In the midst of Fashion Month, a vacation, a birthday and what’s starting to feel like a blog explosion, I ran out of time to finish posting the series of Life With’s I worked on in LA this summer.

Next up is Molly Stern.

I’m tempted to call Molly “make-up artist to the stars,” but that doesn’t really cover it. Yes, she’s pretty much the only one who touches Reese Witherspoon’s face, but she’s also landed a gig for Cover Girl. She used to have her own clothing line, which sold in Barneys etc, she’s a mother of three and for lack of a less cheesy word, she’s one of the most inspirational women I’ve met - especially in this industry.

She got her start at the Shu Uemura store in her local mall, made fast friends with the girl who replaced her, Jillian Dempsey, moved to New York to find herself, moved back to LA when her mom set her up with the guy behind the counter at her favorite deli and only recently came to terms with working in beauty.

Click through for our meandering talk.

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that bloggers must disclose any sort of payment for any sort of product reviewed or discussed on their blog.

It’s something I’ve tried to do, though we’ve never had an official policy on Fashionista. We get a fair amount of free stuff over here, in fact we probably get a handful of packages each week, but we only really post product reviews once obsessed, like with my new James Twiggy jeans, or confused, like that Lancôme vibrating mascara primer. More often than not, products come after we write about something we’ve discovered and fallen for on our own, as a thank you.

The New York Times wrote, “the move suggests that the government is intent on bringing to bear on the Internet the same sorts of regulations that have governed other forms of media, like television or print,” as if it’s a compliment; blogs are suddenly legitimate.

Which is great. Except that print publications, at least the ones we pay attention to, aren’t held to the same standards.

This morning while we were having breakfast with some beauty publicist friends, they pointed out a Cover Girl ad in the new issue of Marie Claire that got us talking.

Now it’s not news to anyone that mass cosmetic brands often follow in the footsteps of the department store brands in terms of technology and formulas. But we’ve never see anything as blatant as this ad that very clearly spells out which CG mascara is knocking off specific Lancôme and Dior versions. As in “If you like Lancôme Definicils, try CoverGirl LashExact”. The full ad is after the jump.

Before you all start in on me, I realize that not everyone wants to spend on prestige brands, but this is a pretty direct attack, and a definite change in advertising strategies from the past.

Isn’t this just saying “We know you did it first and we simply don’t care”?

Sounds like Milk Studios is going to become one of our most-visited locations come September and New York Fashion Week.

WWD reports this morning that MAC, the usual cosmetics sponsor in the tents, is negotiating to sponsor shows at Milk instead.

This is an interesting development as MAC makeup teams typically create looks for more than 60 shows during any given season. And they bring the best key artists in the business with them.

Milk is a great venue and one that has hosted many a fashion event, and show, in the past. It will be interesting to see who jumps ship from the tents and goes with MAC. Will it simply be smaller designers? Or will any of the bigs head to Milk too.

Elle’s launching their own online video channel.

Apparently do it yourself or how to beauty videos are all the rage on YouTube and since Elle has an actual stable of beauty editors in house and an endless supply of experts on call they figured they’d tap into that market.

Emily Dougherty, Elle’s beauty and fitness director, told WWD, “We want to incorporate as many parts of the Elle brand as possible on the Web.”

So VideoStar - that’s what they’re calling it - will feature both amateur and professional makeup artists doing instructional videos for online viewers with loads of Cover Girl, probably, since they’ve signed on to sponsor for a year.

Great, between this and Modelinia’s mini-movies we’ll probably never get any work done again.

On Friday, WWD reported that Salma Hayek is currently working on an undisclosed beauty project. Earlier this month, it was also rumored that Jennifer Aniston is on the hunt for an endorsement deal herself.

But all I could think was, really? Isn’t the celebrity endorsement template a bit staid, especially in today’s tough economic times? There are plenty of models out there that could do the same job for much less money and hassle. Sure, a celebrity creates more exposure for your brand, but do they really influence consumers to spend money? I can’t say I know anyone who’s rushing out to CVS because Drew Barrymore’s shilling a Cover Girl mascara via alluring blinks. (And just think of the stable of stars L’Oréal Paris employs - sixteen celebrities, including Beyonce, Scarlett and Eva Longoria Parker - and somehow they can’t think of how to help that year-to-year net profit drop of 26.6%.)

You’d think beauty companies would try to cut some of the dead weight right now - could what Neutrogena gets out of Susie Castillo’s advertisements really make up for whatever she was paid? - unless we’re totally off. Do celebrities smiling and flipping their hair really get you to spend your cash more so than models?

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

Rihanna’s landed a major international campaign.

While Chanel, Prada and Louis Vuitton are re-living the 90’s, Gucci’s chosen the twenty-year-old pop star to front their new ad campaign for UNICEF just six months after her lauded performance at Gucci’s fall fashion week bash.

Rihanna, who’s posed for Clinique Happy, Covergirl and H&M’s “Fashion Against AIDS” campaign, will star in “Tattoo Heart”, a collection of ads for the children’s charity in which she’ll wear limited edition Gucci for UNICEF pieces.

Frida Giannini hand picked her because she, “felt a musician and a beautiful woman was the perfect icon for this campaign.”

True. And we’re all for a good cause. But is it wrong that we worry she’ll be contracted to wear Gucci on every red carpet and abandon the up and coming labels she’s been so good about supporting?

Stylists, take note!