What beauty blogs do you read?

This week is shaping up to be a crazy one (grading and job applications, and blah blah blah). Though I have a lot of photos squirreled away for reviews, I doubt I will have an open window of time sufficient to write the detailed reviews I have in mind (Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks, Do I Need This? mascara primer edition, Urban Decay Vice Sheer F-Bomb lipstick, comparisons on blush placements, etc.). But I probably will have a few minutes here and there when I need a break, and one of my favorite ways to use up those minutes is by reading beauty blogs.

So please tell me which blogs you're reading these days! And feel free to plug your own blog, too. Some of my current favorites are: auxiliary beauty; Bad Outfit, Great Lipstick; Lab Muffin; Makeup Withdrawal; My Darling Clementine; Rocaille Writes . . . ummm, and I'm sleepy, so if I haven't mentioned your blog here, it doesn't mean I don't read it and love it. Remind me in the comments!

Non-beauty blog recommendations always welcome, too.

What do you like in a beauty blog?

This isn't market research or anything - I'm just curious. We all have our preferences. I know you are some opinionated bitches. What do you like? What don't you like?

Personally, I prefer makeup blogs that feature at least some affordable products. Either a focus on drugstore/affordable or at least a range from affordable to high end. I like the fancy shit, but if the entire blog is Guerlain this and Burberry that, I'm probably going to get bored pretty quickly. I want to look at some things I might actually be interested in trying myself. "Aspirational" can go fuck itself. Accessibility, please.

Shitty makeup review from xoVain is called out by commenters (but they don't say anything about the "everything expensive is better" bullshit)

See, this is what I was talking about! First of all, the writer goes off on a rant about how more expensive products are better and you won't find anything as good at the drugstore and don't even bother trying to tell her otherwise, la la la la la not listening! She actually says, "No. Stop. Don’t. You’re not going to win this one, I don’t care how many upvotes you get." Plus a lot of nonsense about drugstore makeup being full of "fillers" etc. Um.

How to tell when beauty "blogs" are just trying to sell you shit (even if it's terrible)

Has anyone checked out xoJane's new spin-off, xoVain? (No links, because I try not to link to things I don't really like, but you've heard about googling, I presume.) I was interested to see what it was like, because, although I'm not a big fan of xoJane, it seems like a tell-it-like-it-is sort of site, and so I thought maybe their beauty blog would be low-bullshit.

Wrong.