Blogmas 2017 #9: Blogging lessons from 2017

The year’s about to come to an end and as always, it’s time to take a step back and look at the results. From blogging point of view, 2018 was great for me and hopefully, this trend will continue into 2018. Today, I want to share some lessons that I learned in the past year and really tell you what beauty blogging means to me.

Lesson #1 of beauty blogging: Invest time and effort into brands that are close to you

beauty blogging

In the past, I received PR packages and then panicked until I tested them all and wrote the necessary blog posts. Now, I’m much more picky about what I’ll try out, both in make-up and skincare. I don’t work with brands I don’t believe in, but I try really hard to support those that are close to me. And no, despite a few offers, I still haven’t taken money for my posts. This year, the brand family that I’m happy to participate with has grown quite a lot. It was joined by Mirta, Natura Siberica, The Body Shop, Yankee Candle, Yanumi, Dr. Organic, La Roche-Posay, Paese and many others. These are brands that try to do well and even more often, brands that find sustainability important. Of course, a part of my heart (and my blog) is still reserved for brands that have been with me from the start – Nivea, Catrice, Essence and L.O.V, Avon, L’Occitane, Melvita, Medex and others.

Lesson #2 of beauty blogging: Stress less, laugh more

beauty blogging

I didn’t get a brand collaboration I really wanted? I didn’t get invited to an event? The photo on the Instagram didn’t get almost any likes? SO WHAT! Brands that want to work with me know why they chose me. Events are nice, but not the only thing in the world (which is also why I missed quite a few this year) and the likes on photos can be attributed to a dozen factors. A year or so ago, I would stress endlessly about these things, but now I just wave them off and make a cool looking smiling selfie instead. The world instantly seems brighter.

Lesson #3 of beauty blogging: Invest in equipment

beauty blogging

This year, I had to find space in my home for new lights, backdrops and tons of decorations for photos. But even more importantly, our family extended by one Canon named Lucy. As you can see, the blog is also now separated into English and Slovenian page, which took quite a bit of work (and will take lots more) and was also quite an investment. But it’s totally worthy it. I feel so lucky every time someone notices the changes on my blog and I’m also much happier with the photos now. Beauty blogging is not a source of income for me, but I still want my blog to be as pretty as possible while also keeping the quality of contents in check.

Lesson #4 of beauty blogging: Everything is easier with friends by your side

beauty blogging

The universe was kind enough to send three amazing women into my life. Each day, they make me laugh and fill me with positive energy. We share the good, the bad and the ugly, blogging adventures and personal lives. Gabi, Metka, Maja – I love you. Hopefully, 2018 will be a great year for our friendship.
View Post

SummerMBeauty 2017

SummerMBeauty

Blogerke imamo sicer kar pogosto možnost za druženje, vendar pa le malokrat to druženje razpotegnemo na celoten dan. To nam je po dolgem času spet uspelo na SummerMBeauty v vročem Mariboru. Nabral se nas je kar čeden šopek in preseneča me, da naslednji dan ni deževalo.

Dogodek so organizirale Ajda (blog Just Ajda), Sindi (blog Sindiana Jones) in Nina (Nina Novak blog). Dan so nam zapolnile s predavanji in predstavitvami znamk, delavnico ličenja Nee Make-up Milano in še marsičem, kar nam je polepšalo že tako čudovit sončen dan.

SummerMBeauty

Poleg predavanj smo blogerke obiskale tudi lepotno tržnico z znamkami Yanumi, Ziaja, Avon, Biobaza, Perfect Body Salon in Keune. Kar nekaj znamk sem spoznala prvič, tako da se že veselim novih sodeloavnj. Sledil je odmor za težko pričakovano kosilo in pa ženski klepet, ki ga tokrat res ni manjkalo.

SummerMBeauty

Še več trenutkov si lahko pogledaš v spodnji galeriji. Hvala sponzorjem, ki so nas letos lepo pogostili:

Elite MB Catering,Barcaffe Black&Easy,Sladolednica BUM, La Popsi, Pullus, Fructal, Everly, Rosies Store, Essence, Lush, Ličila.si, Glina.si, Malinca, Yanumi, Karbonoir, Ziaja, Avon, Soraya, Annemarie Börlind, Paese, Ikona, Perfect Body MB, Keune, Calvin Klein, Nee Make Up Milano, Galerija Spa
Vetrinjski Dvor ter Luft. Do naslednjič, ostani čudovita!

*Vse fotografije so delo uradnega fotografa dogodka, ki je bil tokrat Jan Zorec Gaberc.

Blogmas #7: Who is Low Maintenance Beauty?

If you’ve been following my blog for a long time, you probably only know me as Maša. That Maša who never publishes her own photos. As mentioned many times I had a solid reason for keeping my privacy in that aspect, but now some things have changed and today – for the first time – I’m happy to share my face with you.

Če me spremljaš že dlje, me poznaš samo kot Mašo – tisto Mašo, ki nikoli ne objavi svoje fotografije. Že večkrat sem napisala, da imam za to tehten razlog, vendar pa so se zdaj okoliščine nekoliko spremenile in svoj obraz danes – prvič – z veseljem delim s teboj.

Naturally, this also means that my blog will change a bit. Now, I’ll be able to show you the make-up on my face, create a make-up look for special occasions or share my photos from events. I’m looking forward to the freedom this change will give me.

To seveda pomeni, da se bo nekoliko spremenil tudi moj blog – sedaj vam bom lahko ličila pokazala na obrazu, lahko bom ustvarila kakšen videz za posebne priložnosti, ali pa fotografijo s kakšnega dogodka. Veselim se svobode, ki mi jo prinaša to, da vam lahko pokažem – sebe.

 I only see it fitting that we catch up on a couple of moments from past years when you had to take my word for everything I was doing and testing. I’d like to share some photos with you – photos that show me for who I am and what I love in life. These are not professional photos – just those that mean something to me and captured special moments of my life. Hopefully, you like this change and will continue my journey with me.

Ker pa se mi zdi prav, da prineseva noter vsaj kakšen trenutek iz preteklih let, ko si mi morala vedno le na besedo verjeti, kaj se mi dogaja v življenju, pa s tabo delim nekaj fotografij, ki so mi še posebej pri srcu in kažejo, kdo sem, kakšna sem in kaj me v življenju veseli. To niso profesionalne fotografije – le takšne, ki mi nekaj pomenijo in ki so ujele meni dragocene trenutke. Upam, da ti bo ta sprememba všeč in da ostaneš z mano še naprej.

I love to travel, in fact that’s one of my favorite things in the world. I’ve seen over 40 countries and look forward to add more to the list. This photo is from one of the travels – Death Valley at 50’C. ***** Ljubim potovanja, ki so ena mojih najljubših stvari v življenju. Videla sem že več kot 40 držav in komaj čakam, da jih na seznam dodam še več. Fotografija je iz enega bolj zanimivih krajev na svetu – Doline smrti pri 50’C.

View Post

My view on blogging

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while for a while, you know I have a full time job. I wouldn’t even call it a full time job, more of a 1+1 job, since it’s not unusual for me to reach 250+ hours per month. I also have different hobbies, a house, hubby and a princess kitty to take care of and quite recently, I added a baby to the mix. So it’s not like my life was boring before I started blogging.

When I wrote the first post, I seriously doubted anyone will ever read anything I wrote. I didn’t know how to take photos (I mean, they are still not excellent, but looking back I will say that I’ve come a long way in the past two years), I didn’t know how to tag, how to address people, what information to include and so on.

Two years later, I don’t really care about blogging rules that much I like my photos as they are and I’m not willing to invest more money into new gadgets and aids to make them any better. I don’t buy subscribers on any platform. I don’t really use GA. I know that people prefer shorter posts and more photos, but I don’t care about that – I will give you long, like super long posts most of the time. I love writing so that’s the way I roll – if you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to read it. View Post

One year of blogging recap + birthday giveaway

My dear low/high maintenance beauties. About a year ago, I wrote my first post and setup a Blogger account. I didn’t think much about how it’s going to go, what I was going to write about or if anyone will ever read my ramblings. And now, a year later, I’m looking back at everything and feel very thankful for each experience and every single one of you who read my posts, like, click, share and comment. You make my day – every day.

I’ve also had some bad experience, but most of it was related to specific people behind specific brands. I still stand by the fact that I will not write a BS positive review, no matter what you offer me – be it products, money or something else. You can send me a product, yes, but I offer no guarantee that I’ll be writing anything about. Some people were not happy about my position on this – I say it’s their loss. It does make me sad, however, when I see some other bloggers posting over-excited reviews for such brands. But to each his own. I believe that with greater power comes greater responsibility – I wouldn’t want people I trust deceiving me, so it’s not my intention to be deceiving to you.

What surprises me the most is how far even such a small blog like mine can reach and how many doors it can open. Not every single discussion came to a positive conclusion, but still, they were priceless in my eyes because of the experience they offered.

I said that I’ll evaluate what I’m doing after a year and do a self-review of a sort. I think that I’ve improved on the writing and the precision of thought, the photos have gotten somewhat better (let’s all take a moment to admire the first ever photo I published – below) and I’m also a bit more consistent at posting new contents.

LOL at the composition, background, focus.

I do however need to work more on providing better swatches and really do some make-up looks as well. Also, I need to concentrate a bit less on make-up and start doing more posts in other areas as well. Possibly start translating everything into Slovenian as well? What do you think? Is there anything I need to put on my list of things to improve?

Anyway, enough ranting, let’s get to the fun stuff, right? Again, I have to prizes for two lucky ladies (or gents). Each includes some must-haves, some of my favorites and some things that will help you be on point with the spring-summer trends that I talked about in my previous post.

1. ICONIC PACKAGE

  • Makeup Revolution Redemption Iconic 1 palette
  • Makeup Revolution Redemption Iconic 2 palette
  • Makeup Revolution Redemption Iconic 3 palette
  • (yes, all three of them)
  • Makeup Revolution Focus & Fix eye primer
  • Essence Longlasting eye pencil (Tu-Tu Touquoise)
  • Essence XXXL Nude lipgloss (Just nude)

2. FLAWLESS PACKAGE

  • Makeup Revolution Flawless Matte palette
  • BH Cosmetics 12-brush set (Berry)
  • Makeup Revolution Focus & Fix eye primer
  • Essence Longlasting eye pencil (Tu-Tu Touquoise)
  • Essence XXXL Nude lipgloss (Taste the Sweets)

You can enter through several possibilities, all listed below in the Rafflecopter. I wish you good luck in the giveaway – thank you for celebrating with me!


a Rafflecopter giveaway