I’m emptying the dishwasher when I hear the beauty defying cream commercial begin to play. My girls, eating their cereal while watching innocent children’s programming, hear promises of younger looking skin in an effort to resist the clock.

“Mom, do you use that stuff?”

Grace, old enough to be in tune to the inferences of these commercials but young enough to still take a “guarantee” at face value, wants to know.

“Nope.”

“Why not?,” she instantly inquires.

I pause to give Jesus time to return and gift me a get out of jail free card. He does not.

As a mother in the trenches facing worldly Goliath’s, I fill my lungs with air, hoping that infused in the oxygen will be the answer made simple. My heart knows this tiny question has huge ramifications.

“Well, I like make up and, when you’re old enough, you can wear it too, if you wish.”

I’m not anti beauty products, and it’s critical she hear me say this because I don’t want her to think that it is the actual cosmetics that are the enemy. Like most women, I apply some make-up every morning. And, as the mom of girls, I can already imagine fun bonding times in front of the mirror. My mom applied my wedding makeup. A moment I will forever hold dear.

“But, just because they say that a product will do something doesn’t mean it actually will.”

Nobody in the commercial mentioned that 75% of new beauty products on the market fail . To do so would make us question these promises they are touting and we are buying hook, line, and sinker. American’s spend $426 billion dollars a year in beauty and personal care.

“Sadly, people try and make a lot of things in this life sound really good to make you think something that isn’t necessarily true.”

Like our “need” for the products. Knowing that all women have to wrestle with the beauty issue, brands have now gone so far as to prey on our insecurities to secure their profits. In a new study to “identify when women feel most vulnerable about their appearance throughout the week in order to determine the best timing for beauty product messages and promotions,” mornings were found to be the time females feel the least beautiful. It follows then that this would be a prime time to lure us in and explains why my children saw the ad when they did. Isn’t that nice? Beyond that, teenagers, who will arguably struggle most with this issue, wear a target. During television shows most often watched by teen girls, 56% of commercials used beauty as a product appeal. There isn’t a concealer in the world that can cover up what lies beneath the timing of these ads.

“Grace, the thing is they try to tell you you need these things to be beautiful and true beauty comes from God not from any cream in a bottle.”

And that is what I am anti – the enemy is found in the message that beauty only follows putting a cream, powder, lotion or lipstick to our face. That beauty products are essential to being beautiful. That the premise behind these commercials is perceived shortcomings rather than building up who we are.

“The Lord made you completely unique. He gave you your eye color and skin and build and talents with intention so that you could shine. So, you can have fun using cosmetics but it will never be the source of your beauty. That comes from being who He made you and letting your love for Him glow through every pore in your body.”

Talk time with your girl(s). Question 1 is just for her. Question 2-4 are for both of you. Number 5 will put a smile on your face:

1) Ask her if she believes any beauty products fail (the percentage of failed products certainly surprised me.)

2) How does seeing beauty product commercials make you feel?

3) Do you struggle with seeing yourself as beautiful?

4) Open your bibles up together and read 1 Samuel 16:7 and Proverbs 31:30. What are they saying and how does it hit you? {Consider posting the verses to the bathroom mirror}

5) Watch this together.

Every female should get to hear it