Gina, so true. It’s quite offensive, isn’t it?

Emma, I agree with you. I don’t understand how they can get away with this. Even if there’s a small print they still don’t show how the mascara works, it’s so annoying!

What a great idea to start a petition for it. I’ve just signed it. 😉

Ana, thank you! 🙂 I hope to write more of them in the future. 🙂

Unfortunately it’s not always to spot fake lashes or digital enhancements. Some ads, especially older ones, look quite natural and they can be really deceiving. You don’t have to feel guilty for believing the hype, but it’s good that you resisted the temptation to buy it. I have to say that I do love Lancome mascara but they are overpriced and their ads are very fake! The mascaras are nice but don’t give the effect promised by the ads.

I know some brands like L’Oreal have got into trouble in the UK for their ads and they had to withdraw their ads because they were deceiving hence why they state in usually very small letters than false lashes are used. It’s a shame the same doesn’t apply all over the world. What the UK are doing is a step in the right directions but it would be better if they forbid any mascara ads that use false lashes, because seriously what’s the point of advertising a mascara if you’re not showing what it can do?

And yes, you made a lot of sense. 🙂

When I was younger, falsies weren’t that popular – the ones you saw were the seriously OTT ones, so I didn’t think they’d use them. The PS wasn’t as good or as ubiquitous as it is now, so, even though I knew there’d be some enhancing, I thought it would be on a smaller scale
.
I remember one Lancome ad, I can still recall the beautiful purple-black rose and eyeshadow… I looked at the lashline, saw nothing and thought “Okay, they may have enhanced it a bit, but it’s real! It’s a well-known brand, it has millions, both of customers and of dollars behind it. I’ll save and I’ll buy it!” (+ the beauty mags were raving about it and it was one of the few big-brand names on the market, so everybody bought into the hype and the “It’s pricey, it must be good, I’m loving it because I must justify the expense to myself.”). And, I must tell you, it was 10 times the price of my usual mascara and 3 times my monthly allowance. Good thing I didn’t buy it in the end, but I still feel a pang of guilt that I had come that close to spending that much of my parents’ hard earned money.
Now I know what sort of hocus-pocus goes behind the scenes.

It’s hilarious seeing an ad in the British mags with the “shot with lash inserts for an even lash line” (riiight) and then seeing the same ad in the US mags without it.
The Brit mags make me watch the ads a bit more closely and see how the model’s lashes are way shorter and sparser than the inserts. They’re still lying, but I feel a bit better that I had the opportunity to see the lie. With the US versions you don’t even have that opportunity 😐 .

Erm, I hope I made some sense – translating to English in the wee hours is exhausting O_o .