Bare Essentials - Hype or Hope for a New You?

You've seen the infomercial on late-night TV, or maybe seen them in Glamour or another fashion magazine. You've probably said to yourself, "Here's another cosmetic company after my money with the promise of making a whole new me. What's wrong with the old me?" The answer is NOTHING! And that's the beauty of Bare Essentials.

About a year ago, I moved from the Midwest, where I was born and raised, to sunny California. One unanticipated result was the sudden onset of acne, which I'd fortunately never had to deal with. So I decided that since I was shaking up the rest of my life, maybe my beauty routine could use a little housekeeping too.

I've never been one who liked heavy makeup, although, like the rest of us, I put up with the heavy, itchy, mask-like feel of liquid foundation. And being a porcelain-skinned redhead, I always had trouble finding one that matched my skin tone and didn't make me look like I dipped my face in flour. One brand was too dark and made me look like I had a bad fake tan, others were so white everyone asked if I were ill.

So I decided to spurge on myself and bought the Bare Essentials Introductory Kit. Although I balked a little at the $60 price tag, the girl in the shop assured me that it was well worth the money. "Well, here we go," I thought to myself. "Another one for the 'basket o' abandoned makeup'. It can go right there next to the bright pink lipstick that looked so good in the store but makes me look like a little girl playing dress-up."

I took it home, watched the accompanying DVD, and tried to suspend my disbelief. (Hey, it works for watching sci-fi movies, why not try it for real life?) While trying to figure out how they did the "before and after" camera tricks, I watched all the techniques and waited for them to get to the complicated "how to's'". And waited, and waited, and waited. "I must have missed something," I thought, "It can't be that easy. I've got to try this."