if beauty is skin deep, i'm screwed.

does anyone remember the skin care commercials claiming they had products specially formulated for three skin types: dry, oily, and "combination" skin which supposedly has a mysterious "t-zone" in which the nose and forehead are oily but the cheeks are dry? and that their (the skin care people's) products could balance such things?

does anyone believe this nonsense?!?

i work long hours in an old building that is alternately freezing, sweltering, dry and humid with apparent disregard for the weather outside. so maybe i can pin the blame there. but sometimes in the middle of a long day, when i step away to get a drink of water, i catch a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror and wonder how on earth nobody has suggested that i see a dermatologist. t-zone? can neutrogena come up with something that fixes a nose and forehead that are both oily AND dry (peeling greasies?) and cheeks that are neither oily NOR dry, but develop transient nightzits which disappear by morning? i've tried taking a face-washing break in the middle of the day, but it only lasts for an hour or so. i've tried just sopping up the greasies and covering the nightzits with some powder-foundation combo, but that just makes the peelies more prominent. and nightzits seem to be impermeable to concealer. so i've thought about trying to just have good hair to distract from the greasies and peelies, but i also have problems with furries - you know, curly hair pulled back into a ponytail which over time releases all the little pieces that are too small at the temples, making tiny little horns that shoot out on either side. i would pretend that the furries are intentional, but they tickle, so i keep swatting at them like mosquitoes, which no doubt exacerbates the skin greasies.

will someone in the cosmetics industry just give up the charade of all these customized products for skin and hair types that don't exist, and start a line of beauty products for working women who just can't keep it all together?