The Solution to All Your Beauty Problems

Lights! Camera! Hair flip! Sultry pout! It’s another cosmetics commercial… or is it? Watch The Onion's hilarious portrayal of a typical beauty ad, and feel ashamed that you ever fall for these types of ads in the first place.

The parody of a Maybelline ad asks us to imagine a universe in which getting ready to face the world wasn’t such a lengthy, laborious process. What if you could toss away the brushes, the tweezers, the powders, the mousses, and just cover your imperfections with a latex mask? The Onion has envisioned such a reality in the two-minute spoof, mocking the beauty industry’s ridiculous expectations of women. In the video, Maybelline introduces a rubber face that can be pulled over the head in lieu of makeup. Finally, women can conform to Western beauty standards with a single product.

The video is comedic, but it also alludes to darker truths about the beauty industry’s priorities. The constant pressure we feel to cover our "flaws" results in the loss of idiosyncrasies that make us all unique. According to leading cosmetic brands, we might as well all look the same.

The video is a parody, but given the state of the beauty industry today, it won't be long until latex masks line the shelves of your local Duane Reade.

Image: The Onion