Every day, the emails arrive, asking about the latest anti-wrinkle/firming/lifting/brightening/re-contouring product to hit the cosmetic counters. Message after message implores us to review these items. And all of them are geared toward one burning question: does “Product X” really work as claimed? Don’t get me wrong, we love hearing what our readers want us to review (it is a major factor when we make these decisions) but every now and then I have to step away from my desk, take the dog for a walk, and rant a bit.

Here’s my issue: why do we (as consumers) have such a disconnect when it comes to believing cosmetic companies marketing anti-wrinkle products that seem too good to be true? Why isn’t an air of skepticism our default? Instead, hope springs eternal as month after month all of the major cosmetic lines (and every fashion magazine) herald the arrival of their latest youth-in-a-bottle product. No one ever stops to think about last month’s wonder product because now there’s something new essentially stating it does the same thing.

What never ceases to amaze me is that no matter how many times Paula and I have debunked fantastic-sounding claims (and supported our conclusions with published research) many of our readers remain faithful that the next product will get it right. It doesn’t faze them that Lancome (for example) has had products claiming to work like Botox and lasers, yet none of them performed remotely as claimed. Not a single consumer saw their forehead creases go away or saw their imperfections zapped with laser-like precision. Yet many of us bought the products anyway, hoping against hope (and reality) that they’d work. Now Lancome has a new anti-aging serum claiming to boost the activity of the genes in our skin, resulting in renewed youth. It’s scary how many skin-care products are making ever more remarkable claims, yet rarely are they backed by formulas capable of doing what’s stated in black and white. But still, we believe. We really want to believe these cosmetic companies have our skin’s best interests in mind.

My mother is guilty of this, too. She knows what I do for a living. She’s read the books. She’s met Paula. Yet at least once per month I get an email or phone call from her asking about a line-erasing product or eye cream claiming to tighten bags under the eye and turn back the clock on wrinkles. Every time I tell her the same thing: Mom, stop wasting money on these products and start saving for a cosmetic procedure that really will make a difference—and please Mom, start using sunscreen. I guess she, like many consumers, doesn’t want to face facts. After all, it’s easy to look past the truth when the temptation to get what you want from a readily-accessible skin-care product is all around us.

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!