On a recent trip to the hairdressers (of course it is grey under there) I picked up a current ladies magazine. I was thumbing through the pages while I basted in the hair goop and was very surprised to turn a page and find Helen Mirren gazing out at me from an ad that was advertising a new L’Oréal product. It is made especially for older women and is called Age Perfect Rosy Tone Moisturizer. Whoever came up with that title should be given a raise on the spot. While it does say that dangerous word Age, it is immediately followed by the work Perfect. We may be old, but as Ms Mirren says in her sassy TV ad “We’ve still got it and we’re still worth it.” And we are also worth a Rosy Tone, not the striking red of our younger contemporaries, but a rosy glow that will suffuse us all into gentle beauty. And then the final word, Moisturizer, which is like dangling red meat in front of a lion. We know things are drying out, and we are more than ready to moisturize with a will. Bring it on, Rosy Tones and all. Then, in a final push, there is Ms. Mirren, staring out from the various ads with the unspoken promise that this product will make us look as amazing as she does.
However, there is always more to the story. The product spokeswoman probably gave the whole L’Oréal company heart failure as she continued her sassiness at a recent L’Oréal panel in southern France. She announced “I’m an eternal optimist - I know that when I put my moisturizer on it probably does f--- all, but it just makes me feel better.” Oh dear, Helen. I hope, as she so confidently stated in her ad, “Washed out sometimes, washed up --- never,” worked for her after this comment.
Then there are all the beauty editors out there, whom I never would have read in the normal course of my less-than-perfect, unrosy life, who have indicated that the ingredients in this product are not only not very helpful, but in a couple of cases are actually not good for your skin.
Perhaps I could slip into the sassy arena with a last comment, ‘At this age we may wear glasses, but they are not in the least rose (rosy?) colored.’