Beauty blogs are in the news again, but this article is particularly scathing.

I don’t appreciate the writer of this article imperiously presuming we’re all “beauty whores.” And BTW, check out Christina‘s right-on retort.

Personally, I receive a lot of free products (the better to advise you with, my dear!) But anything I recommend on BBJ I actually use and like. And dolls, I still buy products. A lot of products. I started this blog because I adore BEAUTY and after spending anywhere from 10-15% of my money for the past 13 years on products, I appreciate every single freebie I get. Also, I spent over a year (15 months in fact) reviewing products I bought myself until I received my first free item. I started this blog without knowing that beauty bloggers even RECEIVED free stuff, nor the promise that I’d ever be the recipient of any “swag.”

Pre-blog, I found myself advising friends, colleagues, family members, even male auditors in their fifties with whom I worked about what products they should use. I started the blog to share my knowledge with a broader audience and as a much-needed outlet to distract myself on occasion from the dry-as-dust financial writing I do at work. I have no ties to any one beauty company. I simply recommend what I like, try to sensitively write about what I don’t like (on occasion), or simply not discuss things I don’t like at all. I spend my days at work discussing the subprime mortgage crisis. Why in a world where we live as people would I want to discuss products that suck on my blog the majority of the time? I spend about 10-25 hours a week staying up late after work, on weekends, and lunch hours to write BBJ.

To quote Heather and Jessica of Go Fug Yourself, “that kind of haterade is simply not on the menu here at [BBJ].”

Just my two cents.

P.S. What’s that scent you’re wearing, Kayleen? It smells remarkably like… eau de sour grapes.