Yesterday Huff Po posted this ad for Makeup Forever’s HD High Definition foundation. The copy on the ad: “You’re looking at the first unretouched makeup ad.”

As a person who spends her life analyzing makeup and snake oil, this one threw me for a loop. My first reaction was, “Ooh, groundbreaking!” immediately followed by, “Hey, wait, they’re selling me a product to hide all my ‘imperfections’” to “Hmm, I’d like to try this.” And I don’t even wear foundation. Then I started picking apart the model to look for all HER imperfections. This is all very messed up.

First of all, that girl is gorgeous. And yes, she has little bags under her eyes and her arm looks weird. But I’m kind of loving it. My first reaction when I saw the Kate Moss Addict commercial was, “Wow, did they airbrush the hell out of her.” If you saw any of Kate’s cellulite images from the Louis Vuitton show or have seen her paparazzi shots lately, she’s aging just like the rest of us. And good on her for it!

At the risk of sounding all Jezebel here, I’d like to see makeup ads with women of all ages just wearing makeup. It’s not a secret that most women wear makeup, and photoshopping is rampant. We all know it’s done, but at that visceral level, we still believe that such perfection is possible. And isn’t makeup just an attempt to photoshop ourselves in real life?

I’m confused. What do you think about this ad?