I am a little pissed off with my fellow bloggers...

I am quite new to the world of blogging. I started The Science of Beauty about three months ago a bit by accident. I have been a stay at home mum for the last year or so and, whilst I was enjoying this far more than I could ever have imagined, I was missing the mental stimulation of being a research scientist. In my spare time I found that I was forever research beauty products and their ingredients, just out of interest. I figured I may as well put my research down in writing as other people might be interested in what I had found out. And that is how my little blog was born.

Being a scientist, I have gotten a lot of writing experience over the years - my PhD thesis alone was 80,000 odd words. A couple of years ago I did a course on writing for the media and it was there that I learnt that the scientific style of writing was completely different to media writing. You need to be entertaining and engaging when writing in the media and you also need to be quite concise otherwise your audience will quit reading your article. In contrast, in scientific writing you cannot use emotive language and you tend to go into a hell of a lot more detail. So, to get a handle on my new hobby I decided to start reading other blogs to learn the language of blogs. And this is where my issues with my fellow bloggers began.

Firstly, not one blogger warned me just how addictive following blogs can be. My morning routine is now:

• Get woken by my baby, get up and give him his bottle
• Check my blog roll to see if any of the bloggers I follow have done a new post
• Make mine and my baby's breakfast
• Check my emails

So reading blogs now ranks higher than eating or feeding my son. I find it very rude that no bloggers put a warning in their Profile that reading their blogs will become addictive and may cause readers to neglect essential daily tasks, such as eating. Admittedly, I don't have such warning on my blog, but that is because I copied everything on my blog from my fellow bloggers.

The next big issue I have with my fellow bloggers is that none of them warned me just how expensive following blogs will be. They all write these amazing reviews of products from brands that I had previously never heard of and now cannot live without. In the six months prior to becoming interested in blogs I don't think that I made a single beauty purchase - I was slowly working through my ridiculous stash. In the 3 months since, I have made five orders plus made a visit to the Estee Lauder Corporate Store.

Since no one else is speaking out about the Blogger Mafia (due to fear for their life, I suspect), I am going to put my neck on the line and reveal The Axis of Blogging Evil - the blogs you really need to be wary of, the ones that will steal all your spare time and make you spend all your money. If you don't hear from me after this post you will know that the Blogger Mafia has silenced me...

Blatantly Evil: The Blogs that have forced me to make an order

• Dempeaux - Sarah had to go on and on about how amazing Shiro cosmetics are, and how reasonable their price is, and especially how cheap international shipping is...so much so that I now have an order making its way to me... 
• The Lip Print - I have written a few times that fragrance is really important to me and that my favourite fragrance is rose. Did that stop Stefanie from writing one of the most amazing rose perfume reviews? No. So now I have ordered that perfume and about another 10, which I will get for my birthday, though that is not until September.
• Ritual Eyes - Michelle makes her own eye shadows and does an amazing job duping much more expensive brands. Naturally I have also ordered some of her eye shadows as well...
• Beauty in the Sky - Megan had to go and write about Fyrinnae eye shadows, in particular the Arcane shadows which shimmer rainbow...rainbow is my favourite colour..how could I not order them myself???
• Little Jo - Jo pretended to be nice...she organised a trial for me with Ajana products, which I then fell in love with so need to purchase more, but that is not the most evil thing she did. No. She gave me a pass to the Estee Lauder Corporate Store, which allowed me to finally discover MAC, and now I want more MAC...

Can you see how EVIL these bloggers are. I can count on two hands the number of times I wear make up in a year, yet I have made 4 separate eyeshadow purchases, plus got some other makeup more perfume.

Psychologically Evil: The blogs that have mentioned a product that I cannot stop thinking about and will no doubt order in the near future

• Keeping up with me - I have been wanting an Inglot eyeshadow palette for ages as I have heard that they are as good as MAC, pigment-wise but I thought that they were still a little bit on the pricey side...that was until I read Tara's damn Inglot review. Inglot's shadows work out to be less than a third the price of MAC, so quite reasonable. DAMN. I clearly don't need any more eyeshadow but know by years end I will probably own an Inglot palette...and it will probably be the Freedom 20 one. DAMN.
• The Plastic Diaries - Kimmi explained why Danne Montegue King (DMK) has become her Holy Grail (HG) skincare range, with heaps of before an after photos to actually show the amazing results. Now I am torn...do I try DMK - it clearly does work, but then I love trialling beauty products so much - what happens if it also becomes my HG skincare range. The thought of never using another brand again terrifies me but then to have Kimmi's amazing skin excites me...oh the dilemma...
• My Perfume Diaries - I love reading Su's perfume reviews, but so far she hadn't managed to force me to buy any perfumes...that was until she mentioned that she creates her own perfumes. Crap...I love nothing more than to have a beautiful perfume that I know no one else has...crap, crap, crap...
• Dempeaux - Sarah has made both the blatantly evil and psychologically evil lists as she also wrote a review on MuLondon Organic White Chocolate Truffle Moisturiser. I don't need any more skincare but this moisturiser sounds amazing. And, with our dollar so good, it only costs about $24, including postage, to be sent from the UK. I will most likely own this by year end as well!

International Evil: The Blog's that shouldn't have tempted me, as they are from overseas, but they meanly pointed out that international shipping was available

• Moxie Reviews - Moxie has written two fantastic reviews on the beauty books Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm? and No More Dirty Looks The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics...so good were the reviews that these books have now been ordered (it's OK though, I ordered them on behalf of my baby to give to me for my birthday, as he forgot it last year!).
• Ms Reds Beauty Blog - Ms Red reviewed Haus of Gloi Bubbling Scrub ...I had never heard of Haus of Gloi or even a bubbling scrub before...I have now investigated, found out that they make about 30 different bubbling scrubs and I think that I want 28 of them. It is going to be very, very tough to resist.

You are probably feeling quite disheartened by my revelations of the Axis of Blogging Evil and feel that there are no bloggers out there that you can trust not to enable you to spend all of your money or steal all of your precious time. Well, don't worry. I have come across a few blogs that can be somewhat trusted. These blogs are still evil time thief's; however, they have let me win stuff off their blog thereby preventing me from spending...so they are only half evil!

Half Evil Bloggers - the ones that let me win stuff!

• The Things I Love - Lilpil writes about all the things that she loves, and more often than not the turn into the things I love as well. Thankfully she love the Natio's Pure Mineral Correctors Range and now I love it too as I won the entire range! 
• Makeup and Macaroons - Lilit loves make up...and so do I...and she loves macaroons...and snap again - so do I (actually I love macaroons more than makeup!)...and thanks to a competition she ran I am now the proud owner of a massive box of hair care products!
• Indulgent Reviews - Nadia reviews beauty products that are at the more indulgent end of the spectrum...funnily enough that's the end of the spectrum that I most like to hang out in! To celebrate her 100th blog post she gave away a box full of indulgent beauty products (including a Dior eyeshadow palette!), which I won. Hooray!

So, that brings about the end of my community service announcement revealing the Axis of Blogging Evil. Are there any bloggers out there that you are pissed off with? Ones that have seduced you with their amazing reviews and virtually forced you to rush out and buy a product? Post the link to the blog article in question so that these evil bloggers can be brought to attention - I am sure that there are many out there that I have missed!