I’ll be radio-silent tomorrow since I (and all of my anti-frizz products) am flying to Miami as Nivea’s guest to attend the Shay Todd fashion show.  Never fear, my dears, as I promise to bring back some swag for you in the form of a product giveaway!  The whole trip is bound to wreck havoc on my skin–I’ll be in Miami for, literally, 15 hours, with barely even enough daylight time to visit the beach or dip in the pool–and part of me is like, “Um…why did I agree to fly across the country for drinks and a party?”  Sigh.  I can never turn down a free cocktail.

Women’s Wear Daily attended the Total Beauty blogging conference in Manhattan Beach last month and writer Rachel Brown’s piece on beauty bloggers’ evolving influence appears today.  Special thanks to Anne Fritz from Jet Set Girls for alerting me to the article!  (I should really get a WWD subscription, huh?  But, but…$99 per year?  In this day and age??  Eh.)

From left: Kirsten Lamberton from Beauty Riot, Jolie, Anne Fritz of Jet Set Girls, Tia Williams of Shake Your Beauty and Annie Tomlin of Bella Sugar.  I have girl crushes on all of them

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — Beauty bloggers, once snubbed and now coveted by many of the beauty companies they adore, are on a bumpy evolutionary trek from detached commentators to industry insiders.

“They are like the QVC of this time,” said Don Ressler, co-chief executive officer of Intelligent Beauty, owner of Redpoint Cosmetics and iQ Derma. “They have been really involved in the [beauty] space. They have really shown they have a voice.”

At the Total Beauty Blogging Summit held partially at Intelligent Beauty’s headquarters here from May 16 to 18, the advantages and disadvantages of bloggers’ rising power were etched out. On the plus side for bloggers, much of the beauty apparatus is taking them seriously as formidable links to consumers, and a support system of bloggers and online networks has blossomed to foster their success.

On the downside, increasing competition has made it difficult for individual beauty bloggers to stand out. Bloggers complain about pesky publicists expecting coverage, and burgeoning media awareness has led to a perception that they’re swag addicts with trigger fingers for positive reviews.

Dangling on the precipice between fringe and mainstream is certainly a tricky place to be. Many beauty bloggers are making an effort to keep beauty companies at a distance since traditional media, they said, often gets too chummy with beauty firms. (more…)

Total Beauty’s Totally Green contest ends this week and Jolie still has her fingers tightly crossed that she’ll be picked to attend the Beyond Beauty event in Paris October 8-9.  Click below, send me on my way, and enter to win your organic beauty product-stocked Saturn Vue Hybrid, too! 

While we’re at it with the links, check out HealthyChild.org, too, a great website dedicated to making the world safer and more eco-friendly for children.

Your homework for today: check out Beauty Blitz, which is positioning itself as the first online beauty magazine.  Editor-in-chief and founder Polly Blitzer has worked in beauty for years, and her list of experts on hand (Ted Gibson!  Kaz Amor!  Rita Hazan!  Sally Hershberger!) is a who’s who of top celebrity stylists.  The site is still getting its sealegs, but with upcoming resources like a national salon finder, celebrity tips, day-in-the-life diaries, free product sample listings, an ingredient glossary, and a soon-to-launch blog, it looks very promising indeed.

Three years ago today, I started version 1.0 of Jolie, which was of course called Jolie in NYC. (It was also the day I created the Nick and Jessica Breakup Watch, a silly little project I am simultaneously proud and ashamed of!) It has been a wild and woolly ride, so I just wanted to send a heartfelt thank you to all my wonderful readers. Jolie love you long time!

I love this: a blog dedicated to promoting positive body image and self-esteem among women, called 5 Resolutions to Transform the Beauty and Fashion Industries.  What are they?  “Educate Ourselves.  Educate Our Audience.  Take Responsibility.  Take Action.  Stay Connected.”

As a blogger who writes about beauty and celebrities and all that’s shiny and pretty and ooh! but who also supports movements promoting self-esteem and realism in the beauty and fashion industries, I often try to pinpoint where and when I’m being hypocritical…and I’ll be honest, I get tripped up.  I agree wholeheartedly with the Jezebel-led movement to stop bashing women over their looks…but to stop addressing looks altogether?  That’s where I run into an ehhh grey area of discomfort.  Does that mean I can’t comment on celebrity A looking especially squinty because of too much ill-placed Botox?  Shouldn’t suggest ways that celebrity B could make her hair look sleeker by using a certain anti-frizz product?  Must never speculate about what areas of her body MegaStar has had “done”?  Or even (horror of horrors!) need to stop checking out pop star makeup and hair pictures all together?  I mean, really, it’s all shallow, but is the goal to get us to stop noticing looks, period (never gonna happen), or to be kinder, more tolerant, and more realistic in the way we approach female beauty?  I think it’s the latter–my view has always been that there’s nothing wrong with trying to look your best in an image-conscious society.  Learning how to properly apply makeup and make the most of your hair is simply survival of the fittest, especially when you have news reports suggesting that prettier people get hired more easily, and that even babies prefer photos of more attractive, symmetrical faces.

In reality, I just don’t actually have an answer.  It’s something I think about all the time, I can tell you that.  I’m a lot kinder and gentler than I was in my early days of blogging, when I took pleasure in snarking on Tom Cruise, Sienna Miller, Britney Spears and company.  Nowadays, I try not to say anything about a celebrity that I couldn’t say to their face—or that I wouldn’t say to my best friend.  (”I love you, but please allow me to introduce you to mascara.  Kisses!”)  There’s enough negativity in this world—with a lot of the vitriol inexplicably spewing from fellow bloggers—and Jolie believes in peace, love and lip gloss, not schadenfreude.

Daily obsession TotalBeauty.com is holding a conference in Manhattan Beach this weekend, flying in beauty bloggers from all over the country.  Lucky me, it’s in my backyard!  I’m particularly excited because I’ve been asked to speak; I’m appearing on a panel with Tia Williams (my former co-worker at Lucky!), Anne Fritz of The Jet Set Girls, and Annie Tomlin of Bella Sugar, discussing turning blogging into a career.  Should be fun, and will keep you posted on any weekend shenanigans.

I’m thrilled to report that I’ve finally bitten the bullet, weighed my options, and joined an online community: TotalBeauty.com.  Was it the sheer number of honest products reviews?  The quality of fellow member-blogs?  Or the simple fact that the logo is blue, and Jolie likey?  (I kid, I kid!)  As I blogged several months ago when I first discovered it, Total Beauty has continuously impressed jaded ol’ me: there are straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is rundowns on a prodigious number of products, useful articles that don’t just seem like “read me! read me!” filler, and even how-to videos.  Plus, the site is easy-to-navigate, and the editor’s blog is warm, witty and (hey, don’t underestimate the importance!) written by women who not only love beauty but actually have beauty backgrounds.  So, yeah, kind of tickled pink to be a part of it all! 

When I was at Ladies’ Home Journal, our beauty director was obsessed with Chandler Burr, and for good reason.  He’s the author of two books (The Perfect Scent and The Emperor of Scent) and has penned fascinating, loving, in-depth articles about fragrance for The New York Times, focusing not just on the technical aspects that make a scent sing, but on the ephemeral characteristics that transform it from good to divine.  Through Chandler’s articles, I discovered Hermes Un Jardin Sur Nil, finally gave Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely a much-deserved chance, and was vindicated in my adoration for Chanel Coco Mademoiselle (which he calls “a fresh-faced seventeen-year-old in a summer dress”).  (I’ve still yet to sniff Versace The Dreamer, but his description is mesmerizing!)  Check out Bella Sugar’s interview with Chandler here, and if you’re a perfume junkie, be sure to visit his website, as well. 

Friday, August 5th, 2005

I have to send a special thank you to the lovely ladies over at FishbowlNY, who have been overwhelmingly gracious and witty during this whole mess. Their recaps of my mini-scandale have been high points during otherwise bizarre and occasionally difficult days:Not to Sound Too Corny, But Sometimes Beauty Comes from Within …and my personal favorite…Wither Jolie? Beauty, it seems, is fleeting.That’s all the navel-gazing for today - taking a much needed break and heading to the beach. To all of you who’ve defended me (and pointed out that I’m just one girl who was blogging for fun, not some crazy machine trying to take down an industry), I send a very hearty thanks. Enjoy the weekend!