{conspiracy theory}

I think Demi looks amazing on the new cover of W magazine. At least that is what I thought until I found out that there is a huge controversy over whether she was photoshopped, and some are questioning whether it is even Demi's body at all. Why in the world do magazines do this to women? It makes me so mad.

Here is the model next to Demi's cover. Their bodies do look eeerily similar, but I am sure that Demi's body is in pretty awesome shape as well.

I think Demi is beautiful and it is a shame that she can't grace the cover as is without being altered. There is now even a term for it--they are saying she was Ralph-Lauren'd! Ugh!!

Lots of companies make their fortunes by keeping women afraid to look old. Imagine just for a minute...if W regularly put women on the cover who had a few wrinkles (or a zit or two). Haha! Their many cosmetics company sponsors would NOT be very happy that they were seemingly making it seem okay---or worse even---stylish--- to have these flaws. Who would continue to buy their $300 creams and serums if this happened?

I think it's a conspiracy!

The anti-wrinkle cream--it's a multi-million dollar industry in this country & the world over.

People ask me what skin care I use for my face, and I have tried many different kinds. My Twitter friends will remember when I first tried Creme de la Mer a month or so ago. It smelled so awful to me to the point that I wasn't sure I would be able to fall asleep. No problem there, because 15 minutes later my entire face and neck started itching so badly that I had to run to the bathroom and wash it off of my skin! I do love to try a new product, but it seems that I always go back to my good old standbys because I have yet to find a single product that does what it claims to do. Then again, maybe I'd look a lot worse if I weren't using them--haha.

I subscribe to Consumer Reports and found this article to be just what I've always wondered:

Consumer Reports’ (CR) first test of wrinkle creams finds that on average these products made little difference in the skin’s appearance and there’s no correlation between price and effectiveness. The luxury-priced skin-care offerings didn’t work any better than the drugstore brands in CR’sindependent, unbiased tests. Further, CR’s tests found no relationship between the types of active ingredients in the products and their overall performance.

Olay Regenerist, which is available in drugstores, was the top performer by a small margin. One of the less-costly products tested, Olay Regenerist, sells for about $19 apiece for the “enhancing lotion,” “perfecting cream,” and “regenerating serum” combination recommended by the company. Lancome Paris Renergie, $176, performed nearly as well. The most-costly product tested, La Prairie Cellular ($335 for an ounce of day cream and 1.7 ounces of night cream), was among the least effective. The wrinkle creams CR tested ranged in price from $38 to $335.

In CR’s tests, the top-rated products did smooth out some fine lines and wrinkles after 12 weeks. But even the best performers reduced the average depth of wrinkles by less than 10 percent, a magnitude of change that was barely visible to the naked eye.

That last line really gets me. BARELY VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE. So, in other words we are wasting our money?!

What do you think?