Haobsh - Beauty Confidential

For five years, I worked as a beauty editor in New York City, swinging my way from magazine to magazine and quickly working my way up the masthead. I was on track to becoming a beauty directorone of the younger ones in the industry, if things kept course. Then I started writing a blog called Jolie in NYC. And then all hell broke loose.

My blog was a poor-mans version of the popular gossip sites that were sprouting like kudzu, with regurgitated celebrity news that I posted and added my own hi- larious two cents on. I even enjoyed a brief side foray into the public service sector, cobbling together a side blog called Nick and Jessica Breakup Watch, which included proof of their imminent demise. (Hey, I was right in the end.) After taking a particularly lavish press trip to Arizona, however, I briefly tabled the celebrity content and wrote instead about our journey, marveling at how beauty editors were treated to such perks as private jets, designer handbags, and massages. The blog was anonymous (mistake one) and included commentary on my industry and the often tenuous dynamics between editors and publicists (mistake two). I started getting coverage in blogs like Gawker, Jossip, and Mediabistro, was swiftly outed by the New York Post , and had a plum offer at Seventeen magazine rescindedthe day after I left my position at Ladies Home Journal . (Worstdayofmylife.)

Except, in retrospect, it wasnt. I learned that flexibility and hard work are not mutually exclusive and decided on a whim to go for broke, trying to make a career out of this craaazy blogging thing. (Cue violins.) Every second I could, I posted, noting favorite products, great tips gleaned from industry experts, celebrity beauty trends, and, most importantly, answering beauty questions from readers. In the flurry of Q&As, I realized that theres a serious lack of honesty in todays beauty information: were sick of being lectured, talked down to, advertised at, and just generally misled.

The questions are endless. When every dermatologist in America is touting an astronomically pricey skin-care line, does that mean youre ruining your complexion if you only have money for the drugstore stuff? Why do all the magazines champion that product you spent two hundred dollars on, when it did absolutely nothing for you? Why does it feel like you read the same beauty article every single month, in every single magazine? Isnt it a strange coincidence that the product youre reading about on Chapter 2 is advertised on The List: Best Hairstyling Products? And why is it so hard to grasp that the label combination skin helps nobody? (Fine, youre dry here, youre oily there, but all of the right products either make you flake or break out!)

I set out to create a beauty book for you the girl who loves makeup, hair, perfume, and skin care, but wants to find what works for her without blindly following trends or swallowing corporate-placement rubbish. There are millions of beauty books on the shelves by experts, crammed with step-by-step instructions on how to painstakingly create the look that will make you appear as if youve just stepped from the pages of your favorite magazine. While thats fabulous, if you have time to read a complicated manual the size of a World War Two textbook and then spend hours aping the looks insidemost of us dont! We want fast, accurate, and real , and we want it from somebody whos been there in the beauty trenches with us. Lets be honest: Im not a makeup artist, Im not a hairstylist, and Ive singed my hair, poked out my eyes, and turned myself orange more times than Id like to count! But I have been surrounded by beauty information 24/7 for several years, and armed with enough knowledge to make over an entire village of frizzy-haired, oily t-zoned, crying-out-in-need-of-highlights women, I hereby pass it all along to you.

Thanks for reading, and stay beautiful!

What beauty editors know that you dont

Imagine a life where highlights and haircuts with the worlds top experts are free, where there is an endless supply of Crme de la Mer, where you leave work at 2 P.M . to get a massage or pedicure and your boss cheerfully tells you to have fun. (Are you still with me?) Now, imagine you get paid to live this life. Welcome to the world of a beauty editor.

Each month, magazines bring you advice on which eye shadow shades are hot, what the most flattering haircut is for your face shape, and which self-tanners work for pale skin. But have you ever wondered how beauty editors know all this? (For me, its because I was born knowing everything there is to know about beauty. Obviously .) In reality, its because beauty experts have free products and procedures hurled at them. It may not seem fairwhy do they get endless supplies of Chanel lip gloss, and all you get at work is an endless supply of paperclips?but expertise is the name of the game. Without batting an eyelash, a beauty editor can tell you definitively what the best cleanser is, how to get away with not washing your hair for four days, what on earth a peptide is, why the jasmine in perfumes is picked at night, and the difference between alpha and beta hydroxy acid. The advice you see in magazines each month is just a fraction of the actual knowledge they possess.

Im here to share it with you.

I wasnt always beauty-savvy. A childhood spent climbing avocado trees and shunning Barbies in favor of books does not necessarily a future beauty editor make. But in college, while pursuing a career as a writer, I found myself at a magazine as a beauty intern. The first time I walked into the magical thing known as a beauty closet, I almost fainted. Much like that episode of Sex and the City where Carrie goes to Vogue and has a heart attack over the fabulosity of the fashion closet, I was shocked to see that the room (Yes! An entire room!) was stuffed to the brim with every product known to man. Better yet, it was ours for the sampling. After all, how are you going to be a beauty expert if you dont try all the products?

There are thousands of beauty products in this world (Hundreds of thousands! Millions!), and your average girl cant be expected to try them all. So, we tireless beauty editors do the work for you, dutifully slapping on face cream, testing hair straighteners, and staring intently at nearly identical shades of lip gloss, trying to figure out which is better for olive complexions and which for fairer skin tones.

See? And you thought it was all fun and games. Beauty is very serious .

Actually, Im kidding. Most people take beauty way too seriously, and it simply doesnt need to be that way. Beauty should be fun! It should make you feel better about yourself and accentuate what youve been blessed with (and gracefully and discreetly hide what youre less than pleased with). All that nonsense about redheads cant wear red lipstick and dont match your manicure to your pedicure and young women shouldnt wear foundation and never play up your eyes and lips at the same time is just thatnonsense. Its all about finding what works for you . If youre in your teens or twenties and your skin is slightly blotchy and tinted moisturizer simply doesnt give you enough coverage, I say wear foundation until the cows come home! The trick is simply finding the right foundation that doesnt make you feel like you have on a mask.