The models in magazines don't really look like that, honest

Most women have heard that model's pictures in magazines are air-brushed.  One part of my brain registered that as a fact & told myself that everyone has pores and it's unnatural that the women in these photos don't.  But has that stopped me from trying to have flawless skin?  Of course not!  Because the other part of my brain thinks "I don't care if it's not real - I want to look like that!"
Lately I've been learning how to use Photoshop better.  I know the basics, so now I'm learning more advanced parts of the software.  Now I can really see how much better good airbrushing can make someone's skin look. And all of the little things that you can tweak.  I remember a fashion photographer that I knew long ago saying that by the time he got finished tweaking the photos, the photo barely looked like the model.  I thought about that today when I was looking at a beautiful model in an article about lipstick.  She had beautiful, plump lips, and a tiny, upturned nose with small little nostrils and of course, no pores.  I looked at her nose more closely and realized that no "real" nose would look like this one at the angle that the shot was taken from.  Not only was her skin altered, but anything else that looked less than perfect had been changed as well.  It finally really, truly sank in to my entire mind.  The pictures in magazines are half photo and half painted - there is no way that a real person will or can look that way. Let's all stop thinking that we should.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best.  There is nothing wrong with seeing clothes we like and wanting to buy them, as long as we know they'll look different on us than the way they look on the model.
There's also nothing wrong with seeing a shade of make-up that we like and thinking "I want to buy that", nothing wrong with seeing a make-up technique and wanting to learn how to do it.  But we should stop there.  Humans have pores, and no amount of make-up can completely eradicate them (if it did, we'd probably die, anyhow).  So enjoy the fashion magazines and blogs like I do, but don't compare yourself to a painted picture.   You're alive, and you have all kinds of unique qualities that make you much more interesting - you're not just a pretty picture.