New York Times reporter Natasha Singer is highly respected in the beauty arena and has built a tough reputation among brands and publicists. She continued the trend of telling it like it is (can we really call that a trend? I certainly hope not) with a discussion-provoking feature on Estee Lauder and the 40 pages of coverage for the brand in the July issue of Harper's Bazaar.

Apparently, to coincide with the launch of Lauder's first ever woody-amber fragrance, Sensuous, Harper's Bazaar supported their advertiser with a cover for EL spokesperson Gwyneth Paltrow and a well feature that also included elizabeth hurley, Carolyn Murphy and Hilary Rhoda. All four models also star in the advertising campaign for Sensuous.

Certainly, the relationships between magazines and their advertisers have long raised a brow among savvy consumers, but does Estee Lauder's coverage in Harper's Bazaar cross a line? What do you think? Did you even notice?