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Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,631
Registered: ‎04-01-2010

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos

I think Adrienne is the only one that I have seen that actually uses older models who have skin issues, most of the vendors use young girls who do not need their product, it's very disappointing because they have nothing to correct. If your product is that great and works use models who have crow's feet, wrinkles, and sagging skin so we can see real results. We spend so much money on products that don't do anything its sad. I think moisturizing is very important for your skin but to really see results I think you need a lot more than cream.

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Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos

On 8/27/2014 Lotus~ said:
On 8/27/2014 Madisson said:
On 8/27/2014 JamicaJammer said:
On 8/27/2014 Lotus~ said:

I think the most "honest" presentations are Adrienne's on HSN.

Agreed. However, I'd pay $100 just to see her walk onto the set with no makeup and then apply her products to her own face!!!! {#emotions_dlg.tt1}

Really? Hmmm...That's odd...I think the photos they shoot for her presentations are the most dishonest. She always makes the models look as horrible as possible for the before photos...added darkness around the eyes, extra-squinting, frowning, kind of puckering their chins so you can see the wrinkles there. Then she adds the worst possible lighting.

Also, she seems to use different products during her presentations. She claims she is using the products that she is advertising, but she has a slightly lower second shelf on that table with what I think is different products on it. They rarely show that second shelf, but the camera has made mistakes and shown it. Her products are on the top of the table, but she grabs products from that lower shelf and slathers it on those models.

Her after shots always have the perfect lighting, and if you will notice...she never lets the models smile in the after shots. That way, their wrinkles do not show.

We all have our opinions, but the fact remains that all the after shots, no matter what product, are dishonest.

How can you say that?

She demos the stuff live....the models start with a bare canvas.

I'm not talking about the still shots.

I think you may have missed my second paragraph. I have noticed this a few times, and now I watch for it, although the camera usually avoids that lower shelf. She isn't always using her products. She has more expensive products on the second shelf.

To me, Adrienne's products are a cheap, greasy mess.

Some people do drugs. I do shoes....Celine Dion
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Posts: 115
Registered: ‎08-24-2014

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos


@ForumOlivia wrote:

Which product/photos are you referring to? It's hard to comment on something without a point of reference.


Sorry I didn't see this at the time you posted it. To answer your question, almost every single before and after they show for any skin care product. I don't remember now which one I referred to that day, but today it was the StriVectin neck cream.

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Posts: 115
Registered: ‎08-24-2014

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos


@MarenSeattle wrote:
On 8/26/2014 Buck-i-Nana said:

Honestly, I don't care about the photos. I care about how a product works for me and as long as I can return a product that I'm unhappy with, I'm good.

It's NOT just the shopping channels that use photography techniques to show differences, it the way of advertising, period, and it's done not just with make-up but with hair products and even food.

Words of wisdom, BiN! You're right -- if you want to try it (the ingredients, the reviews, whatever), try it. Don't like it, send it back. If people are expecting to have the jaw dropping results of the B&A's and don't get them, they'll have a lot of returns.


True, but we can still speak out in hopes that they will aspire to higher ethical standards.

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Posts: 115
Registered: ‎08-24-2014

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos



@cassiem wrote:

I think we forget that the shopping channels' main priority is to sell, sell, sell. It's the same with any advertising, commercials and print ads, too. If you read the fine print on the ads for mascara, you'll see that models are still wearing false lashes in the pictures. I never really pay attention to before and after photos, I do my research on products and try not to get sucked into the hard sell.


Yes, and even though I am and have always been very aware of that, I occasionally get sucked in voluntarily. Still, it's important for us to not just accept unethical and low standards without speaking out. It may help or it may not, but at least we can voice it.

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Posts: 115
Registered: ‎08-24-2014

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos


@Madisson wrote:
On 8/27/2014 Judaline said:

They DO have pics of Adrienne sans make up. But they are probably ten years old. I'd like to see her now. Who doesn't look bad without make up? It's just the cheating that I can't stand. It is so obvious in some before pictures how the model is squinting to give her 11 lines and forehead more oomph. We're onto all of them- Dimitri being the worst.

Do you remember when Adrienne had the face lift? That was probably around 2000. Her photo was on the cover of the program guide one month, and she looked horrible. Then we did not see her for a couple months. When she came back, she looked 20 years younger.

She said that she noticed how bad she looked on the cover of the program guide, so she had some new products developed by her chemist...and wow!...just look at the difference those products made in her in the month or so that she supposedly had been using them. She put that program guide up by her face and had the camera show the before and after. I wondered how simpleminded she thought her viewing audience was.

I'm sure she is keeping her face younger looking now with either another face lift or a lot of botox, etc.


Though I haven't seen Adrienne myself, that always makes me feel sorry for the people who do this. It's kind of pathetic. I know they have a right to their privacy, but when they're trying to get people's money, it's wrong to pretend it was their skin care products and nothing else that wrought this miracle. Most of the time it's totally obvious it was surgery/fillers/Botox, which is why I feel sorry for them for thinking we can't tell. I guess I feel more sorry for those who fall for it, though.

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Posts: 115
Registered: ‎08-24-2014

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos

[ Edited ]

@dionline wrote:

I think it's interesting that the OP never replied back to any of these comments. Most obviously - which product was she specifically referring to???


At the time I posted that, I rarely came to the forum, and life moved on and I didn't get back here, sorry. Specifically, within days of posting this, I flew cross country to help take care of my elderly terminally ill mother, returned home after being there 2 or 3 weeks, and then my elderly father unexpectedly died 3 weeks later, and I went back for about a month, then came home and got a breast cancer diagnosis, then went back a month later for my mother's funeral. I don't mention all that for sympathy -- it was traumatic at the time, but  the cancer was small and taken care of with minimal surgery, and my parents were both 88 and so had a long life -- just illlustrating how life moved on in a way that wiped my post right out of my mind. I'm here now replying because I saw yet another instance of this with the StriVectin neck cream presentation this morning, and I was curious whether anyone else had posted about this practice, and I then found my original post from 2014.  I don't recall which presentation prompted my original post, sorry. At the time, I didn't really think it was necessary, since I was referring to the fact that they do it on all of them, but I can see that you would have wanted to know, and I'll try to be specific on any future posts.

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Posts: 17,160
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Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos

@JustWantBeautifulSkinn  So true and exactly right. I see info-mercials with those same people. Who are these people? What product are they using when they all say their product is responsible. Makes one lose faith in the industy.

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Registered: ‎08-24-2014

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos


@Judaline wrote:

@JustWantBeautifulSkinn  So true and exactly right. I see info-mercials with those same people. Who are these people? What product are they using when they all say their product is responsible. Makes one lose faith in the industy.


It does, and yet some products do help. That's why it's irritating that they fudge the photos and the models' expressions, etc. Most of these products will help to varying degrees but only if used consistently for at least 3 months and 6 is even better, but I think most of us are too impatient to see results (I know I am). I guess they think they have to manipulate the after photos to compensate for that fact, but it's still unethical, in my opinion. I used one product when I was in my late 40s every day for months, and it was amazingly effective, but too expensive, so I couldn't buy it. A friend had been given it by her sister, who was a buyer for CVS, and she didn't want it so gave it to me. It cost $110, and I couldn't justify spending that, sadly. I now can't remember what it was, either. It wasn't a mainstream product.

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Posts: 9,139
Registered: ‎04-16-2010

Re: Manipulated ""after"" photos


@AnotherView2 wrote:

I modeled a new line of foundation on HSN just a few years back.

The owner of the makeup company/vendor/on air guest was very honest to the point she followed the printed rules HSN gives vendors and she had us go with no makeup and no smile in the before photos (which were shot as stills an hour before airtime) and then no smile in the afters (which were live). Well, besides the product being a little too dewy looking in the bright lights, the photos looked bad...both befores and afters.

They shot the befores about an hour before air time. Then they had us apply all our own makeup, no MU artist, and go on air to model the product. It was a disaster. We were booked for multiple shows over a 2 day period and our final one that was supposed to be in prime time with Colleen Lopez got cancelled last minute.

We had started to smile in the afters (at HSN's request) at our last show that presented which helped it all look better but the damage was done. Sales were too low in the previous airings to salvage the brand.

Guess who got our slot when we were cancelled from prime time at the last minute? Adrienne. The product I appeared for was never on air again and the stuff went on clearance. So, they rebuffed the vendor who tried to follow the rules. That says it all.


@AnotherView2 What new line of foundation on HSN was this?