Its a Jungle out there!
THIS ONE IS FOR THE LADIES.
Alright ladies have you ever felt swamped by the plethora of makeup choices you have to make? I mean first you have to decide which brand you want. To give you an idea of just how daunting this could be, I assembled a list of the most common brands below (for an exhaustive list, go here):
L’Oreal
Maybelline
Cover Girl
Almay
Revlon
Clinique
Coty
Dior
Estee Lauder
Max Factor
Lancome
Neutrogena
Oil of Olay
Then there are the additional catalogue/personal representative brands:
Yves Rocher
Avon
Merle Norman
Mary Kay
There’s no way I could list all of them, nor would I want to. You get the idea…
Next, you get to decide what type of product you are looking for—be it foundation, blush, shadow, lipstick/lipgloss, or mascara
Once you have decided on a brand (or two!) and you know what type of product you want, you have to choose the formula you prefer (liquid, powder, liquid–to–powder, gel, spray on), and let us not forget to take into account our skin types (oily, dry, normal, combination).
In the interests of multi-tasking, some products do more than one thing, like foundation that has sunscreen, or moisturizers that have bronzers in them. Some lipsticks now plump your lips, while others exfoliate (true! see Avon). Dont even get me started on the new wrinkle treatments!!
Finally, you have to choose the proper color for your skin tone. That is an exercise in frustration in itself. If you’re lucky enough to find the perfect color, take my advice and buy 2 or 3 because its been my experience that manufacturers retire certain colors or certain lines and you may not find it the next time you need it.
To recap: Brand, product, formula, function, and color. I didnt mention price, but I know for myself, that is also a consideration. A pretty daunting task by any measure. Fortunately, we have magazines to help us make these decisions. The only problem is, even the magazines give conflicting advice! What works for the teen/tween crowd isnt going to appeal to the more mature shopper.
Truthfully? its times like these I think it would be simpler to be a MAN!
Its ALL Blarney!! 