One of the editors of Beaut.ie is acting beauty editor of Image magazine at the moment and makes a post about a huge list of Image’s best beauty products of the year 2008 that’s coming out in the latest issue. Cue commenters asking for the list to be posted, pointing out that they often post other lists. Cue admins pointing out that they don’t do this in the case of Irish publications - they’d usually wait a while. And then this, directed at the commenter who suggested the list should be posted as opposed to suggesting that Image be bought:

Have a bit of cop on will you?

Montagne - if you feel the site is not impartial then don’t comment any more. Big deal. It would be a relief if you didn’t anyway since you are quite frequently nasty. Go on to boards.ie and fight with people there.

One more personal comment about us like this and you’re gone. And it will be the first time this has to happen

Tell you anything?

Now that I look at more posts, I try and figure out which of the blog posts are concoctions of opinion, endorsement, fact, pseudoscience and advertisement all boiled for four minutes like mixed vegetables. When covering a topic so hopelessly tied to consumerism, it’s no surprise that beaut.ie reflects the very nature of the beast it reports on. It’s good to see those who make a clear seperation between what’s an advertisement and what’s opinion on a blog. But in the case where the topic is product, the affiliate links, the promotions and everything else blend together into a beautiful money making machine. It’d be interesting to see how much money they’re making out of it. (The web site, not the related jobs they have gotten as a result of it.)

I don’t think it matters, just like it doesn’t matter when you are reading Metro in the morning and you realise that the articles are as thinly veiled a press release as one can get without having the marketing manager mounting you from behind on your morning commute. As long as everyone is aware of what’s going on then it’s all good.

www.beaut.ie.