So the New York Times Thinks Beauty Bloggers are Swag Whores

Bus fare roundtrip to NYC $75
Cab fare for constant traveling for 4 days $200
Buying clothing and (gorgeous) Anne Klein shoes to wear to fashion week events $300
Having your husband take two days off so you can be at fashion week $800
Eating 3 meals a day for 4 days $400

Luckily my hotel is free because my fabulous friends are not making me pay--

See NYT--it's not about free product. It's about doing something you are passionate about and enjoy. It's about feeling a connection with your readers and wanting to bring them the inside scoop.

While beauty editors were outted for all the free swag a while ago, you forget to talk about that they mention their love of a product then several pages into the magazine there is a paid advertisement for it. Here, whether I got it for free or not--you get the real deal. If I love it, I say I love it, if I don't, I say I don't.

So no, I'm not a swag whore--if the free stuff all ended today, I'd be fine with it and continue to buy stuff as I normally do. Besides the fact that as you can see from the above, I put out way more money than any amount of freebies coming in--and last time I looked, lipstick isn't accepted as payment for my mortgage.

Bringing an insider's look from Fashion Week to my readers---priceless.