Have you picked up your copy of Beauty Confidential yet?  Methinks some of my new readers have not!  For those of you that don’t know I’ve written a book, it’s a real girl’s guide to everything beauty, including plenty of tips for the lazy snooze-button-slapper in all of us.  Curious about organic beauty?  Wondering how to look shine-free in photographs?  Always dye your palms and ankles orange when you self-tan?  Need help on how to create the perfect smokey eye?   Want to know which products are in every single beauty editor’s cabinet?  It’s all there.  Check it out, and don’t forget to leave an Amazon review!  (By the way, Confessions of a Beauty Addict is available for pre-sale on Amazon, too.  I’m really excited for you all to read it.)

I’m having a weird beauty blogger existential dilemma right now.  The Lancome Oscillation mascara, as you might know, is on sale today (for One…Day…Only!) at Sephora.com, Lancome.com and in select boutiques.  (It appears to have already sold out at at Sephora, FYI, but is still currently available on the Lancome website.)  Everybody is freaking out over the fabulosity of said mascara (and by everybody I mean a select group of beauty obsessees, assorted bloggeratti and various editors), and of course I’m also dying to try it, seeing as I’ve championed Lancome’s formulas for years, and have sung their praises all over Beauty Confidential.  But, as I went to the website, filled out my information, and was about to press the “buy” button, I thought, “Wait a second.  What am I really buying this for?”  So that I can feel exclusive?  As though I have the inside track over millions of women who won’t try it until it’s released in December?  I already have six unopened mascaras in the queue, and it’s not as if I’ll be the only beauty blogger writing about it tomorrow.  In that case, is it really worth the $34? 

And if I’m not willing to fork out money for beauty products unless I do actually have the inside track–or am in dire need, feeling impetuous at CVS, or traveling in Europe…does that just make me a cheap bastard? 

Over the years, I’ve written at length about how beauty editors (and now bloggers) receive free products, and I’ll admit that I haven’t paid for any makeup in ages.  Hell, even random items like deodorant and razors often arrive on my doorstep.  We serve as guinea pigs, testing and writing about things so other women can decide for themselves how to spend their cash.  But today, I’m just a beauty consumer like everybody else…and practicality (hey, the economic crisis stretches to Jolie, too!) is winning out over curiosity. 

Check out Allure.com Daily Beauty Reporter Jessica Matlin’s take on her five current favorite volumizing mascaras.  Her picks include Avon Supershock Mascara, which she compares to DiorShow in terms of brush chubbiness. 

Ahh, DiorShow. 

Can I confess something here?  I might be the only beauty editor and makeup aficionado on the planet who doesn’t have spontaneous orgasms because of DiorShow’s so-called fabulosity.  Now, I like DiorShow.  I name check it in Beauty Confidential (page 110), and it is, indeed, very, very good.  But I always feel like I’m missing something when I read flowery, gushing, OTT reviews proclaiming it as The Best Ever!  Really?  Ever?  For me, the brush is just a bit too fat, and I can’t reach those tiny hidden corner lashes that you don’t notice until they’re defined (and then it’s, like, Wow!), and I find it awfully prone to clumping, and I simply can’t stand that rose scent.  I feel like I’m using my great-grandmother’s mascara from 1893.  Don’t get me wrong: I don’t stabby-hate it.  There will just be no babies made with it.  Et tu, beautés?