Twenty-two-year-old model Joan Smalls is no stranger to the industry. She landed a prime spot in Tom Ford's hush-hush SS11 womenswear preview, has a bevy of covetable campaigns under her belt, including Gucci and Givenchy, and was an exclusive model for Givenchy's fall haute couture collection (alongside the equally busy Daphne Groeneveld). But the latest notch in her fashionable belt is not only major, it's historic. Smalls has been named the 2011 Global Spokesmodel for Estée Lauder's cosmetics and skincare line—the first Puerto Rican model for the brand.

The thing that really gets me off—the thing about being a beauty writer, I mean—is the element of transformation, control, and self-improvement that comes with the territory. But it's also about taking care of yourself in such a way that you're also taking care of the rest of the world. Precious thinking, I know, but that's why so many of the products I write about have a degree of social responsibility attached to them. Sure, I highlight a bunch of stuff you don't really need, but if you're going to be a consumer, you might as well try to be a conscientiousness consumer. In any case, October is an amazing time of year for writing about stuff you don't need - it's when your needful things can help someone else in need. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, a campaign that began in 1993, and by the end of this October, is expected to have raised more than $45 million for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® (BCRF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to funding innovative, clinical, and translational research—and finding a cure in our lifetime. This year they're focusing on The Estée Lauder Companies’ heritage, and one of their participating companies, Bobbi Brown, is offering up a Shimmer Brick worth a $35,000.

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