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Beauty for the Baby Boomers

If Jennifer Hudson's recent Oscar win gave a boost to full-figured women everywhere, then Helen Mirren's golden statue victory certainly gives women over 40 a chance to hold their heads up high.

Today's television watchers see an increase in products aimed at the women-over-40 demographic over the past few years. Dove has notably featured older and curvier women in their TV and print ads, highlighting their take on "real" women. Revlon has eschewed conventions of using young models, and has instead signed on Julianne Moore, 46, Diane Keaton, 61, and Susan Sarandon, 60, to hawk its anti-aging products.

Women over 40 make more than $1 trillion dollars in income, according to the US Census bureau. With numbers like these, it's natural that advertisers and marketers are focusing on this group of increasingly successful and powerful women with products and promises to make wrinkles disappear and crow lines vanish.

But not all of them. Cosmetic guru Bobbi Brown has always emphasized the virtues of natural beauty and inner poise. Her latest tome, Living Beauty, continues that tradition. At Thursday night's launch at New York's Saks Fifth Avenue, Brown - who just turned 50 - talked about women creating new aspirations in their lives, no matter what age.

Like the three books she's written before, Living Beauty is a testament to women's ability to look good in any decade of their lives - but the book is especially geared to the baby boomer generation. Brown offers tips and tricks to emphasize cheekbones and highlight individual face structure - tips that many women go under the knife to alter. Brown is known to ask staff and friends to dare to bare their natural faces in before-and-after photos, but it's that kind of closeness she has with people that makes readers believe in her.

True to her star power, Brown had friends Vera Wang, Lorraine Bracco and Sarandon give some thoughts in the "Words of Wisdom" section. While it lends some celebrity status to her book, it's the thoughtfulness of Brown's tricks for dark circles and saggy lids that lend credence to the book.

Women trust Brown because she doesn't make false promises - it's all about working with what you've got. But at Thursday's event, Brown was spotted applying a fresh coat of lip gloss before making her speech on stage. We are all human, after all.

		* Tom Ford Goes Luxe with Lips * The Scott Barnes Transformation: Sonia Kohli in "About Face"