Sometimes marketing claims are legit, but sometimes they’re just a lot of empty hype and it’s hard to tell the difference. Since I’ve been around a while now and since I’m always looking for the best products in just about every category, I decided to share a few reviews of well, stuff that really works. Your mileage may vary.

First, a few items for the ladies. Best hair styling device. Hands-down, it’s the InStyler. Listen, ladies, we’re all very busy and don’t have a lot of time to be fixing our hair. The InStyler originated as an infomercial item, and as usual, I was skeptical about the claims. I mean, it’s just another curling iron, right? No, it’s the mother of all curling irons. It works exactly like they say it does. It’s easy, it’s fast and you can use it on wet or dry hair. It’s expensive, but worth it. I probably wouldn’t have spent that much money, but my daughter gifted me one on my last birthday and now I’m pretty sure I couldn’t live without it. And guess what? I spotted them recently in Target so it’s much easier to obtain one now.

By a landslide, the best mineral makeup I’ve found (and believe me, I’ve sampled nearly all of them) is Arbonne’s About Face Mineral Powder Foundation, SPF 15. At $34, it’s a bit spendy, but if you want your skin to look flawless while not looking like you’re wearing a lot of foundation, you’ll love this. It’s quick and easy to apply, and a little goes a long way so it lasts a good long time. If you’re going to wear makeup anyway, might as well wear something that’s actually good for your skin.

And while we’re talking about skin care here, Arbonne’s NutriMinC line for (ahem) mature skin cannot be beat. Again, yes it’s pricey, but it lasts a long time and it does work. And it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a face lift, girls. I’ll give up food before I’ll give up my Arbonne. Hope it doesn’t come to that because I also really like food.

Favorite bronzer: Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Sunset Strip. There are other colors, but none of them gives quite the same effect. Know what I love? Aside from the fact that it really does give you some natural looking color in the winter time, you can also use it as eye shadow and blush. Easy to apply and stays on all day.

Best computer speaker system: Bose Companion® 3 multimedia speaker system. It’s compact, the controller is about the handiest control device I’ve seen, and they just sound great.

Best Personal Computer: I’m not even going to answer that because you all know how I feel about it. Get a Mac.

Best all-in-one ink jet printer: Pick any off the Canon PIXMA line and you can’t go wrong. I have the PIXMA MP610. The ink lasts a really long time, the scanner works well, there’s a quiet mode, and I have never had to clean the print nozzles in over a year, which we all know sucks up a lot of ink. There are 2 paper trays: a sheet feed on top and envelope feed on the bottom. Simple controls, nice software package.

Best consumer-level cookware: Rachel Ray’s 10-Piece Porcelain Enamel Cookware Set. It’s sturdy, lightweight, heats up quickly and evenly, clean-up is a breeze, and hey, it’s just pretty to look at in all those fun colors.

These are just a few off the top of my head, but watch for future reviews in this category. At first glance, the prices for some of these items might seem a bit self-indulgent, but when you consider quality and longevity, they really aren’t that expensive in the long run. I’m all about searching for stuff that makes life easier and gets those have-to chores done quickly so there’s more time to do what I really love. (Which, by the way, does not include cooking, washing dishes, curling my hair, or cleaning clogged ink jet nozzels for a half hour every few days.)

Just my Lynnterpretation.

My attention was drawn this morning to a video short posted by Ad Age.

It reminds me of a little guessing game we play in this family. We’re deeply intrigued with the inventors of handy gadgetry. The latest, greatest invention always sparks an instant debate over whether its creator was male or female, based upon the level of intuitiveness and real-world usefulness of the design. Now nothing against you guys out there, but when males invent things intended for use by women, a great deal of the time we don’t understand what you could possibly have been thinking. Our needs are different from yours, our brains are wired differently, and if you really want to market an item to us, you have to think like we do.

Before going any further with this, let me tell you why you should care. It’s standard marketing wisdom that women control 80% of all household purchases. That’s why marketers of household supplies, kids’ gear, food, cosmetics and clothes are good at reaching women. But women buy gender-neutral stuff, too: cars, auto services, technology; the list includes everything but Viagra. Women today influence 85% of automobile buying decisions, according to GM. They also purchase 65% of new cars. Women make 75% of all healthcare decisions, whether for themselves or their families, according to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. They also make up more than half of all health consumers.

Now if you’re married or have a serious relationship with a female, you don’t need to read this next paragraph. (You could write it.) Let me tell you how the consumer world works in general. We ladies make most of the buying decisions for our families. Shopping is what we do and boy are we good at it. We also like the most bang for a buck and don’t tend to buy useless junk. We invest our money in the stuff we find truly useful; things that will make our daily lives easier. If you make a clutzy can opener that’s difficult and messy to operate, we’ll buy someone else’s can opener instead, but we won’t stop there. We’ll waste no time in calling all of our gal pals to warn them about your really dreadful can opener so they don’t make the same mistake. Kaboom: instant viral marketing, and believe me, we have a lot of friends on speed dial.

In short, what women want right now is attention to detail in product design and service; the right choices, not endless choices; and a more thorough, thoughtful selling process that respects our desire to understand what we’re buying before we take it home. We also care deeply about customer service. Women make final purchasing decisions based on the relationship with the seller, not on statistics and quantitative data. Given a choice between two nearly identical products, women are likely to decide based upon customer service and the ongoing relationship with the vendor. If you take care of us after we purchase your product, you’ve got a loyal customer for life.

We also prefer simple, straight-forward instructions over 200-page manuals, not because we’re incapable of understanding but simply because we don’t have time to read through pages and pages of instructions to get to the operational basics. Most of us are uber-multitasking with families and careers to balance. Quick start manuals are a girl’s best friend.

All in all, we’re a formidable force to be reckoned with in today’s marketplace. Why do you think we carry these big handbags anyway?

Just my Lynnterpretation.