The biggest recent Photoshop fails were campaigns featuring Beyonce and Frida Pinto, which were heralded all over the internet with allegations that both had had their skin lightened by the magic brush of air!

The list of brands choosing to abolish all reality from their famous campaign-fronters, in favour of pore-less, line-less, colourless mannequins is endless. It’s getting silly!

We’re loving this faux campaign for Adobe Photoshop Day Cream, illustrating the level of artifice involved in putting together these campaigns using Beyonce, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna.

The Photoshop debate will always be something that fires up every few months. A little touch up to disguise a red blotch or spot does no harm but when a brand takes it to the extreme and the celebrity or model look completely unrecognizable as a member of the human species – that’s when the use of Photoshop becomes too much.

cate sewell

You’re tired, you’re face feels dry, knackered, you’ve spent the last few weeks partying, you’ve promised never to touch alcohol again (at least for this month), you’re in need of a facial fix. If this sounds familiar, then look no further than the O2 Intraceuticals Oxygen Infusion Facial with Julia Hart at The Hale Clinic. I have never been more impressed with a treatment than with this one. Madonna and, err, Katherine Jenkins echo my accolade.

The key ingredient is a patented serum, which is blasted into your dermis (about 2mm into your skin…the bit where many skincare advertisers claim their products reach, but don’t) using oxygen. The tool used to administer the magic serum is a spray gun, the type of which I haven’t seen since the late 90′s when I first started modeling – a make up artist used one on me for a shoot for I.D mag, it looked really cool in a futuristic way, until she dribbled the make up pot over my new trousers.

After the oxygen blast, my skin felt incredibly firm. Its hard to tell from my pics as I have a crap camera, but when Julia had finished spraying half my face, she asked me to pinch both cheeks. The difference was insane. The side that had been treated (the right side of the image >>) was so taut it nearly slipped through my fingers, while the other side squidged firmly. This is due to the hyaluronic acid, a deep moisturiser that also stimulates collagen production, a bit like watering a dry plant back to life. *ZZZING*

Step 1. Steamer on. I’m not a huge fan as it smells a bit like old socks, but it is an excellent way to open up your pores which in turn lets your (good) products permeate deeper. Their Rejuvenate Cleansing Gel was applied in lovely sweeping movements. Steamer off.

Step 2. Exfoliation… across the nation (‘earmenow)…and resurfacing with Enzyme Peel by Medic8. This takes away the surface layer of skin, tidies it up and smooths it out.

Step 3. Steamer on. The heat stimulates the active enzymes in the peel and makes them work harder at sloughing off the dead skin cells.

Step 4. Clairisonic was meant to be used to whip those enzymes into harder labour, but it needed charging. Sometimes machines aren’t better than the human touch…hooray for that.

Step 5. C-esta Serum by Jan Marini with powerful anti-oxidants, which pummel through the lipid barrier when used with the Baby Quasar. This little baby is the offspring of the Mamma Quasar (can’t remember the actual name but it should be judging by the size of it) and is a hand held tool with 37 or so little LED lights. The reason why Julia uses it is because it is better at controlling where you point it. I asked for extra attention to the lines from my nose to mouth and around my eyes or obicularis oculi (…feeling like a smarty pants so thought I’d give you the official term for the muscle that surrounds our eyes plus it sounds like something Harry Potter might say before slaying Voldemort).

Step 6. Intraceuticals Oxygen Rejuvenate Serum (cue angels singing). This serum is as good for you as Mum’s home cooked dinner, with Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamins and Peptides in abundance. There are other serums that you can add if you like, Atoxelene serum with hexapeptides, which is basically topical botox. The serum is poured into the little pot that sits atop the barrel of the spray gun, the trigger is gently squeezed and out shoots a stream-line blast of oxygen and serum. The gun is at the end of a machine that filters air from the room you are in, cleans it and blasts it through the epidermis to the dermis, the short distance having been nicely cleaned for ‘The Royal Goodness, Oxygen Rejuvenate Serum” by the previous procedures.

Step 7. Other half is finished. Hyalruonic layering with a hydration gel and then moisture binding cream are applied in beautiful and relaxing sweeps. These 2 products help to keep the infusion of oxygen and the serum in place.

Step 8. To finish, Julia rubbed rosewood oil into her hands and hovered them over my face and asked me to take 3 deep breaths. Heaven.

When I got home, my face felt a bit sunburnt (due to the LED lights), but this wavered within a couple of hours. My face looked and feelt bloody amazing and the effect lasted over a week. I just wish that I could be like Madonna and buy my own oxygen machine (£10,000) for an unlimited supply of the serums (£200 for a pack of 10). olivia inge

The creative direction of this shot does seem to have taken the same approach that Dolce & Gabbana did with Madonna’s recent sunglasses campaign; working on the principal that no amount of bleach-out lighting and creative airbrushing can ever be too much. I have to admit the images are striking. Great to see women older than 15 being represented in ad campaigns, but what’s the point if you make them look like strange, ageless Manga cartoons of themselves?? alexia inge