Estee Lauder's definition of pure

Earlier this week, I bought the newest edition of Cosmo Magazine. On the cover was Zooey Deschanel, the star of Fox's New Girl. Zooey is praised for her wholesome image, quirkiness, and likeable personality. Overall, I see her as pure for she doesn't pride herself by wearing extreme amounts of makeup. Instead, she lets her natural beauty and personality shine through, making her likeable by both men and women.

On the opposite side of the magazine cover appeared the above advertisement. The ad is for Estee Lauder's Vivid Shine makeup line. Their slogan is that their line has a "pure" color palette. In my opinion, the model does not look pure at all. Looking at Zooey Deschanel's cover photo, she has minimal makeup on. Thus, she actually looks pure. On the other hand, this model does not even though she is advertising makeup that supposedly makes you look pure. In fact, the model looks like she belongs in a circus because of her heavy makeup. 

Overall, Estee Lauder is telling its customers that in order to look pure, you must bake tons of makeup on your face so you create an image different from your natural beauty. Many teenagers read Cosmo and are very impressionable. By seeing Zooey on the cover and this ad on the next page, they leave with a skewed view of what is actual beauty. While I applaud Cosmo for placing a natural beauty on their cover, they completely contradict their attempt by placing this ad right after the cover page. Thus, the reader leaves with the impression that heavy makeup will make you look beautiful. Magazines need to learn to advertise natural beauty. Doing so will help decrease the amount of girls who suffer from low self-esteem.