Reading an article titled "Beauty Blogs Come of Age: Swag Please!" in the Times today inspired me to address some of the oh-so-tender dilemmas and landmines that beauty editors, and now beauty bloggers, evidently, face when testing and reviewing products, and instead of keeping you in the dark, here's our full disclosure.

I was a beauty director (in addition to being a contributor to many other sections of various magazines), for many years, so I have a lot of experience in the arenas they refer to in this article. As I've expressed here before, beauty editors get treated to all sorts of freebies, pampering and other privileges bestowed upon them by beauty companies and the publicists who represent them. It can range from the new line of Revlon lipsticks to a Stam bag from Marc Jacobs to lavish press trips to St. Barth's. Beauty editors must constantly keep in mind that their loyalty belongs to their readers, and not the publicist who just sent them a Chanel bracelet. (Lest you judge, keep in mind that doctors get romanced by prescription drug companies, credit card companies and banks make significant campaign contributions that result in our president creating bankruptcy reform, etc.). Recently, a big trend has been eschewing gifts to make charitable donations in editors' names, like Lancôme did this year. I like that. I like that a lot.

Some magazines, like Allure and trade publications like WWD keep strict policies regarding such treats. But to say that editors at either publication don't receive free products to test--as well as attend a great deal of events where they are served free caviar, champagne, and where a lavish gift might be tucked into their bag here and there--would be ludicrous. Of course, no one journalist in the industry is immune, whether they say so or not.

It's interesting that beauty bloggers have finally been pulled into this fold. It's actually a great testament to the fact that people are reading blogs, taking writers' recommendations, raves and criticisms seriously. But with this power comes, er, great responsibility. Any format that includes advertising, and that can be a magazine, and now blogs, is suspect. In this increasingly competitive economy, where all forms of media, including print and digital, are desperate to be propped up by ad sales, at the end of the day advertisers carry a lot of weight, and plenty of companies have punished bad reviews by pulling out precious, lucrative ads. The sudden absence of millions of dollars can sometimes make or break a publication. Or TV show. Or now, a website.

So what's a beauty critic to do? Fellow colleague Tia Williams of Shake Your Beauty, who has been an editor, blogger, and even sometimes author, breaks it down quite simply: "If I hate it, I don't write about it." This has usually been my policy, although I have certainly written plenty of negative reviews in my day. The thinking behind this philosophy does however, make sense: Why waste precious editorial space (or blog time), promoting a product that no one should buy anyway? Better to concentrate on what works, because there are so many damn products out there to begin with.

At any rate, now that this is getting awfully long and boring, I will say that we do our best at Product Fiend to be fair. We get loads of free products and I even got a free facial for being associated with the site (alas, not one MJ bag, or even sunglasses have come my way). Not that I miss the freebies. Which brings me to the jaded but true point: Editors that are saturated by free stuff begin to equate a designer shirt with one from H&M--it's all the same junk at the end of the day. Just because a drugstore product arrives at the office with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot does not change the fact that it is what it is, and we just want to test it to see if it works before we throw it in a bin where it will eventually get shipped off to a woman's shelter. The champagne, too, often gets tossed to the side. In fact, editors receive so many gifts (and these are all opened by an assistant or intern), that they often don't even know what comes with what. So...

We will bring you a lot of product raves because we'd rather focus on the positive than waste time giving free publicity to brands and products we deem to be, in our professional opinion, crap. If there is a popular product that seems way overrated, or a trend or issue that deserves a smackdown, we will raise our hands. We promise to try to answer your questions, comments and complaints fairly and honestly. We reflect the opinions of experts, your everyday beauty obsessed ladies (and even men from time to time), pals who think beauty products are the devil and a few randoms in between, so that you can get the story from all angles, and make your own decision. And who knows? Maybe sometime we'll reward you for your loyalty with a basket of free moisturizer. I've heard of crazier things.