they would send out something free to get me to order and they never said it really worked anyway. Plus it wasn’t “free” you needed to pay for shipping and order the next month’s worth!

Men and women like being promised miracles and can’t tell when they are repeatedly being lied to. It seems that the only difference between men and women is the area where they get taken advantage of. Women are figuratively smacked in the face and chest with false promises, while men get hit below the belt!

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?

I hate watching infomercials or any cosmetic advertising for that matter. I can barely tolerate listening to what the salespeople behind cosmetics counters have to say; it just makes me cringe and my skin crawl. The utter nonsense that is spewed to unsuspecting women is beyond my tolerance level. I just get so frustrated, my blood boils, I start grousing, and that can eventually turn into a rant, and well, that just isn’t pretty.

Such was the case last night when I was watching the latest spate of infomercials from Dr. Murad. He was explaining why his acne line doesn’t include benzoyl peroxide. Is he serious that there is a rationale for ignoring a basic skin care protocol for acne? Did he miss the research published in the Lancet, December 2004, pages 2188-2195, stating that benzoyl peroxide is the most effective treatment for acne, especially in comparison to oral antibiotics (such as tetracycline), topical antibiotics (such as erythromycin), or combination treatments? Another nice benefit over and above a significant reduction in breakouts: the study noted that benzoyl peroxide was also the most cost-effective treatment.

Dr. Murad’s explanation for not using benzoyl peroxide was that it can be drying and irritating. Well, so can watching infomercials for some people, but not for everyone. As a matter of fact, you would be far more able to easily tolerate benzoyl peroxide if the product didn’t contain irritating ingredients such as alcohol or menthol, lime, lemon, or peppermint, or you used gentle cleansers along with it. While Murad is worrying about benzoyl peroxide (at the very least he should offer it as an alternative, something most any reputable doctor would do) he isn’t worried about the irritating ingredients he does use in his acne products including menthol, citrus extracts, alcohol, and lavender.

I won’t even get into the pandering he does with his anti-wrinkle products categorized by hormonal, environmental, and genetic aging. Or maybe I’ll get into that the next time I’m in a blogging mood…