October is the month for Allure’s signature ‘Best of Beauty’ feature, a list of 182 of the “best” products our maxed-out credit cards can buy, most of which were probably applied in conjunction with excessive PhotoShop to cover model Ellen Pompeo’s face (Ellen, is that really you under there?). While Allure is no stranger to large lists of unnecessary beauty products and cover model metamorphosis beyond recognition, the October issue has been marked “Special.” Wonder why? Could it have to do with those scientific breakthroughs in the beauty industry? Find out after the jump.

Send an email to Cheryl, the author of this post, at cherylmcampbell@gmail.com.