Real Girl Beauty

For every girl who's imagined herself as Lucky Magazine's "Lucky Girl." Or who's conquered her addiction to the bitchier-than-thou style.com forums. Or who reacts every day to her Daily Candy email with the same: "Who can afford that?" Here are some heartfelt health and beauty tips from one Real Girl to another.

Monday, September 04, 2006

The bad news: Real Cat's sick. The good news: RGB Boutique arrives!



I have many babies. Real Girl Beauty is one of my babies. My novel is certainly one of my babies. But my babiest baby? The one who tugs my heartstrings every day and makes me love him like he's my child? That would be Real Cat. Here I am teaching him about lip gloss. And he's loving every moment of his tutorial. I've had Real Cat for 9 years, ever since he was a tiny 5-week old bundle of skittering joyful kitten energy.

First, the bad news. For the past couple weeks, Real Cat and I have been going through veterinary hell. Not veterinarian hell, mind you. We have arguably the best vet in NYC--she's caring, brilliant, warm, and I thank her for every minute of special treatment. But for about a week now, Real Cat's life has become a mess of vet bills, blood and urine tests, diet changes, and twice daily insulin shots. We learned Real Cat is diabetic.

There's a lot of extra work to do on my part, and some scary times right now as we try and work out the right dose of insulin. I'm convinced every minute that he'll go into hypoglycemic shock from too much insulin (his urine test results are off right now), but that's a different story.

Basically, I have hundreds of dollars of pet medical related costs behind me--and hundreds more in my future, with regular vet visits, blood tests, insulin costs, needle costs, special food costs, and God knows what else ahead.

But this is my baby. I love him more than most people can imagine. It's got to be done. This means Real Girl needs to find extra dough fast!

Is advertising on Real Girl Beauty out of the question? Well, no. But I'd rather avoid it if I can. I know it's all in my head, but somehow I feel it would disrupt the purity of this blog, which I've worked very hard on. Would I ever gear a review toward an advertiser or change a review because of advertising? No way. But I'm going to try a different route first.

Which brings me to the good news! Have you ever wished for a one-stop-shopping place where you can go to find only products recommended by Real Girl? Guess what? It's coming! With an online Real Girl Beauty boutique! Through Amazon.com, I'll be featuring easy-to-click links to only the best products out there. I'll also make sure you know where the corresponding review can be found on Real Girl Beauty so you can read up and make sure the available product is right for you.

When you purchase a product from the Real Girl Beauty boutique, I'll get a small commission. Since RGB began, I've had readers commenting that I send them to the stores. Now I hope you'll help support me and Real Cat by stopping first to the Real Girl Beauty boutique to see if you can find your desired product there. I promise my reviews will not change to suit the boutique. What's more? If it looks like the boutique is successful, that will be incentive for me to review more products. Will the quality and care that you expect from Real Girl's reviews change? Not if this girl can help it!

I wanted to wait until the boutique was ready to post this--but alas caring for the kitty has taken a lot of time and energy. Not to mention extra work taken on to pay the bills. I hope to have at least something available within a week! Times are tight in every way, but of course I still remain your,

Real Girl
xx

P.S. Of course, purchasing the novel helps tons too! If you haven't already, I hope you'll trust that it's such a fun, laugh-out-loud, page-turning read that I truly believe you'll enjoy. And if you have bought the novel? Real Girl gives you her endless gratitude--for Real.