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Yowza! The seasons changed right before my eyes. Yesterday it was sunny and warm, but here’s what it looks like outside my window today…

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I can’t believe it. Yesterday was t-shirt and jeans weather, le sigh.

It’s days like this when I wish we were neighbors. You could come over, I’d make some tea and we could tease Tabs while we watched Lifetime and talked about makeup all afternoon.

On a different note, what do you think about beauty companies that donate a portion of sales to charity? I ask because this being October it’s all over the place right now, which is great, right? But sometimes when I do the math, I’m a little disappointed.

I’ve worn, purchased and written about several pink BCA products lately from Sonia Kashuk, Estee Lauder and Clinique, and yesterday I actually wore one on my mall/movie day with El Hub — Revlon’s Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pursuit SPF 15 ($7). It’s a fragrance- and flavor-free, shimmery pink gloss with sheer pigmentation and a non-sticky texture. Revlon released it special for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and they’ll donate 10% of the price of it to breast cancer research (up to $100,000/year).

That sounds generous to me — 10%. After you subtract the cost to make, distribute and market it, 10% sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

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Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but sometimes I wonder if some of these companies could go even further. I’m betting most of them make serious bank, and my cynical side (yes, I do have a cynical side) can’t help but wonder how much of the decision to donate is market-driven and how much is really altruistic.

If I ran a big beauty company, I’d love to start something like MAC’s Viva Glam and the MAC AIDS Fund. Not only do they donate every cent (that’s 100%) from every tube of Viva Glam lipstick sold, but it generates money and raises awareness year round. Regardless of their motives, they’re not just talking the talk one month/year. They’re doing something tangible on a daily basis.

I’d like to hear your thoughts in the open thread, but if you’d rather talk about something else, that’s cool too.

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It’s a chat fest where we elucidate (ha!) on makeup, movies, books (I just started reading Meg Cabot’s href="http://www.megcabot.com/1800/index.php">Vanished last night), life, spaghetti tacos, Jersey Shore — you name it.

Stop by anytime. I’ll pour you a cup of tea and save you a spot on the couch.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen