Christmas Safety Tips For Christmas
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
Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream Collection
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
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?
Tarte Lights, Camera, Flashes Mascara Review
Cadbury Mystery Revealed
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
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
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
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
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
Current Favourite Perfumes
Daisy Dream - Marc Jacobs
Joyful - Escada*
212 Surf - Caroline Herrera
Princess - Very Wang
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.
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.
Talking About Periods*
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.