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.

Glossier's weird way of approaching beauty bloggers

This article from Racked talks about those strange emails Glossier has sent to bloggers asking us to post about a certain topic, because . . . I have no idea. They are not asking for sponsored posts or even, necessarily, mentions of their products. Just like, "Hey, why don't you write about your routine? Or your eyebrows?" Yeah, thanks, I don't need basic suggestions for subject matter from brands. It's kind of baffling. When asked for more information, they either don't respond, or in my case, send a vague message basically repeating the original request.

If you have a blog, have you got these messages too? Apparently they've stopped sending them when they also realized that they were weird.

Introducing Pyxis & Spatula!

Just a quick note to let you know that I've started my new blog about ancient beauty, which is called Pyxis & Spatula. I got some great suggestions for titles, and obviously I ended up not using them, but they were really helpful at getting me thinking, so thank you! (Who knows, I might get sick of the name and change it eventually. Wouldn't be the first time.)

Why did I start a new blog when I sometimes struggle to update this one on a regular basis? That's a good question. But I'm excited about it anyway, and I don't think it will actually cut into my blogging time here.

You can read my introductory post here, or check out the most recent post here. Thanks for all your support, and please let me know if there's anything you'd like me to write about there!

Poll: What kinds of posts would you like to see?

When I started this blog, I posted about a wider variety of different things. All with a shopping and saving focus, but I wrote about clothes, household products, sometimes food, whatever. Gradually over time I have drifted to posting almost exclusively about beauty products (makeup, skin care, and hair care). But sometimes I think of other things I might write about, like t-shirts, or candles, or tea, or books. Would people be interested in reading posts like that again, or would they be boring to you or seem out of place?

NB: I am not talking about sponsored posts. I've never been approached to write one of those, and I doubt I ever will be. I'm not sure what could entice me to include sponsored posts on my blog. It would have to be a really interesting product and an agreement with the flexibility for me to be completely honest about what I think. So that's unlikely.

If you wouldn't mind filing out the poll, I'd appreciate it. I'm interested in seeing what people think. I want to write what comes naturally to me, but I also don't want to actually drive people away, because I have fun interacting with people here. And of course feel free to comment if you have any thoughts or suggestions!

Thanks!

Would you like to see more non-beauty posts on Cheap as F*ck?

In lieu of a real post . . .

I've been fiddling around with the design of the blog. What do you think? I made it a little more SFW, but hopefully not too obnoxiously PG. I'm not sure about the plain white background (I'm certainly not a minimalist, aesthetically), but I haven't found anything else I really like yet.

Suggestions, in general, welcome! (Lose the deer-in-the-headlights selfie in the right margin?)

I'm working on a post about stupid shit I have bought for a variety of nonsensical reasons, and that should appear very soon. I just need to take a few photos.

Meta-blogging/Navel Gazing/Rebranding

I've been casually thinking about changing the name of my blog for a while. Not for any particular purpose - it just doesn't feel like it fits as well as it used to. Sure, I'm still cheap. That's who I am. And who doesn't like profanity? (Well, a lot of people, I suppose.) I'm not sure this label completely fits what I'm writing about these days or they way I'm writing about it.

It's not that it was ever inauthentic, but you may have noticed a decrease in the gratuitous use of the word "fuck." Or even the judicial use of the word "fuck." The swearing wasn't forced, but it was a writing persona, obviously. It was a lot of fun at the beginning, and now I'm getting a bit bored with it. Still, sometimes you just fucking need to say fuck to make your fucking point, right? (Okay, breathe.)

In addition, the focus of most of my posts when I started out used to be "buy this shit" or "don't buy this shit." Pretty straightforward. It's a little different now. I am still interested in avoiding needless spending, and not buying expensive things when there are equally useful inexpensive options, and beauty marketing, and the value - as far as that can be defined - of various products, but, like . . . you can buy whatever you want. I'm not going to tell you what to do. I suppose it's become a little more reflective and a little less prescriptive. It's also almost exclusively focused on beauty stuff now, which it wasn't necessarily at the outset.

So where does that leave me? Reasonable as Heck?

I don't have any better blog titles in mind, so for the time being CAF will remain. (Suggestions anyone?) I suppose I once had a "brand," but since I am less interested in having one now, that makes "rebranding" more difficult. Also, if I change the title, then do I have to change everything else? The URL? All my social media accounts? I'm getting bored and tired just thinking about it.

At least I can say that I am not getting bored with blogging in general. It's still fun, and it's still evolving, but what do you do when the contents don't feel like they fit the box you originally put them in?

Affiliate Links

ETA (August 2015): I am now using ShopStyle affiliate links in addition to Amazon affiliate links. I receive a small commission (usually 2-5 cents) each time someone clicks one of these links, regardless of whether or not they make a purchase. You can identify the affiliate links by hovering over them and seeing if the url starts with "api.shopstyle.com". I do really appreciate it when anyone clicks my links, because it allows me to save a little money to pay for some of the products I review. Read on for how affiliate links in general work.

I'm going to start using Amazon affiliate links again, for a little while at least. I am facing a period of (hopefully temporary) unemployment, and even though not much comes from affiliate links, a little is better than nothing. I am hoping to get enough small Amazon gift cards to buy the only fucking wet food that my princess of a cat will deign to eat, which I can't find in any actual stores around here: the glamorous Friskies Tasty Treasures Beef and Liver Dinner with Cheese (there, that's the first affiliate link).  I will only be participating in Amazon's affiliate program. I know there are lots of issues with Amazon, but frankly there are a issues with many of the companies that run affiliate programs, and at least this way I can link to a variety of different items. Also, Amazon doesn't care how much I write "fuck," and other affiliate programs do.

I will always include a disclosure line at the top of every post that contains affiliate links (see above). I will also try very hard not to write in a way that requires you to click an affiliate link in order to get basic information. There are few things that annoy me more when reading a blog than when people deliberately withhold information in an effort to force readers to click their links. For example, they might affiliate-link the words "this one" without naming the product. If I ever do that, you have permission to yell at me. (Sometimes in the past I may have linked vague phrases like that to other posts on my own blog, but I will try not to do that either, if I can remember.)

I know that there are people out there who don't like affiliate links, and I understand that perspective. Personally, I find them to be one of the least obnoxious ways to monetize blog content, since there usually isn't a brand or PR person who needs to be placated. If a blogger introduces me to something that I want to buy, I'm happy for them to make that 8% commission or whatever (from Amazon it's more like 4%). If you want to avoid clicking affiliate links here, don't click anything that goes to Amazon, which you can tell when you hover over the link and see the URL. Some of my old posts have Amazon links that are not affiliate links right now, but I'm going to gradually update them. (On other blogs, to avoid affiliate links, mot likely anything that redirects you rather than linking directly to the brand/store page is an affiliate link.)

I also know that a lot of casual blog readers don't really know exactly how affiliate links work, so let me explain. When you click my link, a cookie will be placed on your computer. That cookie expires in a certain amount of time. With Amazon, it's 24 hours. With some other affiliate link programs, it's 30-45 days. So that means that anything you buy from that site before the cookie expires generates a commission for the blogger. If you click through because I linked to some lipstick on Amazon and don't buy it, but later that day decide to order a DVD of Xanadu, I will get a small commission. If you put the lipstick in your shopping cart during the 24 hour period, wait three days to think it over, and then buy it, I do get a commission for the lipstick, but not for anything you added to your cart after the 24 hours ended.

Similarly, if you were to click on an affiliate link to J. Crew from a blogger using RewardStyle (rstyle), the cookie would be stored for 30 days, and anything you bought from J. Crew in the next month would generate a commission for that blogger. It doesn't have to be the item they linked, just anything from the store. If you want to avoid giving someone commission, you need to shop in an incognito browser window, clear your cookies, or click on someone else's affiliate link and replace the previous cookie with the latest one.

Hope that is clear. Let me know if you have any questions!

I turned off anonymous commenting

I'm getting absolutely inundated with spam lately, so I turned off anonymous commenting, at least temporarily. I don't get many legit anon comments, so hopefully it won't be an issue. If you want to ask a question and don't want to set up a commenting account, you can always email me at cheapasf AT gmail DOT com.

Things I Haven't Changed My Mind About

I started this blog on Tumblr in late May 2012, so I guess I am coming up on a three-year anniversary. Seems longer! My original idea for this post was to go back through opinions I've shared here and see what I've changed my mind about. I mean, when I started, I had a handful of mostly drugstore products, and I had no idea I was supposed to be excited to get GOOD BRANDS like a Tarte lip crayon or a Benefit primer in my Birchbox. (I gave them away and now and then I think back and kick myself for some reason, maybe because I don't get cool stuff like that from Birchbox these days.) Surely now that I am a sophisticated and discerning makeup and skincare hoarder, my tastes have become refined and I can see the value in products that baffled me years ago?

Not so much, apparently, because when I revisited my old posts, it turns out that the main thing Old Me and New Me differ on is the amount of crap New Me owns, and the waning desire that New Me has to ever buy another bottle of nail polish (it's not gone, but it's slowly dissipating).

For instance:

• I still think Monistat Anti-chafing gel works about as well as any siliconey makeup primer I've tried.
• I still use Cetaphil lotion as eye makeup remover.
• I still love Wet N Wild Comfort Zone as much as any of my fancier eyeshadows (though now that I'm gone from grad student to whatever the hell I am now, it's a bit shimmery for daily use).

  

  SHIMMER

• I still think those knotted hair elastics are stupid.
• The red Sally Hansen topcoat is still my favorite (but I am trying to use up some bottle of inferior products before I buy any more).
• I still think e.l.f. is worth it if you approach it the right way.
• I still rely on tea tree oil for treating acne.
• I still use my Avon eyebrow pencil almost every day because it's my favorite, and it's down to a stub now, but I still haven't used up the first one. I bought 2 backups 2 years ago. That was not necessary.
• This Freeman Avocado clay mask is still the shit. Also those tubes last forfuckingever.
• I still have never got a setting spray to work, though I got some mini Bare Minerals foundations to play with, so maybe it will work with those?
• I still can't wear eyeshadow without primer, and I've have the best luck with the cheaper options. I just threw out half a tube of LORAC primer because I hated it. What a waste. Right now I'm using e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer, which doesn't seem to exist anymore, but it's working pretty well.
• SCIENCE.
• My posts are still full of typos. Sorry, I try, but there's probably at least one mistake in this post. (This isn't my job, so I usually have to put posts together in brief periods of free time.)

Things that are slightly more complicated now:

• I still don't think that expensive finishing powders are going to change your life. In my post on them, however, I did sort of conflate finishing and setting powders, which is obviously makeup blasphemy. I'm slowly working my way through this Nars powder (below), which I use almost every day mostly out of habit. I honestly don't see much difference on my skin. Maybe for photos? I do still prefer the Maybelline powder I mentioned in that post linked above to all the more expensive loose powders I've tried.

Nars powder: a little grimy, but PAN!

• I do have some NYX products that I like now, but I guess I'm still not super excited about any of them.
• I guess if I were to write my highlighting and contouring on the cheap post again, I might include more options for contouring/shading. Like if you have really cool coloring, maybe you don't want to use bronzer, because it could look too orange. I own NYX blush in Taupe, and I would likely mention that - though I almost never use it myself, because I still use highlighter much more than shading contouring products (if I'm going to do anything at all). These days there are way more products out there specifically designed for contouring, and I would still say fuck those, because you can just use crap you already own, like eyeshadow or concealer.

Things that have changed:

• I guess I got back together with lipstick, but I'm still not very good at wearing it, especially if it's very dark/bright and opaque. Maybe for an hour at home, but not if I am out somewhere where I have to talk or eat.
• A lot of the newer stuff I've acquired has been "higher end," but it's not because I necessarily think it's better. It's mainly because I'm trying to save money, which sounds like nonsense, but hear me out. I've bought very little makeup in the last 9 months or so, and what I have bought I've mainly picked up using my Birchbox points. So that means that even though I would really prefer a L'Oreal Lineur Intense liquid liner, I got the Stila liquid liner, because it was $0 with a few months worth of points instead of $9 at CVS. Other things I've picked up have been with gift cards I got for participating in consumer trials, etc. (I'm going to write a post about how to do that some time in the next couple of months). So the more expensive things have oddly enough been more affordable for me due to circumstances.
• All of the blue glass mugs that I had for many year broke. Fuck.
• I tend to include more of my own photos when I review something now, even though my camera is still shit. I just like reading posts on other blogs that include some photos, so I figure I ought to do it myself too.
• I'm not using any affiliate links anymore, even though some of my old posts still say they have them. They don't - I just don't have time to edit every single one. I'm not ruling out using them again in the near future, though.
• My hair isn't this pretty anymore. I should probably do something about it.
• Instagram.

So that was admittedly pretty self indulgent, but then so is this whole blogging thing, isn't it? It's nice to know that New Me is still Old Me, for the most part. I still haven't sold out to The Man or whatever (though if The Man has a job to offer me, he should definitely get in touch).

Programming Notice (no more affiliate links)

I'm trying to streamline things around here, because I have many very hectic months ahead of me, and I'd like to be able to continue posting 2-3 times a week. I quit the Amazon affiliate program today, so that means no more affiliate links of any kind on this blog. I have nothing against affiliate links - I just don't want to bother with them anymore. I believe that the links I have added to previous posts will still be functional (i.e. you can still click on them and get to a product page), but I will no longer get any revenue if you buy anything through them. I'm not going to go through all my old posts and remove all the disclosure notices, because that would take forever, so consider this a mega disclosure that there is nothing to disclose. I.e. there are now no affiliate links in any old or new posts.

I still might include the occasional invite/referral link from time to time, but those will be clearly labeled.

I'm also going to try to move to a MWF posting schedule. Some weeks it might only be MW or WF or MF. I want to be able to keep doing this, because I enjoy it, but I have to prioritize other things.

Anyway, I just like to try to be transparent about how things work on my blog, so I thought I would update. Let me know if there are any questions.

Apparently today is my blog's second birthday

I don't have a giveaway to do or anything, since I did that a couple of months ago. But I do want to say thanks to anyone who's still reading. I've been having fun!

Why I write so much about e.l.f. here

Simple answer: because they are cheap as fuck and so they fit my theme well.

It's not because I think e.l.f. is the best/most ethical company ever or that their products are consistently flawless. It's certainly not because I have some kind of stake in promoting them. I regularly write negative reviews of e.l.f. (see here, here, and here).

Rather, it's because I've seen pretty extreme claims made about e.l.f. in magazines, blogs, other websites, etc. that fall at either end of the spectrum. On the one hand, there are people that claim everything e.l.f. makes is cheap, worthless crap. These people seem to have tried one or two of e.l.f.'s shittier products and dismissed the whole line. There are definitely some major duds in there, but critics of e.l.f. are usually more venomous about it than they would be about other similarly inexpensive brands, like Wet N Wild.

Then there are people who claim that there is absolutely no difference between e.l.f. makeup and more expensive products. They declare that e.l.f. products are Exact Dupes, often without demonstrating that any actual comparison has been carried out.

Personally, I'm interested in teasing out when there might be a qualitative difference between an e.l.f. product and something more expensive, or when e.l.f. products do or do not hold up well on their own. It's possible to get e.l.f. cheaper than just about any other brand, and so it gives me lots of inexpensive blog fodder as someone who does not receive press samples and is not independently wealthy. In generally I like to try to identify misinformation and misconceptions when I can, and it seems like e.l.f. attracts a lot of those.

So that's my story. If you're really interested in why some cosmetic products cost so much more than others, I recommend revisiting this post and this one and this one and this one (see #1). Hint: for the most part, it's not because the product itself is better quality.

Giveaway! Max Factor Fantasy Fire (and a bunch of other shit)

Man, do I have something good for you. I picked up an extra bottle of the famous, coveted, and not-for-sale-in-North-America Max Factor Fantasy Fire nail polish when I was in the UK last year. And now I'm giving it away. WHAAAAAT? Well, I have two bottles for myself. You can have the other one.

This is in fact the very bottle you will win.

It's a mini bottle (i.e. the only size it comes in), and this shit goes for about $15 on ebay. But it is everything you've heard and more. Go ahead and google some swatches and then come back here.

I'm throwing in a bunch of other shit too, mostly because it seemed kind of sad to just mail off a tiny package with a single bottle of nail polish in it. And isn't it more fun to have a whole bag of swag to open? The other stuff isn't nearly as exciting. Yes, some of it I got from Ipsy and some from ULTA, etc. It's all new, not used, of course, but it's a supporting cast for the star: Fantasy Fire. Let's have another look at that, and then I'll show you the rest of the loot.

The prettiest of pretties.

Along with the bottle of Max Factor Fantasy Fire, the giveaway winner gets:

• ULTA Neutral Eyeshadow Quad
• Nicka K nail polish in Classic Taupe
• ULTA Double Ended Eyeliner in Black and Deep Brown
• ULTA eyeshadow single in Twilight
• NYX Bronze Smokey Look Kit
• ULTA mini brush set
• POP Beauty Eye Shadow Trio in Smokin' Hot
• 2 Color Club mini polishes (not labeled: bright bubblegum pink and silver foil)

I'll pack it all up for you in a fully functional makeup bag with a zipper. Oooooh.

All you have to do to qualify is enter your email address in the widget below so that I know where to contact you if you win. You can earn additional entries by completing the other tasks, if you want to. 

I'm afraid that the full giveaway is open to U.S. residents only, because I can't ship nail polish internationally. If you live outside the U.S. and would like to enter anyway, I can send you everything except the nail polish if you win. Then I'll pick a second person to win the nail polish. Your call.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It's the future

I've finally joined this decade - well, the very beginning of it - and got myself an iPhone 4. It's my very first smartphone. I'm so fancy.

You know what that means: Instagram. Follow me if you want to see swatches of nail polish I didn't deem spectacular enough to write a whole blog post about, my goofy face wearing goofy makeup, and my cat. Irresistible, isn't it?

Top 10 Cheap as Fuck posts from 2013

I was curious which posts from the past year got the most traffic, so I thought I'd post the list. It's interesting. The "Do I Need This?" posts are pretty popular, which is nice, because they are fairly time consuming to write. Since my blog doesn't have a big following, the most viewed posts are definitely ones that people tend to find in google searches. Poor saps trying to find decent swatches and instead finding . . . this. As a result, I don't think they are necessarily the most fun or interesting posts, though some of them are arguably the most useful. Others are pretty much utterly useless at this point. For instance, #6 is just a throwaway post mentioning that a LORAC palette was for sale from HauteLook. I think people got to it while googling for swatches, but since I don't own that palette, there are none. Sorry for being useless. (Maybe I should delete the post, but I'm not really in the habit of deleting posts once their content becomes obsolete. That would be kind of a weird thing to do.) Also, it's fairly obvious why the giveaway post is in the list. (By the way, I'm going to be doing another giveaway later this month.)

Anyway, the top ten list is below. Are these types of posts you've found most helpful and/or interesting too? I'm not really going to start tailoring my content to get more hits, since some of the posts I have the most fun with, like mocking xoVain bullshit, get relatively low traffic. But it's always nice to know what people like. I can always do more of certain things.

10. $2 Dupe for Chanel Azure nail polish (May 2013)
9. 1 Year Anniversary Giveaway (July 2013)
8. Do I Need This? Eyeshadow Primer (May 2013)
7. Swatches and Reviews of NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream and Butter Gloss and Revlon Balm Stains and Lip Butters (April 2013)
6. LORAC Little Lace Palettes $12 from HauteLook (October 2013)
5. Wait, a mask that actually does something for oily skin and blackheads? (April 2013)
4. Review and swatches: Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Elusive (October 2013)
3. Do I Need This? Beauty Blender sponge (and a comparison with cheaper versions) (March 2013)
2. Revlon Colorburst Lacquer and Matte Balms with review and swatches (October 2013)
1. Do I Need This? Highlighting and Contouring (April 2013)

Apparently I was busy in April, May, and October.

Sidenote: My computer has been fixed, finally. I lost all the photos I took in the last few weeks, though, so I will have to redo them. By next week I should be up and running at my usual (snail's?) pace again.

And Happy New Year everyone!

Some old links might be messed up temporarily (quitting affiliate programs)

I don't know if anyone really cares, but I like transparency around here. I decided to quit using most of the affiliate links I had been using, because it's just not really worth it. I mean, from one program I made $60 in over a year. To me, that's not worth the hassle, because the prospect of having to set up the links in every post sometimes makes me put off writing things. I know I don't have to use them, but since I was signed up for the programs, I felt like I might as well. It was there; I should do it.

Anyway, going forward there will still be some Amazon links, which I will disclose, of course, but I'm ditching the others. I like to link to the products I write about, because I prefer it when other blogs do that. I'll try to find the most reasonable price, but that's mostly on you. At least if I give a link you can get an idea of how much it costs, what the packaging looks like, how many shades are available, etc.

So yeah, old links to e.l.f. and ModCloth, mainly, might be defunct for a while until I find them all and replace them. Possibly others. I'll work on fixing them gradually.

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.

Why I Don't Include Packaging or Product Photos in My Reviews

I've noticed that including (sometimes multiple) photos of product packaging, applicators, and close-ups of products is pretty standard on beauty blogs, but I tend not to do that. Sometimes I include a basic photo that's provided by the manufacturer to make it easier for you to identify something in a store, but that's about it. Why, you ask? Okay, no one asked, but I feet the need to explain myself anyway.

This is as good as it gets around here.

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.