Tina Fey is the New Face of Garnier Skin Care

Good on Garnier for making a bespectacled and scarred women the spokesperson for Garnier Skin Care. Of course, it helps that the woman is the lovely, funny and charismatic Tina Fey. But I love that she is the latest in a new trend for beauty brands to bring on older women with their own fabulous but quirky gravitas (think Jessica Lange for Marc Jacobs).

Tina Fey has been Garnier’s face for Nutrisse hair color since 2011, and now, her role has been extended to the whole line — in particular, a new roster of anti-aging products that includes Ultra-Lift Transformer and Ultra-Lift Anti-Wrinkle Firming Night Cream.

We all love Tina, but what should we make of the skincare products that she’ll be putting her face in front of?

I took a look at Garnier Ultra-Lift Transformer ($16.99) and was reminded of a Tina quote from her book Bossypants: “Always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: who cares?” Well, Garnier Ultra-Lift Transformer is so horrible that you’d have to have a "Who cares?" attitude to go near it, let alone be its spokesperson.

It is almost as if the formulator of Garnier Ultra-Lift Transformer decided to defy public opinion and include most of things that aware beauty consumers are increasingly wary of.  There is a paraben preservative (controversially associated with cancer), silicones, alcohol, fragrance, methylisothiazolinone, and laureth-7 (all potential irritants), the neurotoxins phenoxyethanol and polyacrylamide. The two sunscreen actives are octisalate, a developmental toxin and octocrylene, a potential carcinogen. Near the top of the list is the stuff used in kitchen pans and Gore-Tex, PTFE. Lovely.

There is a smattering of good things, such as argan oil, vitamin E and B, a dab of ginger, and (depending on your point of view) a form of retinyl. Unfortunately, the bad far outweighs the good. If I were more of a bossypants, I’d suggest to Tina Fey that she look at the break up clause in her contract. At least one can hope that she is giving her Garnier gains to a good charity.

Active ingredients: octisalate 4.9%, octocrylene 4.4%

Inactive ingredients: water, glycerin, dimethicone, isopropyl isostearate, PTFE, alcohol denat., dimethicone/vinyl dimethicone crosspolymer, behenyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, polyacrylamide, fragrance, ammonium acryloyldimethyltaurate / steareth-25 methacrylate, crosspolymer, disodium stearoyl glutamate, cetyl alcohol, mannitol, peg-100 stearate, argania spinosa kernel extract, dimethiconol, c13-14 isoparaffin, cetearyl alcohol, methylparaben, tocopheryl acetate, panthenol, arachidyl alcohol, retinyl linoleate, capryloyl salicylic acid, disodium edta, laureth-7, zea mays (corn) starch, carbomer, cetearyl glucoside, sodium cocoyl glutamate, zingiber officinale (ginger) root extract, hydrogenated lecithin, linalool, silica, benzyl salicylate, limonene, hydrolyzed rice protein, benzyl alcohol methylisothiazolinone, geraniol, citral; may contain titanium dioxide, iron oxides