I find beauty blogs to be an endless source of inspiration, humor, discovery, and experimentation. When I'm feeling sad, I go back and look at the archives of some of my favorites, because few things cheer me up as much as seeing pretty pictures of makeup (Jesus, I sound like a stereotype!). I've decided to try and share with you some of them and why I think they're great, in the hopes that you'll find them as enjoyable as I do! I'll start with a couple of the biggest beauty blogs: Temptalia and Makeup and Beauty Blog.Christine Mielke, the brains and beauty behind Temptalia, has been blogging for almost 5 years. If you only follow one beauty blog, it should be hers. She is amazing. The amount of thought and consideration she puts into each post is truly astounding, and her photos are awesome. She has a very active commenter community, with lots of dialogue and shared knowledge. I love going through her "Hit List"s for suggestions for what products to try (and which to pass on!), with input from readers. She has a golden lab, Mellan, who is so completely adorable, it's just unfair. Her boyfriend Shaun ("the tech guy") is in charge of the coding and upkeep for the site, and occasionally writes posts from a dude's perspective (his post on bath poufs is hilarious). Temptalia also has several delightfully innovative features, like the Foundation Matrix, which has suggestions for what foundations should work based on your temperature (warm/cool) and skin tone depth (based on MAC's scale); the Makeup Dupe List, which is composed of "dupes" of products sent in by readers; and the Swatch Gallery, which as the newest feature is still in beta, but has swatches of every product she's reviewed in blush, lipstick, lipgloss, and eyeshadow (for some brands), which you can break down by color and/or brand (and rearrange to compare products side-by-side!). Temptalia is the pinnacle of beauty blogs, and Christine is truly incredible. Not to mention her handy grading system, which I borrowed and modified for my blog!
Karen runs Makeup and Beauty Blog, another fantastic beauty blog. She lives with her husband and cat, Tabs, who is a frequent star of the blog, and arguably runs the whole operation. Karen is incredibly funny and down-to-earth, and offers her honest assessment of products with a hearty helping of wit. She reviews more/different drugstore brands than Christine, and I discovered a lipgloss I actually like through her reviews (which I'll be reviewing soon as well). She also has great photos, and often features food and clothing tidbits as well.
Both Christine and Karen are darker than me, so their reviews and swatches are helpful in determining what products look like on a range of skin tones. They've both said they work 60+ hours a week on their blogs, and it shows! Both post 6-10 times a day, some of them reviews, others of them reader-driven content, and all of it informative!
Do you read Temptalia or Makeup and Beauty Blog? What do you think?
