Mascara Advertisements - how do you feel about them?

Keeping up with my new years resolution of trying to blog more, here is a topic I've been hoping to write about! I loooove x 100  Emily DiDonato's face - she is in this commercial and other Maybelline related ads, and she is also the face of Armani's Acqua Di Gioia fragrance.  At first when I saw that ad, I thought it was Raina (runner-up from America's next top model whom I'm dying to work with!) They have some similarities - but I loooooooooooove their faces.  That innocent but seductive, perfect face!   

To get back on topic...I forgot and don't know who started this trend of advertising mascara by showing false lashes in the commercial and claiming it to be the results of the mascara...no matter what the model and the artist were told to say behind the scenes in this video ...(which I really enjoyed watching because I would love to work on a beauty campaign! Amazing model, amazing makeup artist!)  But... Really?!  "It looks like falsies but it's just mascara" but not only does it look like falsies, you can tell they are falsies...! How do you feel about mascara ads using falsies? I for one - really hope that one company would stop this trend and actually ...just use mascara. Hire a model with amazing long lashes!!!! They exist!!! They don't even need mascara so imagine what mascara can do to their lashes!!!  

Nowadays it's so hard for me to decide which ones to purchase because all of them cease to convince me anymore...do you remember Sarah Michelle Gellar's Maybelline ad almost 10 years ago? Well since this was the days BEFORE HD TV, there's no way for me to go back in time and scrutinize the ad like I can with all of the current ones (which runs nicely on my 1080p screens!) 

It looks like the close-up might have had some falsies in there, but again hard to tell - But the ad is much more believable to me!  Maybelline is just an example...you open up a magazine, and you see a mascara ad and BAM it's false lashes. 

Then along comes America's Next Top Model in 2003 with the cover girl ads and how it is incorporated into the show - it's genius how they use the products and show it behind the scenes!  The thing about the Maybelline behind the scenes...if you pay close attention to the behind the scenes video at 0:51 seconds - 1:24min or try pausing the screen at 1min21 seconds.  When she is applying the lipstick at 0:51 - what she is holding in her hand is a Japonesque empty lip palette (that I happen to own too! :D that is exactly what I do with my lipsticks..saves space and oh so light weight!) with lipsticks depotted inside and there is no evidence that the lipsticks are purely Maybelline products - but of course this ad is mascara but...you would ASSUME they only use Maybelline products, provided by the company right? Pause again at 1:24 and the opened palettes - again, other than the mascara she is holding on her hand/advertising, I see a whole bunch of other products that are non-Maybelline.   My point here is not to pick on an amazing/accomplished makeup artist, but to point out that what you see advertised is not always what's used in the advertisements...it might be used sometimes in some companies...but it's a known fact that what you see in the ad is not what's being advertised... 

Cosmetic companies spend Top Dollar to hire the Top Team to produce those ads to sell products to you; they can do it with a very sizable marketing budget and a team of marketing/advertising experts and hire the best models, wardrobe, makeup/hair & production team.  High-end brands, or Drugstore brands - it doesn't make a difference!  I'm all about promoting a good product and discovering gems in drugstore brands - especially mascara.  It's a hard fact to accept - but drugstore vs. high-end mascara really makes very little difference.  I'm leaning towards focusing on finding a few Great drugstore brands in my kit and keeping that ONLY since I gotta toss it every month and after experimenting, I've found comparable results in my experience.  Mark-ups in cosmetics are 100% - so when you are purchasing a $30 mascara, the real price of it is $15 - and out of that $15, I don't know the exact breakdown, but I'm GUESSING (this is my professional speculation) that perhaps 20-30% goes towards producing the product, another 20-30% goes into packaging and the rest is going to advertising! So again thinking of that $30 dollar mascara, $15 is the company's profit but a bulk of that is money spent on packaging (including the design, and the unique 'brush' of the mascara) and advertising...so yes, you are paying for $1-3 dollars in just the material of the mascara itself (the stuff/goo inside you are putting on your eyes) even with a $30 dollar mascara.  

As you might already know, I'm a strong advocate for being a responsible consumer.  Does the company use recyclable materials (post-consumer recycled packaging? if so, what's the percentage?)  Does the company do animal testing?  Is it certified organic/ are the ingredients obtained ETHICALLY and are the ingredients SUSTAINABLE?  Living in a Buy-Buy-Buy Capitalist society, we are constantly bombarded with messages to buy and buy - but the question remains: "Is this mascara worth my money???" So...I guess to conclude this post, I want to take the opportunity to thank the beauty bloggers and youtube gurus who took their time and money to review the products for us!  Thanks to their reviews, you don't have to rely on these advertisements!  I also really think that bloggers who have blog sales are doing the right thing!!! If you're not going to use it, sell it or give it away if it's sanitary (nono you cannot re-sell mascara..and lipgloss/lipstick is kind of on the iffy line for sanitation reasons - the buyer has to know how to sanitize the lipstick before using) and as long as the products are well-within the expiration date and not expired.   I do appreciate reading the reviews, but it's become a real turn-off for me if I see someone buy EVERYTHING out there just to try it out...all the packaging...all that plastic...!!  That's why I love P-chan's blog!  Instead of sharing 'hauls', she is sharing the products she used up and loves!  She gets 5 stars in my books! Seriously...!  <3 Don't waste, and think about your carbon foot print and recycle! <3