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?
Tags: Kate Moss, Makeup Forever
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It definitely makes a change if nothing else.
good lighting is a powerful thing. show people in natural light and I’ll be impressed.
This is a makeup ad, why are we attacking the model personally for her looks? Who cares if it’s studio lighting for this specific ad?
Definitely refreshing but still good business.
I wasn’t sure if it was just the 2 different magazines I picked up or if I was right – but when you look closely at the picture you can tell it’s not shot in the same quality of others. The picture has tons of little dots all over her skin making me wonder whether they shot in the same light, with the same type of camera and filters. I am all for having unretouched ads – but shouldn’t it have everything else constant as well? I would love to see ads that does show the imperfections and represents what really happens when you wear makeup in the real world – but also takes the shots in the same way any other ad does. Show us what’s real! Without the soft filtered low quality camera…
I would most def purchase this product if this ad is truly unretouched!
They should at least have photoshopped her weird bumpy arm since that distracts from the product. Her face looks fine.
Haha my arm does the same thing. I don’t think it’s that abnormal?
It’s not abnormal… It’s just distracting from the ad. Her arm was honestly the first thing I looked at.
Well, this website is also pretty good, you can have a look
http://www.buyscarfaccessories.com/accessories/scarf/guess-723.html
yeah, but what does the little * disclaimer say?
I started using this Make Up Forever Foundation 2 years ago. This is the absolute best foundation I have ever tried if you can get the color to match. I love it.
As a retoucher, the growing popularity of unretouched photos in fashion makes me feel a little less secure about my job in the future. With this picture, I think if they would have retouched her arm, that would have had nothing to do with the quality of the makeup, but it would have corrected a distraction caused by lighting. And I believe they probably chose a model who already had great skin and probably didn’t need much retouching in the first place. Maybe if they showed a before and after of a woman who has acne and wrinkles and dark spots, then an unretouched image of her with the makeup on, I would be more intrigued.
Agreed on the before/after photos – I thought from the headline that’s what this ad would be. But I guess that would be too huge a leap forward for regular beauty ads!
I use this same HD foundation, and it is pretty amazing. It almost makes your skin look too oddly uniform without blush – basically doing what airbrushing does in retouching.
i thnk that retouching is still going to be around, so your job is secure. i think people’s complaint is that retouching isn’t left to something that distracts from the ad, like the lighting of the arm. it’s done to a point where it isn’t even the same person that you’re looking at anymore. there are rules about how they shoot and represent food. shouldn’t it be the same for other things, too? we should at least mildly be able to assume that what we’re buying will create somewhat favorable results as the ad shows, heh.
i think the other thing that people don’t realize about makeup ads is that they often use several shades to shape and contour the face. makeup can be absolutely transformng (look at kevyn aucoin’s “making faces” book, AND the average person could buy multiple foundations and get reasonably good at contouring. but when they look at the ad and bring it into the store, their expectations are to buy a single bottle and get similar results. as someone that worked in the beauty industry, i found this the most frustrating thing.
http://www.askchibi.com
This ad is perfect. I actually want to get the foundation.
regardless, it is great advertising! we are all aware of how much retouching goes on… if i wore foundation, i would give it a go for sure!
If this isnt a good reason to go out and try Makeup Forever’s foundation I dont know what is! Ive been using this stuff for almost 2 years, and I havent found anything better! I get compliments on how my skin looks all the time, and I credit my HD foundation! For those who have not tried this amazing product line, GO NOW!
Personally, the image STILL looks airbrushed to me, and I’m not just talking about light/shadow adjustment. Maybe that’s what the asterisk means: that while the image isn’t excessively airbrushed, there’s still Photoshop involved.