I’m not going to be blogging about beauty products today. Instead, I’m going to blog about blogging about beauty.

Confused yet? Read on.

How many beauty blogs do you read each day? Go on, ‘fess up.

To date, I have about 45 beauty blogs on my Google Reader, which means if these blogs were to be updated daily, that would be the amount I would be reading every day. There are a LOT more beauty blogs out there, which I cycle through every month or so.

If you are new to blogging about beauty, here’s a little bit of info on what we do. We dish out beauty tips and advice based on our own experience. We write about new product launches whenever we can. We also do product reviews. The products we review are either our own, or given to us as samples for reviewing purposes.

Anyways, I digress. Let’s talk about product reviews, shall we?

How many of us are taken by the reviews of the products? How many of us actually buy these products, from the rave reviews we read?

Ultimately, have our spending habits increased compared to the time before we started reading beauty blogs and magazines?

I can safely say that I am a very good example here. I know I have. Before blogs became a norm, I delved into beauty mags like there was no tomorrow. When I was 11 years old, I begged my parents to get me the Teen and Teenage magazines everytime they were in Singapore for business trips (Mum would oblige. Dad thought they were rubbish). When CLEO was published in Malaysia, I was beside myself with excitement. I collected every issue for 4 years. The glossy pages simply fascinated me. When I was a student in the UK, the number of international magazines which I’ve always wanted to read were right there before my very eyes. Before long, I started collecting more and more magazines; I spent so much money on them, that I could have gone for a holiday to Europe with all that money.

I kid you not.

When beauty blogs started to become popular, it was sort of a boon, for I stopped spending so much on magazines. I still buy the odd couple a month, but I now get my fix online. And that was when I started spending money on beauty products.

I enjoy beauty blogs so much more than what I read in the magazines because these are written by the people whom I could relate to, who are very much like me. They’re not paid to write up on a particular brand they love (well, most of them aren’t). The passion and sincerity I read in their words gave me that encouragement to try out what they love.

There you go, money spent. Sigh, it’s difficult being a beauty blogger sometimes.

When I read about how good NARS was, I just had to get my hands on some, despite how frightfully expensive they are here. Someone blogged about a pair of slippers, and the next thing I knew was that I too had the exact pair. A recommended mascara, blusher, lipgloss, body lotion, etc, and I’d be raving to check it out on my next trip to the shopping mall. Out comes a few shopping bags of beauty products which I do not need, but desperately want. Sometimes, after reading a good review, and I’m all “I. Want. That.”, like a woman obsessed.

Have my spending habits increased ever since I started reading beauty blogs and blogging about beauty? Oh definitely. Undoubtedly. Frighteningly.

A friend of mine once asked me if I purchased more products so that I can do a review on my blog. I remembered telling her no, and that I was only reviewing what I already had at the time. Almost a year on, things have certainly changed. There were times when I bought something new just so I can blog about it. It obviously is not a good thing, it’s unhealthy and is something that I hope to change. Practise a little (okay, a LOT of) restraint when it comes to shopping.

I’m a beautyholic all right. Hi, it’s nice to meet you.

What about you? Am I the only one here? Have your spending habits also increased ever since you started reading beauty blogs, or blogging about beauty?