Once upon a time...

in a land far, far away (well, actually Manhattan) I heard a scary tale from a friend who worked in beauty public relations. She told me that her firm would routinely call magazines such as InStyle and tell them that a certain, very hot, very now celebrity was using a client's product and the magazine would print the blurb and a picture, thus generating an enormous sales boost for the product.

This is neither shocking nor particularly scary. That part comes now.

She told me that most of the time, they just made it all up. Complete fabrication.

Now, maybe this is not an industry wide practice. Perhaps there is a PR code of ethics that my friend was encouraged to violate where you only get a mention if you have actually sent the product to said celebrity and they called you back to rave. Who knows? It does seem mighty suspicious that the same products get mentioned over and over again, magically, in every single magazine on the newstand (and yes, I know this because I read ALL of them).

Yet, I still fall victim to nifty new packaging and the editorial claims that the eyeshadow transformed a life and rush to Sephora to buy it. I'll admit it, I love beauty products and I'm a sucker for all things new and nifty.

So, I plan on sharing the wisdom which I have gained through experience and post about that which I have enjoyed and those which have left me wanting.