I Wanna Look Like Her!
by Susan Cross | Posted: November 11th, 2009 | No Comments »My love affair with beauty began at an early age when what little money I earned babysitting went to buying fashion magazines. I loved seeing those beautiful, perfect faces staring back at me from every cover. With each page I turned, it was as if they whispered, “come closer, we’ll share our secrets, and one day, you will look like us.” I’d rush home with magazines clutched to my chest – excited about what I was about to uncover, believing that they held the answer I was looking for “how to be beautiful.”
I remember one cover in particular – a gorgeous and newly discovered Paulina Porizkova with long brown hair and beautiful pink lipstick. I went right to the credits to find the lipstick – the pink lipstick! I had to have it!! I saved up just to buy that lipstick. Surely this magical tube was the answer to becoming beautiful. Did I look anything like that cover? NOOOOOOOO and, just for the record, my coloring forbids me from wearing anything pink. The only thing that happened was I was about $10.00 poorer (and a wee bit wiser). I was also far too young to be let in on the secrets of makeup artists, hairstylists and retouching.
Years later, I met Paulina. I was working for Estee Lauder, and we were producing a how-to makeup video, which featured Estee Lauder’s face at the time, Paulina. It was a three generation project: Paulina, her mom and her niece. Paulina walked in without a stitch of makeup and was just perfect to behold. She sat next to me at lunch at read my palm! I was in my 20’s at the time, and this was so huge for me AND she was into the same types of things I loved (palm reading, tarot, yay!). Guess what guys – she was beautiful, smart and nice! Some women just have it all.
Fast forward a few decades – have I changed? Of course. Do I have more confidence? On most days. Did that keep me from purchasing the new face cream that promised to be botox in a tube? Even though I knew with every fiber of my being that no cream can really take those lines away, I bought it. I like to think of this as my eternal optimist taking over!
This search for eternal youth is as old as time itself. In the early 1500’s Ponce de Leon headed out from Spain to discover the fountain of youth. The healing/anti-aging waters were reputed to be on the East Coast. What did Ponce de Leon discover? Florida (and a few Bahamian Islands)! Maybe that is why I always feel better after a few days in sunny Florida.
Many of us have the same love affair with beauty. We are brainwashed by Madison Avenue with a collective culture that tells us to be beautiful, you must be young, and stay young. Here at VIB, we want you to feel good in your skin. No matter how old that skin is. As a matter of fact, at VIB we want to grow old, very, very old! Are we saying to accept defeat? NO! 40 is the new 30 and so on. We want you to take good care and put the best quality products (this doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive) into your body and on your skin.
Nutrition, exercise, career fulfillment, relationships, laughter and a positive outlook are the best anti-agers available to us.
I used to be a bona fide beauty junkie! With disposable income earned while toiling into the wee hours under fluorescent lights (no wonder I felt so unattractive!), I would while away my Saturday mornings at the counters at Saks, Barneys and Bergdorf, trying the latest (and often, most expensive) potions and sampling the hottest cosmetics that would make my skin glow, my lashes extend and my eyes pop! I tried everything. That said, I have been loyal to the same brand for the last eight years (SCO – scocare.com – customizes blends for skin types and issues with the changing seasons), and I haven’t really looked at anything else. I totally get Susan’s experiences, and I feel so liberated expanding my beauty essentials to drugstore brands!
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