LauraHadley.co.uk

Blogging Achievements Of 2015

Okay so it's pretty obvious that I failed at Blogmas because I hadn't posted until today since the 19th December. Work got in the way and I fell ill right over Christmas meaning from the 22nd until the 27th I couldn't bare even looking at a laptop. Christmas Day wasn't the best as I just wanted to sleep but now I'm refreshed and well again and felt like reflecting on the past year. It's been an up and down year, having entered 2015 in my final year of uni with many ups and downs there, finishing uni with having nothing but blogging to do, moving back to Liverpool then getting a job in Boots for over the festive period. Nonetheless, I think I achieved a lot in the year with my blog and I'm so proud of what it's become.

Viewers

Recently I hit 100,000 page views which doesn't seem a huge lot in comparison with the most successful bloggers, but I'm proud that it took me 22 months to hit 100k. I think I entered 2015 with about 30,000 views so I've not done too bad. Using Google Analytics has really helped me discover what times of the day I get the most hits, where my referrals are coming from and really how to use the stats to my advantage. I was surprised by the numbers (especially when looking at Bloggers stats, which were only about 1/3 more than what GA was saying) and whilst views aren't everything, they mean a lot.

Photos

I've already spoke about this on my How I Edit My Blog Photos post, and more recently on my New Camera post because my photos have improved so much it's unreal. I posted over on Twitter when comparing photos from the beginning and the end of the year. I think I realised that light was key and learning to edit on Photoshop has helped with that when natural light just wasn't possible. Using my blog photos and putting them on Instagram boosted my followers there, along with the same on Pinterest too.

Followers

I don't even like calling people who follow my blog and social media followers because they do just feel like blogging friends. I also don't want to be a cringe and started referring to you all as friends because I just can't even deal with that. Anyway, overall I hit 12,000 and it felt like such an achievement. I can tell that my heart is a lot more into my social media than previous years and I think this reflects it. I'm so happy that I know more bloggers now and love chatting to people at whatever time of day.

Enjoying Blogging More

This is the most important thing to me. Whilst I started blogging as a hobby, and now it contributes towards paying the bills, it is still my hobby no matter what. I put so many hours into it, have paid (happily) for blog designs and taken a step forward into developing skills to potentially, one day, turn it into a career. Over the past year I've learned so much from blogging and think about it all the time. Building up relationships with brands and discovering new products has changed my perspective about a lot of things and is making me such a better person. Blogging has helped me increase my confidence and the support of other bloggers has encouraged me to do things I would never do off my own back. I'll only stop blogging when it's no longer in my heart, which I can't ever see happening.

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Christmas Safety Tips For Christmas

PetPlan offer pet insurance policies and work with more animal re-homing charities than any other pet insurance provider. The PetPlan Charitable Trust they set up has raised more than £7,000,000 towards a better world for animals. PetPlan have came up with some fantastic tips to help ensure the safety of our pets over the festive period.
Firstly, over Christmas there will be a lot of people around, so it's important to keep your pet out of the way if needed and make sure they're happy. This might be by making sure they have their favourite toys and have their bed in a quiet place if they need to go there to have some chill time. In conjunction with this there is often a lot of noise if you have a lot of people around, especially with champagne bottles and party poppers, so make a peaceful place for them to relax. Making sure they aren't scared is so important.
Don't forget your dogs usual routine. My dog Charlie has her dinner at 5pm prompt every day so no matter what we are doing over the holidays we always make sure she is fed at the proper time. She is usually taken on walks twice a day and let out when needed too. For christmas trees, make sure to secure your tree at the base and keep fragile decorations higher up to prevent anything falling down. Artificial trees tend to be safer as they're lighter and there aren't any pine needles which can damage paws. It's best not to put tree chocolates near the bottom either, and try not to keep any food items under the tree as they may be tempting for dogs to have a nibble at. Other food such as chocolate, cheese and grapes are poisonous to dogs so refrain from feeding them anything you know is bad for them.
Keep your pets and yourselves safe this Christmas. Charlie has her own Christmas stocking filled with treats that are safe for her and they aren't put out until Christmas morning as she is way too curious and would rip them open at the first chance she had. Shes 7 but still thinks she is a puppy and gets so excited to open all her presents on the day, so there is no chance we're risking leaving them out for her to investigate into!

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*This post is in collaboration with PetPlan

Lydc Clutch Bag Review

I'm a huge lover of multipurpose products and when LYDC sent me this beautiful Lucille Grey Cross Body Bag (£32.00) I knew it was perfect for me. It has a detachable strap meaning you can take it from the day, wearing it over a shoulder with enough room for your essentials in, to the night as a clutch bag big enough for your clubbing and other needs. It's grey on the front and white on the inside with the most beautiful gold detailing.

With the material being soft and smooth it's wipe clean so even the white areas of the bag are protected. The strap is adjustable to suit whatever your needs and the pocket at the front is secured with a zip and is perfect for popping your phone in if you didn't want to put it inside the middle of the bag. It feels a lot more expensive than £32 and I'm so impressed so far. It's big enough to fit everything I need in it, and sometime in the new year I'll be featuring the bag in an outfit of the day post to show just how you can take this bag from day to night. I'm excited to plan some outfits to put this with as the colours allow a lot of versatility since it's grey and white.

LYDC have some beautiful items at the moment such as the sleek backpacks and sequinned clutch bags with something to suit every occasion. Make sure to give them a follow over on twitter as they love getting involved with twitter chats with us bloggers and the girls there can assist you when looking to buy a bag or purse from them. Check out their mermaid clutch too - it's stunning.

Kiko Haul & Review

After visiting the new Kiko store in Manchester not too long ago, the lovely online Kiko ladies sent me out the cutest packaged filled with my favourite Kiko products that I swatched in store, and more. The first thing you notice about Kiko products is the packaging. Simple, beautiful and effective.
Intensely Lavish Lipstick from the Rebel Romantic Collection in the shade Luscious Red is instantly my favourite product due to its packaging. If you follow me on Pinterest you'll know how much I love rose gold and this sums me up as a lipstick entirely. What I noticed from this lipstick is that it is the creamiest lip product I've ever used and I was not expecting it at all. I wore it underneath a red Primark lip liner and lasted a decent amount of time but did need topping up. I actually wore it to work and had a ton of compliments as the shade is stunning and it is hands down one of my favourite lipsticks ever, and that includes Mac and Charlotte Tilbury.
Also from the Rebel Romantic Collection is the Reckless Spirit Eyeshadow palette which is a perfect everyday palette that is small enough to fit in your handbag. It comes with cream to brown shades for a natural looking smoky eye, a little applicator and mirror to apply. I always wear an eye primer to ensure my makeup lasts its longest and these didn't disappoint. Easy to blend and as pigmented as you would expect; I'm impressed.
With similar packaging as it is from the same line is the Perfecting Bronzer which is a powder product with the effect of a cream which offers an even finish and natural looking tan which is great for contouring. I had it on today, and with normally wearing my Benefit Hoola bronzer, I think this actually suits my skin tone a little better. In the shade Light-Medium will obviously mean it suits paler skin better, something you don't get with Benefit but they're both as blendable as each other.
The fourth Rebel Romantic product is this beautiful Metallic Shine Eyeshadow in Absolutely Rose which is long lasting, creamy, shimmery and has a huge colour payoff. I was blown away by how pretty this is and if I could have it my way, I'd wear it everyday. I did forget to take a photo of the eyeshadow as you can see, but just imagine a super shimmery lilac eyeshadow that really suits pale skin and blonde hair...
The Matte Muse Liquid Lipstick from the Midnight Siren Collection confused me at first as on the outside it looks like a nail varnish due to the bulky size and large lid. I enjoyed wearing this since I have recently been trying out a lot of matte liquid lipsticks and so far so good! I do need to wear this a little more to give a full review.
To finish off a look using these Kiko products, the Liquid Intense Eyeliner in Brown offers a smooth line with a shiny finish and pairs well with the brown eyeshadow shades from the Reckless Spirit palette. I didn't seen much movement from this meaning it is long lasting and even with a primer for my oily lids you know it won't ruin your eye makeup.
Overall you can tell that Kiko have put a lot of thought into their products and they seem to be going down a treat in the blogging world. As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to the Alicante store and never managed to buy anything, but since the nearest store is a 20/30 minute car drive away I can imagine you'll soon see some more Kiko products in my makeup collection.

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Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream Collection

So I fell pretty hard on the Nyx bandwagon in the last month. I heard a product was good and I bought as many as I could afford. And I'm so happy that I did. The shades I have here are Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Monte Carlo, Prague and Tokyo. As you can tell, I went for a complete mixture of shades to attempt to have one for every occasion. I ordered them off Boots (where you can get 10% student discount from, so make the most of it!) so the photos weren't exactly true to what the website shown. If you shop on Boots.com regularly you'll know that the images are so tiny for the colour selector, and with being an American product only recently entering the UK, it's hard to get photos to see true shades.
Nevertheless, once I placed my first order of four, I wanted more. See what I did there? I wanted a dark shade so went for Copenhage, a fairly neutral shade so went for Anterwep and a baby pink in the shade Tokyo. They all seem to be pretty pigmented, with an even finish, lasting a hell of a lot longer than the MUA Luxe liquid lipsticks. The MUA ones last fine until you eat where they all come off which is a real shame so went for Nyx this time. They lasted through a meal and drinks and I touched the colour up once just to make it a bit more creamy. Sometimes with matte lip products they severely dry your lips out, but this formula doesn't affect your lips at all.
I aimed to do swatches of these but I don't think it will be worth it until my next order of colours arrive and I can do an updated post. I know that in America they cost around £3 and here they're £5.50 but they're so worth the money, especially if you're wanting drugstore alternatives to the ABH and YSL alternatives that will really break the bank. The shade I'm most excited to try out in the future is Transylvania which appears to be a really dark purple shade, perfect for this time of year.

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Blog Goals For 2016

Although I've never really written down my exact goals for each year of blogging, I've always had them in mind. It's so rewarding to hit each milestone and that's why this year, I'm keeping a note of what I want to achieve from my blog and social media accounts and will report back in a years time.

My Blog

I'm fairly happy with my blog layout, but I'm fully prepared to pay to have it redesigned to fit my needs. My sidebar just doesn't fit no matter how many times I try to alter it and I can't pick another font for my headings since I'm limited to what I can do on Blogger. I'd love to have a full design that fitted my blog as a brand with some fancy features like a scrollbar or a nicer 'popular posts' section. My header was done by the amazing Jemma from Dorkface and I'm really happy with it so don't want it changing as far as I can see.

For content, I'd love to feature more food and travel posts, and going to Los Angeles in April will almost certainly help with that. I'll be collaborating with two exciting brands in the New Year which I'm really looking forward to, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Overall, I'd love to work with some more amazing brands, and keep the positive relationship that I have with the ones I collab with already. Once my confidence improves I'd love to feature more fashion posts and also close up makeup shots (on me) to really show off some fabulous products.

Photography

I think my photography has had a huge improvement in the past few months and since buying my Olympus Pen E-PL7 I'm quickly learning how to take professional looking photographs in minutes. I'd love to improve further by using both of my lenses with the camera to their full advantage and to demonstrate the quality of beauty products through this. The team at L'Oréal Paris complimented my La Vie En Rose photographs which was a huge confidence booster and it's great knowing you can please who you're working with too.

Social Media Followers

Blogging isn't always about followers, but they do help. Not only do they improve your blog traffic, but they help you gain recognition, open you up to new collaborations and keep you on track to know you're doing well. On Bloglovin' I've not really grown much in the 22 months I've been blogging which is disappointing. I'm not sure why, but it is disheartening. Buy the end of 2016 I'd love to reach 2,000 followers there. Over on Twitter I've had a huge surge which is so pleasing since that's where I focus most of my attention by talking to other bloggers and brands, alongside getting involved in chats and promoting my blog posts. I'm close to 5,000 followers now so I'm setting myself a huge target of getting to 8,000 followers over there which may seem unachieveable, but it's a goal.

Instagram is a huge love of mine and I put a lot of hard work into getting good photographs for it, but again my followers don't grow much there. I think it's so hard to gain Instagram followers so those who are 'Instagram Famous' must put so much time into their profile. By the end of next year it would be lovely to go past the 2,000 mark. Pinterest seems to have had the biggest influx of followers over the past few months and I've managed to hit 3,500 followers pretty quickly. Since it's easier to gain followers there and gain referrals to your blog, I'd love to hit 7,000 followers there - doubling what I have now.

Can I do it? Who knows. The most important goal overall is to improve my blog; with every word written, photograph taken and every backlink I give myself. My heart is in this more than it may be perceived and I want to show the World that this is my portfolio of what could be a future career. Not only is it work experience if you're going into PR/Marketing, but it develops skills that may have gotten a bit rusty since you left school. I'm going to be more vocal about my blog and not shy away from it when people ask about it. I may even venture into getting a Facebook page for it. What do you think?

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Tarte Lights, Camera, Flashes Mascara Review

You may have seen in September I went to the NWMeet kindly hosted by Katy & Sam, and was more than blown away by the goodie bag they gave us. I've never used any Tarte products since they're an American brand but was super keen to try this out to see how it faired. The packaging is like no other, really making a statement about the brand. It is quite bulky I found so can't be placed neatly in makeup storage unless you have really deep muji drawers.
The wand is like a comb style wand, as opposed to the normal thick brushes I use so I was a little apprehensive. I do enjoy using Benefit's They're Real mascara so I thought it would be pretty similar. What I did find when I applied it was that it is pretty thick. The comb separates the lashes a little, but it isn't anything groundbreaking. The colour is perfect as it's a really dark black (I mean you can't get much wrong with a black colour) which goes in my favour with my white-blonde eyelashes.
I usually stay really clear from this type of wand since I find I poke myself with the spiky bristles really easy and my eyes water like no other. This happened when using this mascara and this is one of the main reasons I tend to go for this brush wands since they're eye-friendly. Overall, I think this would be great for clubbing, or blending false eyelashes with your own as its nice and thick for when you want that effect, but it isn't an everyday mascara for me.

Cadbury Mystery Revealed

You may have seen this post which was a little mysterious. There was a tumblr account set up that described something large and purple entering the UK causing a lot of people to talk about it. Well, it was the huge bar of Dairy Milk which is surprised tons of people as it was completely unexpected. You may think, "Is this going to just be a bit bigger than the 'big' bars?". No, you're wrong. Over on the website you can now buy, for a limited period of time, a 850g bar of Dairy Milk. The standard size bar is 45g, so this one is 18 times the size!
I'd say this would last a while in my household, but it definitely won't since all 6 of us are major chocolate fiends! I'll be getting a huge bar and I'm so excited! I make some mean cadbury chocolate brownies and with this size I'd have enough for a set of brownies and have 2/3 of it left! Genius! They seem like such an amazing gift for Christmas and I would be made up to have one of these under the tree!
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Things To Remember When Blogging

Know your worth

Bloggers seem to undermine themselves so much when they really don't realise that they are worth so much more than they think! You're putting your time and effort into your writing, photography and social media posts and some people and brands may not appreciate how much time is spent perfecting your own personal space on the internet. You may collaborate with a brand and they expect posts to go up much quicker than possible as to them, you may seem to not do anything else apart from blog. You're valuable, as is your blog. Don't let anyone charge you a few pounds for a post you have to handwrite and add links to. See Michelle's post to see an example of how to value your blogging time and effort, but how much you should charge per post.

Make some goals

Think about what you want to achieve from your blog. Whether it be using a new camera to improve your photography, working with a particular brand or reaching a certain number of followers. It is all relative and each goal you achieve is so motivating to improving your blog. My goals for this year were to buy a new camera, to start using natural light more, to learn how to use Photoshop and to reach 5,000 followers on Twitter. So far I've achieved all but the latter (but not far off) and I can't tell you how proud I am of my blog. Even within the past 6 months it has improved in quality so much.

Stand your ground

This is something close to the heart that I see tons of bloggers getting stuck in the middle of every day. Someone wants to work with you, but is offering sub-par compensation (products, payment or otherwise) and wants a ton of work from you. You know you're worth more, so stand your ground. I've had so many emails offering me £10 for a blog post that takes around three hours work and I will stand my ground no matter what. It's perfectly reasonable to come to a compromise when discussing sponsored posts if you wish. What also annoys me is companies sending out contracts that the majority of bloggers will not understand. I read through one over summer and they were asking, in legal speak, for you to hand over the rights to all your photos, for them to be able to use your photos and words for advertising (to then make money out of) and if they weren't happy with your review, you had to send the product which was worth less than £10 back to them. I was not happy and told them exactly what I thought of it, which was essentially fobbing bloggers off with language that only law students/graduates and those in legal jobs would understand. Stand your ground.

Develop some skills

I've said this earlier, and although blogging is a hobby to most, you may as well develop some skills whilst you're at it. You never know, the collaborations from your skill set could have you working with some amazing brands, or help turn your hobby into a job. You don't need to pay to improve your skills either, you may simply realise how to make the most out of natural light when taking a photograph, maybe expand your vocabulary to make your posts flow better or even have a go at designing your own blog header. The world is your oyster and your blog is exactly what you make of it.

Do what you want to do

Most importantly, do what you want to with your blog. If you're a strictly food blog for example, don't feel pressured to write a post about a lipstick or a handbag. If you aren't comfortable taking outfit photos then don't do it - take flat photos to show them off that way. Don't feel like you need to go for a certain type of blog layout with a £30 blog design just because others are doing it. I change my mind about things on my blog all the time but that is exactly what gives it a personality. I am not a food blogger, but if I want to collab with a brand and do a recipe post then I will. If you need a break from blogging then take it. Be reasonable with what you're achieving and who you're working with, but ultimately your blog only involves your decisions, so make the most of it.

Campaign To End Loneliness

Sunrise Living have came up with this campaign to raise awareness about loneliness in old age and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to share their campaign and show what I did to get involved. Loneliness can be detrimental to a person's health no matter what age you are, but it tends to get worse as we get older. It can help contribute towards depression and anxiety along with missing out on seeing your family grow up.
My Nan is in her 70's and has unfortunately been divorced for nearly 40 years. She has a daughter and a son (my Dad) and they left her house when they grew up and moved out about 20 years ago (my Dad had me in his early twenties if you're confused about the ages) so she has been living in the house by herself ever since. My Auntie stays with her sometimes, my brother stays with her once a week and I try to visit her when I'm not in work. She looks after my little sister Sofia once/twice a week so she does get visitors, we don't leave her! While she sees her friends, or "the girls" as she says, despite one of them being a male, she doesn't see a huge group of people very often.
Sunrise Living gave us some money towards food shopping to make something for my Nan and sent us a game of Uno and a pack of playing cards so us grandchildren could all get around a table and spend quality time together. My boyfriend is behind the camera in this photo so he joined in as well. I decided to make Creme Brulee as she really enjoys it, and added chocolate to some since they weren't as keen, especially my fussy little sister. We taught her how to play Uno and certain card games and she really enjoyed the day. Getting around the table even once every few weeks can make a huge difference. I like to think of my Nan as another Mum since she helped raise me and the thought of her feeling like she has nobody to see really upsets me, even more so at this time of year. Luckily she is coming over on Christmas morning to see us all and I may have bought her more presents than I meant to because I kept thinking about her when out shopping.
If someone you know is feeling lonely, why not ask to have a chat over a cup of tea? Take a walk with them or even give them a quick phone call to see how they're doing. My Nan is not the only one who feels lonely and she really appreciated us making the effort to all get together at the same time since it rarely happens. Make someone's day even if you don't realise they're lonely.

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Current Favourite Perfumes

Daisy Dream - Marc Jacobs

I first discovered this in Sephora last year when in Paris and fell in love with it instantly. Tons of bloggers were sent it during the summer and from the reviews I knew it was for me before testing it out. Once I sprayed it on myself and let it settle I knew I would have to pick it up at some point. Last Christmas I was gifted the large bottle and the one below it in size and have gone through so much of the smaller bottle as it goes in my handbag. It's very fresh and sweet without smelling like a kid's perfume.

Joyful - Escada*

If you'v ever entered Dave Lackie's twitter giveaways you'll know he is extremely generous and I was lucky enough to win this Escada perfume which is worth around £50 and it smells absolutely incredible. Not as sweet as Daisy Dream and seems to be suitable for everyone! I've used about a third of it in a year and a half and I'm using it on special occasions since I definitely can't afford to splash out on another bottle.

212 Surf - Caroline Herrera

When I was about 14 I used to always wear 212 Sexy but I ran out of it and never repurchased it. When a family member passed 212 Surf down to me as it didn't suit her taste, I had high expectations and it met them. I would only wear this during the summer but the thing I love most about the 212 range is that there is two small bottles per scent so they're perfect for your handbag.

Princess - Very Wang

This was first perfume I became obsessed with, probably at the age of 16. I used to receive it as a gift every Christmas and it will always remain in my perfume collection as it is such a pretty scent for all year round. This huge bottle was a gift off my family this summer which I'm slowly making my way through. I just love how girly the packaging is, despite the crown and base constantly falling off if I pick it up.

As you can tell, most of my perfumes are sweet, floral scents which are mostly tailored to girls of my age. I did own Jennifer Aniston's perfume and that was definitely a more mature scent but since she is my woman crush I went through that perfume pretty quickly. A few of my other faves that I don't currently have are the Ralph Lauren Blue one (is it just called blue?), Miss Cherie Dior and Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb which is a big hit with bloggers it seems!

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Olympus Pen E-PL7

Black Friday rolled around and I saw that the Olympus Pen E-PL7 with memory card, bag, flash and zoom lens kit was going to have a huge saving on it, and with my first wage from Boots going in that day, it seemed to good to miss. The whole package was worth over £700, but with the Black Friday deal and student discount taken off, I saved a huge £425. I really can't complain.

I've only just began to use the camera and still learning how to use the features such as the fold out screen, the art settings and how to grasp using the aperture and ISO features that my boyfriend used to set up for me on his camera. I've taken a few shots for Instagram, since it has it's own wifi and I can send any photos to my phone to then upload almost instantly, which is so handy. I'll be using it full time to blog with and Andy will have his camera just for his use now which is good for the both of us, so you may see a change in my blog photos soon.

Of course there are things I need to get the grip of since it is different to the bridge camera I've been using. Most bloggers have the white version and although I'll admit that is what I was going to buy (it was eventually sold out), I'm so pleased I went with the silver/black version since it has that real retro feel to it. Once I get used to the camera I will take face photos for makeup and eventually outfit photos too. If anyone has any tips of any particular features are good then feel free to let me know!
If you enjoyed reading this post, make sure to check out similar posts below: The Best Blogging Tips Written By Bloggers How I Take My Blog/Instagram Photos How I Edit My Blog Photos The Best Beauty Hashtags To Get Your Photos Noticed How To Start A Blog

How I Edit My Blog Photos

After blogging for over 18 months, I thought since I've been reflecting on how my blog photos have improved. At first, I was using my iPhone 5s which has an alright camera but isn't what I'm looking for. I then moved onto using Andy's Fujifilm bridge camera, and now recently my own Olympus Pen. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was using an iPhone to capture my photos, but not only was I doing that, I was losing quality by emailing myself them. I didn't edit my photos either and without good lighting, my photos were pretty bad.

I began really making the most out of natural light to capture the photos and began to see a vast improvement, especially when using a proper camera. It wasn't exactly what I was after though. I bought a beauty desk from IKEA which was completely white and obviously great for product photos but it didn't give it that oomph. I began using Adobe Photoshop (CS3 because I'm not made of money) to lighten the background, make text clearer and show off how beautiful some products are. To start I usually up the brightness and contrast, then use the curves function and play around until it looks right.

To finish off I use the image filter 'high pass' and overlay that with the soft light function which in short terms sharpens the image and takes it up a notch for photo quality. Aside from that, I only ever crop my photos and always resize my images to 1000 megapixels otherwise they don't load too well. As you can see from the above photos you can see how spending just five minutes editing a photo can completely knock the other out of the park and you're left with stunning photos without spending hundreds on box lights and the latest Canon camera. You can use free photo editing tools such as GIMP, Pixlr and PicMonkey which work just as well. The only thing I would always recommend would be to transfer photos using a memory card, never via email or text etc as you do reduce the quality of the photo.
When you come to think about it, once you've spent the time editing your photos and making them pretty, you improve your blog as a whole but you then have beautiful photos to use on Instagram and Pinterest which is an obvious plus considering that we all stride to have the perfect photo. You may see in some photos I use fake flooring from B&Q as the white background does get a little repetitive. Some bloggers using laminate flooring, marble lino and other backgrounds, it's all down to personal taste. For me, the white is my favourite as you can make your photos look more professional as you can lighten the background as much as you want. Make sure to have a play around with your photo editing and know that there isn't one way to edit photos!
If you're into tips posts, here's some other posts you may be interested in: The Best Blogging Tips Written By Bloggers Pinterest Tips For Bloggers 200 Blog Post Ideas How To Find Blogging Opportunities How To Promote Your Blog Posts How To Create A Successful Blog Post A Basic Guide To Working With Bloggers How To Start A Blog

Talking About Periods*

Despite being quite open about personal issues, I've never really spoken about periods. They are completely normal to have and the more people talking to those who have just started or who are going through puberty, the better. I want to chat about periods and how I dealt with them.
I used to get a lot of comments about spots when I was first starting to go through puberty. I had my first bra in junior school and it was obvious that I had began developing before the majority of the girls in my classes. Come year 7, I began to get a fair amount of tiny, tiny spots on my forehead and it seemed to bother other people a lot compared to how I felt. I was 11 and was still a child and wasn't too fussed about my looks. Two months into year seven and I woke up to find that I had gotten my period. It wasn't the nicest of things to wake up to, especially when I hadn't prepared as I had no idea. I had just turned 12 and not seemed to really take notice of my body changing. It felt like there was a ton of blood everywhere and I wasn't sure what to do. I was lucky that I hadn't been out and about when it happened but my Mum helped me out and explained what to do and that was it. I went to my Nan's house before school and remember her telling me that she knew because that week I had been getting a lot more spots which can sometimes signal a hormone change. Thanks Nan!
I was the very first person to get my period out of all of my friends. They seemed jealous but I had explained that it will happen to them eventually and if anything it was better that I could prepare them for when it happened. Since we were all quite young they were asking whether I was using tampons or pads and I laughed and said I was nowhere ready for tampons. I feel like they're such a personal thing and you have to know your body and what you're comfortable with. I wore pads with wings for a better fit to make myself more comfortable and over time only wore tampons when I was going swimming.

The only thing I've ever avoided when on my period would be wearing those white Tommy Hilfiger jeans I picked up in like 2006 from TK Maxx because I was terrified that everyone would see that I was "on". I don't think periods are anything to be embarrassed about and I'll happily have a chat to anyone wanting to know more about my personal experience. I used to get really bad stomach cramps and aged 16 started on contraception (firstly the combined pill) and it reduced my pains and it was okay. I've had a contraceptive implant for nearly 2 years and it was stopped my periods completely unless I am super stressed which triggers one, which is again, completely normal. Everyone's body is different and it's important to remember that you and your friend may have totally different experiences, and that's fine. Have a watch of the video above to see Vanessa's story about her periods.

*This is a sponsored post

HQ Hair Kissmas Box & Blogmas Day 1

So the lovely HQ Hair gals sent me a secret santa present just in time for Christmas! I had no idea what to expect and was blown away by the effort they put in and the products they picked out. Over the Christmas period I will be trying and testing out these products and will be reporting back in my December favourites post at the end of the year!
The box contained: Grow Gorgeous Overnight Gorgeous Hair Masque which will help nourish my hair and allow it to grow longer and healthier, Garnier Ultralift Serum to help reduce the signs of fine lines and wrinkles whilst firming the skin, Maybelline Master Sculpt in Light/Medium to perfect my contour and highlight game, Hand Chemistry Heel Hydration Complex to soothe my heels by hydrating them and prevent hard skin, Maybelline Line Refine to finish off the perfect smokey eye, HD Brows Bombshell Palette which will work perfectly with the eyeliner, HD Brows Lipgloss in Bare which contains Vitamin E and antioxidants to soften my look, Pur Minerals Secret Crush Palette which contains mattes and shimmers similar to the Naked 3 Palette, and finally the Redken Metal Fix Pomade for your hair to add a bit of glitter to your hair that also smells amazing.
HQ Hair stock a number of other brands, including Nars which is my absolute favourite brand at the moment, along with Pixi, Bourjois, L'Oreál and other big brands so it's worth checking them out! I'm so excited to be collaborating with them and the testing out these products to see what is worth it. From my first impressions I can tell that HD Brows is one to look out for. I've heard a lot about their brow products so it will be interesting to see how their other makeup items fair. I'm a little wary of trying out glitter in my hair but it smells so lovely so I'm up for the challenge. Thanks for the box HQ Hair and Happy Kissmas to you too!
In similar news, this is the first post of blogmas! I'll be blogging every day this month so keep a look out for my other posts, featuring a mixture of Christmas and non-festive posts too.

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