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Deals & Steals

Benefit Cosmetics LLC
6/28/11

Comfortably numb? The 'Morphine lip balm' that promises to paralyse your pout

Khush Singh from Khush Singh-Celebrity & Indian Bridal Makeup Artist

Most lip-plumping products promise to make your lips tingle, but the latest gloss to hit the market contains a numbing agent so potent, it has been named after a hospital pain killer.

Morphine Lips' new balm contains four per cent benzocaine, an over-the-counter painkiller usually found in cough sweets and mosquito bite sprays.

The $17.50 product, which is 'designed to create the perfect kiss', causes the lips to tingle and go numb for a short period.

Potent: Morphine Lips' balm contains four per cent benzocaine, an over-the-counter painkiller usually found in cough sweets and mosquito bite remedies

Potent: Morphine Lips' balm contains four per cent benzocaine, an over-the-counter painkiller usually found in cough sweets and mosquito bite remedies

The company website advises customers to 'use Morphine Lips before making your move and going in for the kiss. After your lips touch it will leave your victims lips numb and their hearts racing.'

It explained: 'A kiss is one of the most intimate moments two people can share. It determines if there is chemistry and a bad kiss can ruin everything.

Pucker up: The mango and peach-flavoured balm leaves lips numb for approximately five to seven minutes

Pucker up: The mango and peach-flavoured balm leaves lips numb for approximately five to seven minutes

'Morphine Lips was designed to help create a perfect kiss and one that they will never forget. Where it goes from there is your move.'

Morphine Lips' founder, Sheen Moaleman, admitted to Fashionista.com that the original prototype - which contained 12 per cent lidocaine (a local anaesthetic) was so strong it 'numbed your whole face'.

The mango and peach-flavoured balm that has reached shelves, however, leaves just the lips numb, an effect that lasts approximately five to seven minutes.

The Los Angeles-based company's name, Mr Moaleman's website reveals, was inspired by the 2006 Kill Hannah song Lips Like Morphine, which, it reads, 'paints the picture of a kiss so powerful that it leaves you numb and gasping for air.'

Packaged in a sleek black tube, the balm formula also contains moisturising ingredients including  vitamin E, jojoba oil and blackcurrant seed oil.

Mr Moaleman warned that the Morphine Lips balm is approved for use on the lips only - although he said some users have applied it on other areas of the body with success.

He revealed that thanks to the early success of the balm, a lip gloss formula has been added to the product range, and is scheduled for release this summer.

And for those apprehensive about the idea of numbing their lovers' lips, a 'no numb' version is also reportedly in the works.

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6/3/11

CoverGirl admits to using false lashes in ad for "false lash effect"

Khush Singh from Khush Singh-Celebrity & Indian Bridal Makeup Artist

Rimmel got into hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK last year for putting false lashes on Georgia May Jagger in its 1-2-3 Looks Mascara ad. So it's little surprise that fellow cosmetic companies are being careful.

But CoverGirl has gone from cautious to comical in its latest mascara ad, which stars America’s Next Top Model winner Nicole Fox.

The print commercial for LashBlast Volume promises a false lash effect. However a small print disclaimer running alongside the image states that lash inserts were applied to Miss Fox's eyes before the product was applied.

Enlarge   The ad for CoverGirl's LastBlast Volume mascara promises a false lash effect - but a small print disclaimer states that lash inserts were applied to model Nicole Fox's eyes before the product was applied

False claims: The ad for CoverGirl's LastBlast Volume mascara promises a false lash effect - but a small print disclaimer states that lash inserts were applied to model Nicole Fox's eyes before the product was applied

The disclaimer is at complete odds with the copy in the ad, which reads: Is your volume true? Or false? LastBlast gives you true volume.

'If your mascara promises volume but delivers clumps - that's false! True volume comes from our big brush, not from big clumps. Try LastBlast Volume for yourself. You may never go "false" again.'

The small print, however, which is barely visible in the bottom left-hand side on the model's neck, reads: 'Lash inserts were applied to both of Nicole’s lashes to add lash count before applying mascara.'

Sally Greenberg from the National Consumers League called the ad 'outrageous'.

The ad for CoverGirl's LastBlast Volume mascara promises a false lash effect - but a small print disclaimer states that lash inserts were applied to model Nicole Fox's eyes before the product was applied

Promises: The copy of the ad suggests that users may never need to wear false lashes again

The ad for CoverGirl's LastBlast Volume mascara promises a false lash effect - but a small print disclaimer states that lash inserts were applied to model Nicole Fox's eyes before the product was applied

Disclaimer: The small print, which is barely visible in the bottom left-hand side on the model's neck, reads: 'Lash inserts were applied to both of Nicole's lashes to add lash count before applying mascara'

She told MailOnline: 'It is in such tiny print that it amounts to deceptive advertising. The average person is not going to read the fine print.

'They are asking you to buy a product that cannot do and does not do - the model needs false eyelashes. The whole premise of the product is called into question.'

She added: 'CoverGirl should take the ad down.'

The CoverGirl disclaimer echoes a situation in the UK last November, when a Rimmel mascara commercial was banned because it failed to make clear that the effect was enhanced with artificial lashes.

Both the TV and print ads showed Georgia May Jagger, the daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, in profile.

Misleading: The Advertising Standards Authority(ASA) has banned the maker of Rimmel London's '1-2-3 Looks Mascara' from running the commercial again after they featured Georgia May Jagger wearing fake eyelashes

Misleading: The UK's Advertising Standards Authority banned Rimmel London's 1-2-3 Looks Mascara ad in November because it failed to make clear that Georgia May Jagger's eyes were enhanced with artificial lashes

The text and voiceover gave the impression that turning a dial on the mascara would provide thicker, longer lashes on a scale of one to three.

In fact, the longer, fuller eyelashes seen in each image were actually created using artificial inserts.

Vertical small print on the magazine advertisements stated the images were 'shot with lash inserts'. A similar line was run on the TV commercial.

But the ASA banned the cosmetics giant from running the ad because its disclaimers were not clear enough.

Whether CoverGirl faces the same fate at the hands of the Federal Trade Commission remains to be seen, though the Federal Communications Commission's website indicates that it is the TV station or publication's responsibility to ensure that advertisements are not misleading.



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6/2/11

Botox at too early an age could actually make you look OLDER

Khush Singh from Khush Singh-Celebrity & Indian Bridal Makeup Artist

Thanks to the influence of celebrities, younger women than ever are demanding Botox injections a means of wrinkle prevention.

But according to one British doctor, using the cosmetic filler too young could actually speed up the ageing process.

In an article published today, Dr Darren McKeown claims the idea that Botox could halt the development of wrinkles is a myth, and could actually have the opposite effect.

Ageing? Dr Darren McKeown says the idea that Botox could halt the development of wrinkles is a myth, and could actually have the opposite effect

Ageing? Dr Darren McKeown says the idea that Botox could halt the development of wrinkles is a myth, and could actually have the opposite effect

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said: 'There is no evidence that in the long term Botox works as a preventative, nor is there any licence to use it as such.

'The drug works on wrinkles by relaxing the muscles responsible for expression lines and is licensed only for the treatment of moderate to severe frown lines.'

 
Using the late screen legend Elizabeth Taylor as an example, he speculated whether she would have looked so attractive late in life if she had succumbed to cosmetic fillers in her youth.

'Starting Botox treatments at an early age ultimately could do more harm to your looks than good,' Dr McKeown explained.

'While Taylor was clearly always a beautiful woman from her teens onwards, arguably her looks did not reach their peak until she was in her mid-thirties.

Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor

Mature beauty: Elizabeth Taylor at 25 in 1957 (left) and aged 75 in 2007 (right) - but would she have aged as gracefully if she had used Botox in her youth?

'Had Botox been available to Taylor in her early twenties, would she have ever reached that same level of mature beauty for which she will now always be remembered? I suspect probably not.'

Dr McKeown said that excessive use of Botox over a long period of time can cause the muscles to waste away.

He explained that overuse of the filler could cause 'the face [to] appear inadvertently aged' - despite a lack of wrinkles.

He added that this was more noticeable around the eyes than anywhere else, and was something he had noticed in a number of celebrities.

Of mothers such as Sheena Upton and 'Human Barbie' Sarah Burge, who admitted to injecting their young daughters with Botox, he added: 'What advocates of underage Botox don't realise is that children and adolescents do not have wrinkles: they have facial expression, and the two are not the same.'



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