Beauty Schooled

The Pretty Price Check: Your Friday round-up of how much we paid for beauty this week.

Oy. I left you hanging on Friday and I’m so sorry. It wasn’t all that Birkenstock angst, I promise (much more on that topic, responding to your many, excellent and thought-provoking comments, coming later this week). Just the perfect storm of school, work, blogging and make-up time reaching a bit of a “something’s gotta give today” point. Rest assured that I’ll be doing my best to avoid any further interruptions to your regularly scheduled Beauty Schooled programming as I slog through the remaining 8.5 weeks of Beauty U. (Yes! 8.5 weeks, can you stand it? Are you new to the blog and thinking, damn, how did I miss the first 30+ weeks? No tears, you can click the In Class category and work your way through.)

But enough about me. Let’s get down to business and find out what we all paid for pretty last week (and over the weekend, too):

• 33 to 44 lbs were airbrushed onto skinny model Kamilla Wladyka for a recent cover of Healthy Magazine, because she, um, wasn’t. And they’re not the only ones committing reverse retouching. Man, this is a weird one. I’m all for showing more realistic sizes in magazines… but they should be real, right? ( Via Change.org.)

• An 8-year-old girl was kicked out of the classroom because her teacher couldn’t stand the smell of her hair styling product. It’s a tough one because of the race implications (the little girl is biracial, the teacher is white and handled the situation badly) but I also want to put some responsibility on the makers of that hair product. Why are gels marketed to kids given such strong fragrances, especially when we know these fragrances often contain phthalates and other chemicals that are known to interfere with healthy hormonal development? (Also via Change.org because I’m really into them this week.)

• 5: The number of times American Apparel founder Dov Charney has been sued for sexual harrassment. Latest AA debacle: Gawker’s discovery of their “Full Body Head to Toe” employment policy that requires wanna-be t-shirt folders to submit a full body photo with their resume. And remember that whole employee eyebrow policy? And the best butt contest? Also the fact that they don’t make school girl skirts or short shorts larger than a size 6? Mmm’kay. We’re done with them now. (Via The Investigative Fund.)

I don’t have a favorite new blog to suggest this week because I’m hopelessly behind on blog reading as per usual — nevertheless, I’d love to know which blogs (beauty-related or even not so much!) that you’re loving lately! (Feel free to plug your own, of course.)