I am a firm believer that beauty often means pain. I think that's why I'm fascinated by the more painful beauty developments that have revolutionized the industry. Take Botox, the fast-acting remedy for wrinkles, that's as common as getting your hair cut and colored these days.

Related: The Plastic Surgery Mistakes No One Talks About

I've been a Diet Coke addict for most of my life, but there came a day when I made that life-changing decision: I wanted to quit. And let me tell you, it was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I was suffering from major caffeine withdrawals, which no amount of coconut water could ease.

It was then that I went on the ravenous search for Diet Coke's replacement in my life, and I found it in green tea. The caffeine in green tea satisfies my cravings for soda, making it a lot easier to get through the day without snapping at my co-workers or falling asleep on a stack of Post-its. After some additional research, I discovered that there are a lot of benefits associated with my new caffeine fix, from healthy skin to a better smile. Here they are:

You are blow drying your hair wrong. I repeat: You are blow drying your hair wrong. I know because I was too -- but not anymore.

A little backstory: I am not a blow drying newbie. I know my way around a round brush and I've had more than my fair share of salon blowouts. But after visiting Drybar (a salon that only does blow outs and styling) and having my hair done by founder Alli Webb, my mind was blown. Blown, people! (And, uh, my hair was too as you can see here.)

Gwen Stefani, Lily Allen, Kelly Osbourne, and Rachel McAdams have all done it. Katy Perry, Lauren Conrad, Dianna Argon, and Sienna Miller have recently done it, too. And no, I'm not talking about Botox, although I wouldn't be surprised …

Like most women, I love to shop for beauty products. I have an ongoing love affair with Sephora (six years strong) and Laura Mercier is the cosmetic equivalent of a BFF to me. Yet when I arrive home and spill the contents of my most recent cosmetic conquest across my bed, that all-too familiar feeling manages to sneak up on me once again. It's dark, it's heavy, and it's an old friend of mine: Hello, buyer's remorse.

I'll admit it: As a Latina, I have excused myself from sunscreen on numerous occasions under the assumption that skin cancer wasn't a reality for my brown skin. Of course, I've wised up since working in the beauty industry. Though to continue in the theme of honesty, slathering on the SPF recently has been more to delay future wrinkles than to protect my skin from melanoma.

I'll admit it: I lust after a good manicure as much as -- okay, WAY more than -- the next girl. Every time I can scrounge up an extra $30, I head to the manicure salon for a set of fake nails. Each year, I say happy birthday to me, from me, by getting acrylic glued to my fingertips.

But before you start to think I'm crazy, hear me out. I love nail art -- so much so that I'll browse tumblr and nail art magazines religiously to see all the latest nail trends. And ever since Katy Perry tweeted a picture of her Smurfs manicure for the New York premiere of "The Smurfs," my obsession with nail art has gone to the extreme. It's all I can think about. It's all I'm lusting after.

I thought I had a pretty good handle on this whole teeth-whitening thing. I wrote about the best and worst teeth whiteners here, and I know which foods and drinks are extra stain-inducing (coffee, soda, red wine -- aka all the drinks I love most). But now I'm learning that there are foods you can eat that not only won't stain your teeth, they'll actually make them whiter! Um, can you say, "excited?"

From caviar cream to handcrafted gold nail polish, some women seem willing to pay any price on their quest for eternal beauty. We had our beauty detectives do some snooping into the world's most expensive beauty products. Here's an exclusive peek at some of the spendiest cosmetic "bling."

1. Facial Caviar

So news on the (beauty) street is that Mila Kunis recently got a $7,000 facial. Which prompts me to think: "Alright, we get it -- you're famous and therefore have plenty of Benjamins to burn on skin care treatments. But what on earth could they be doing in this facial that would warrant it costing as much as my used Toyota Corolla?"