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Bella Interview: Amy Keller, Allure Beauty Director

BellaSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:25:38 PDT

And so we come to the conclusion of my interview with Amy Keller, the beauty director of Allure. If you missed any of the previous posts, be sure to catch up on them for her advice on beauty and the magazine biz. We'll finish things up today with a few thoughts on antiaging products. If you've been a faithful user of sunblock, you will be very happy to see what Amy has to say!

I’m totally obsessed with sunblock. I’m like a crazy lady who always has to wear it. Is everyone at Allure obsessed, too?
Yes, everyone here is totally obsessed with sunblock. I absolutely wear sunscreen every day. When I even get daytime moisturizer sent to me without sunscreen, I just don’t even understand why people are launching them - because what’s the point? It simplifies sunscreen by having it in your face cream. Also, I’m kind of obsessed with the new face washes that have sunscreen ingredients that actually don’t totally go down the drain. St. Ives has a new one, so you can get it in the drugstores; Freeze 24/7 had the first one that came out last year. So that just makes things even easier. Not that that’s the only thing you should use for sunscreen, but it's good to put it on. We are really into Helioplex here, which is in Neutrogena and Aveeno products.

It's good to hear you say that. I'm starting to see the payoff of wearing sunblock.
It’s very true! We are obsessed with antioxidants here, like coffeeberry, which is in those Revale skin products we have done several stories on. I feel like every dermatologist I have talked to says that if you combine antioxidants and sunscreen, it makes such a difference. One dermatologist said that if you look at women who are age 25, you might not be able to tell who is wearing antioxidants. But if you look at women who are age 35, you will totally be able to tell who has been wearing antioxidants and sunscreen because their skin looks so much younger.

Bella Interview: Amy Keller, Allure Beauty Director

BellaSugar — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:00:55 PDT

I hope you've enjoyed this series profiling Amy Keller, the beauty director of Allure. Today, she's sharing her best makeup tip and her thoughts on beauty blogging. Read on!

What is the best beauty advice you've ever received?
I always resisted using makeup brushes for some reason. I thought it was an extra step that wasn’t necessary and I was using instead cotton swabs, or the little applicators that come in the packages, but I finally listened to makeup artists. It does make such a difference if you are using a shadow brush or a powder brush or a blush brush. You know when you always read in magazines, “You need to blend this, you need to soften the lines”? That’s what these brushes do, and I have had so much success since [using them].

For her thoughts on beauty blogs,

How do you think the role of a beauty editor differs from that of beauty bloggers? Are there any differences?
Here at Allure, we are totally in favor of people with beauty blogs expressing their obsessions and their passion for beauty. It just makes the beauty topic more relevant. We have our own blog on Allure.com where one of our former beauty editors blogs our products. One thing at Allure that might be different from a lot of the blogs is our close relationships with the top hairstylists, the top makeup artists, the top dermatologists; I can e-mail or call these people and they will call us right back. These are the people we have become friends with, and you can’t just get those people on the phone if you don’t have those established relationships.

Obviously with the manpower we have here, we’re able to research things like what goes on with skin-care stories, or some kind of new technology in a mascara. We look at beauty from more of a scientific angle: How does it work? Has it been studied? We go through all of these steps while we are assessing a product that someone on a blog might not have access to - or wouldn’t even want to. When you are reading something online, it’s not so much about “How exactly does this work, and is it scientific and is it proven?” [Instead], it’s just like, “This is the hot new thing.” So I don’t think we are necessarily competing with people who are doing blogs; it’s just that we’re working in tandem.

Bella Interview: Amy Keller, Allure Beauty Director

BellaSugar — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:00:41 PDT

In yesterday's segment of my interview with Allure beauty director, Amy Keller, many of you were intrigued and impressed by her dream job. But if you think the day-to-day lifestyle of a beauty editor involves slapping on as much makeup as possible, think again. As you'll find out from today's installment, that's not necessarily the case. Read on!

A while ago, we posted a photo of [Allure editor in chief] Linda Wells at an event, and she looked great. But it seems that beauty editors don’t wear tons of makeup.
That is true. If you go to any beauty event and look around, you see that there is a little mascara and some lip gloss.

So for you, why is that?
I think a lot of beauty editors put a lot of attention on taking care of their skin. When you are working at a busy job, you just don’t have a lot of time to be really made-up. It’s not that people are not wearing any makeup, it’s just that they are wearing, like, mascara and powder - sort of the essentials. So they look pulled together without having to spend a lot of time in the morning.

I will say I am a person who likes to try out different things. I will come in occasionally wearing a bronze eye look, or smoky eyes. Or when red lipstick returned to the scene last Summer, I was totally into red lipstick and wearing that around. I think people think just because you’re a beauty editor, you’re going to be this makeup artist who is applying loads and loads of fake lashes and lipsticks. But really, you’re a reporter who is finding out about the new trend.

Come back tomorrow to find out what Amy has to say about beauty blogs.

Bella Interview: Amy Keller, Allure Beauty Director

BellaSugar — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:00:06 PDT

If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to work at Allure, you're in luck. I recently talked with Amy Keller, the magazine's beauty director, about all aspects of her work at the foremost beauty publication. As you can imagine, there was much to discuss, so I'll bring you a new topic from our talk every day this week. Today, it's all about how to break into the beauty-editing business, with Amy sharing a glimpse into her day-to-day work at Allure.

If someone wants to become a beauty editor, what's the best way to get started?
I have a journalism degree, as do many people who work in magazines. But that isn’t as necessary as trying to get an internship at a magazine is. Our last intern who worked here at Allure went on to become the beauty assistant at Real Simple. We are always looking to place people who we have had as interns and who we liked and who showed great promise.

Being a beauty editor is one of those things people don’t even know exist. I moved to New York from Missouri and I didn’t really even know there were beauty editors; I just knew I wanted to do something fashion-related. I started as a copy editor and was always asking around the magazine if I could do extra items, and the beauty editor told me she liked the comments I made as a copy editor. So I guess what that boils down to is this: Even if you’re working at a magazine in another department, sending an idea to the beauty editor or just doing anything you can ever do to help out in that department, that will be remembered.

To see what a typical workday is like for Amy,

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So what does a typical workday look like for you as a beauty director?
It varies from day to day, but the main thing that I deal with as a beauty director are many calls and emails from the PR people, pitching products or pitching story ideas or checking to see if you got a product -that sort of thing. So you're wading through a lot of that stuff as well as sorting through press releases and products that come. We have a beauty team of six people here at Allure, but on a weekly basis, I probably get 50 to 100 bags of products. So I’m constantly going through those and seeing if the press releases relate to any particular stories we have planned.

I also go to press events for new products. Different members from our team will go to those events, but during any given week you could have up to six events per person. I would say these events usually last an hour or hour and a half.

I also come up with many ideas and memos. Once a month, I send my ideas for the beauty features and any front-of-book sections. We also have sections like Beauty 101 and Beauty Directory, so I am constantly working on ideas and memos that I send to our editor-in-chief. Since we have so many beauty editors at Allure, it is constantly a big team effort. Anytime someone goes to an event, they have to send a summary to all the other people in the beauty department just so we are all aware of what is going on.

And I’m often back in our department cutting out photos, attaching them to poster boards . . . it doesn’t look very high-tech, but this is how I can see what the trends are. Then I’m also obviously editing stories. All of the beauty copy that is in the magazine has to route through me at some point or another just to make sure we’re not overlapping anywhere or reporting on the same thing in two different places.

For more of the interview, come back tomorrow morning!