While fluffy magazine editor Richard David Story, of Departures, uses his editor's letter each month to pay favors to the lush resorts and jewelers whose procurement of services allow for his glossy editorial each issue, there are some fluffy magazine editors who see their intro copy as a chance to make a difference in the world. There is Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter, who pens his editor's letter to lambaste the Bush administration in print the way Keith Olbermann does it on the tele every night. This month GQ's Jim Nelson waited 136 pages to tell us how excited he gets about politics, and how excited he gets seeing other people excited about politics. (Okay, that's not exactly going to make a difference in the world, but at least he mentioned something other than clothing.) And at Allure, a magazine we do not read but assume to be stuffed with advice about choosing the right lip gloss color to match your scarf, editor-in-chief Linda Wells is now using her letter to readers to bring change in the environment. And Wells' efforts are, in some ways, more game-changing than even Graydon Carter's, because while he attacks the right-wing political machine, he's not exactly risking any particular advertiser. But this month Wells is going off on the very beauty companies who advertise in her magazine, for using excessive packaging to create the allure of luxury, all while creating excessive trash. It's like there's something meaningful in her words!

"The packaging of expensive beauty products has gotten out of control," writes Wells in October's "Best of Beauty" issue's editor's letter. "Some cosmetics companies seem to believe that all these layers create a sense of luxury, that they make the product look precious, like a Valentine's present from Harry Winston. But that idea is passé."

And she's right! You shouldn't need a box cutter to get to your eyeshadow, or the jaws of life to open the packaging to your compact. It's the argument we've long had with batteries: We already have to throw these toxic things into landfills — why are manufactures adding so much unnecessary plastic to keep us from even getting to them?

In the meantime, Allure's editors recommend the following beauty products: Sonia Kashuk Eye Shadow Quad in Four Your Eyes Only, Avon Advance Techniques Grey Root Touch-Up, and Costume National 21 Eau de Parfum. All of which, we're sure, come with only the necessary amounts of excessive packaging.