I got the new edition of one of my favorite beauty magazines yesterday, and excitedly read it cover-to-cover at Starbucks. As I was reading it, I had a sense of deja vu. I had already read about almost every new product the magazine was featuring, and there was a brief blurb about the recall of Jan Marini’s Age Intervention Eyelash, which I had written about a few months back.

It dawned on me that I had read about the new perfumes, makeup, and skin care products, not from other magazines, but from my fellow beauty blogs! A lot of beauty blogs report on new products the minute they find out about them, which is a month or two before they actually get printed in the magazines.

Before I got the idea to start my blog, I hadn’t actually seen a single beauty blog, so I didn’t really know they existed. Now I read tons of blogs every day, and have realized how valuable blogs are for getting news out to people (even if the news is just about a fabulous new line of nail polish or wrinkle cream).

I still absolutely love magazines because I like ripping the pictures out, and smelling the perfume samples (which I never seem to like), but I’m just excited that I’m part of a group that is dynamic, and “cutting edge” - even though blogs have been around for years. And now I know why most beauty magazines have blogs on their websites - because people are now expecting instant information! And, to the chagrin of magazines, I think blogs are becoming real competition (plus they’re free). But I’m not giving up my 15 magazines subscriptions anytime soon, so now I just spend all of my free time reading magazines, plus blogs!