5 things beauty bloggers shouldn’t be doing – at all!

This post is something that I started writing a long time ago. First, it started off as a joke, but now, its contents gained on importance and became much more serious. Today, I want to share my look at the beauty community and things that beauty bloggers – myself included – should not be doing – at all.

1) Making snap reviews of products

beauty bloggers

Opening a PR package on Monday and posts on social media on Friday? If we’re talking about a liquid lipstick or a bronzer, I’m game – I think you only need to wear a lipstick a couple of times to know if you like it or not. But what about skincare? I cannot even count all possible brand collaborations I lost because I wasn’t prepared to play their game and write reviews in a matter of weeks. I think thank it takes me a couple of weeks to form a proper opinion on make-up removers, perhaps certain masks, but every else takes months. I know that brands prefer quick reviews, but I believe that quick and sloppy reviews harm both bloggers and readers alike.

2) Non-stop spamming with paid posts / advertisements

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Let’s get one thing straight first – I have nothing against paid posts, as long as the brand is paying for the blogger to review the product, and doesn’t influence the opinion. If the brand is paying for a blogger to give a positive review about a brand – well, that’s a whole other story. InstaStories so full of tagged brands that I can’t even click right, blogs where I can’t find a single negative review, fake product placements… these things come in all shapes and sizes. It used to get me really angry, but right now, I tend to look away and just distrust the person from then on. Quite simple, really.

3) “You need this”

beauty bloggers

I am totally guilty of this, but then one day last year I stopped, thought about what I was saying and I really try not to repeat it at all. Sometimes, I really get excited about a certain product and at times like that, I want everyone to try it out and see for themselves how great it is. But – do you “need it”? Besides basic needs, like food, water,shelter and such – people don’t really “need” a lot.  And a new liquid lipstick is really, really low down the list.

4) “Don’t buy that”

beauty bloggers

The alternative to “you need this” is the “don’t buy it” sentence. Everyone comes with their own skin, tastes, needs and wants. If I don’t like something – better be sure I’ll be telling you about it. I will also tell you why I don’t like it. But if you think that this would be a good purchase for you, then go for it! I’m not the one that should be telling you not to do it. My opinion is my own and you have a good head on your shoulders to think for yourself. A certain shampoo may not be good for my ggreasy scalp, but will be great for your dry one. If I don’t enjoy the vanilla smell of a lipstick, then perhaps you’ll love it if you enjoy that fragrance. If you want to buy a product just because your favorite YouTuber uses it, you have every right to do so – and no beauty blogger should be telling you not to buy it.

5) Concealing facts

beauty bloggers

There are quite a few things that fit into this category but I’ll try to make things short. If the only thing a blogger has to say about a 50 € serum is that it smells nice and the bottle is pretty, I can’t shake the feeling that there is something missing, don’t you agree? Perhaps something that the blogger doesn’t want to talk about? I find this the exact same thing as lying about a product in general. The same goes for brand collaborations. Abroad, there are already laws for influencers and marking paid advertisements, but over here, everyone deals with it in his own way. In my blogs, you’ll always be able to tell if I bought the product, was sent the product or if it’s a paid post. I think that’s only fair to the readers.

Sure, all bloggers make mistakes, me included. We’re only people and I hope we learn something from these mistakes. But I think that our relationship with readers and followers should be fair and honest and following the rules above would help a lot! What’s your opinion on this topic? Until next time, stay beautiful!

*Photos were chosen randomly from archives and are not connected to the content in any way*

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

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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.
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Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp- gifts and goodies to try out!

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp presents

Yesterday, I wrote a long post about everything that happened at this year’s biggest beauty bloggers conference in Slovenia – Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp. You can find the post *here*. I already showed all the gifts on my Insta Live, but just in case you missed it, I wanted to do a post and show you everything I’ll be testing in the next couple of months. Some of these I will also put in future giveaways so keep your eyes open for those! The sponsors and gifts come in no particular order. Some of them have a promo code for you to use – I’ll include it in the description!

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #1 – L’Occitane

Terre de Lumiere L'Occitane Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

L’Occitane kindly gifted us their new Eau de Toilette Terre De Lumiere from their new Christmas line. I am not the biggest fan of the original Terre De Lumiere fragrance but this one is much more gentle and perfect for me. They also kindly printed out our photos on little magnets ~ now, I have a daily reminder of my blogger friends.

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #2 -Aikon Academy

Aikon Wrinkle Catcher 3 in 1 Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

Aikon Academy’s gift was the Aikon Wrinkle Catcher 3 in 1. I’m still unsure as to what this is, exactly, since the box claims it’s a daily moisturizer but it’s silicone based and contains retinol which is not something I associate with daily skincare. I’ll definitely report back on this one.

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #3 – Alterna Haircare & Olapley & Med in mleko hair salon

Caviar Anti Aging hair care Olaplex Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

I’m a sucker for good hair care products which is why I also visit a salon that uses Olaplex during the coloring procedures on my hair. We received a bunch of goodies from Alterna Caviar Anti-aging line in a cute little bag and the Olaplex #3 which is perfect for home use. We also get to try out the procedure with Olaplex #2 in Med and mleko hair salons which would probably be a post that would interest most of you – am I right about that?

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #4 –  Ars Florae Gardenia

Melvita breakfast Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

Ars Florae Gardenia made the whole conference special with these wonderful centerpieces and decoration of the halls. They’re my go-to florist, especially during the holidays, so I was super excited to learn about the current Christmas trends from the masters. I unfortunately forgot to collect my little plant, but as I lack the so called green thumb, I’m sure it will be better off with them. Nevertheless, thank you Gardenia!

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #5 – Afrodita Cosmetics

Afrodita Salt Scrub body souffle Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

Afrodita proudly took home the award for best Slovenian brand and I’m 100 % on board with that. They are stepping up the game with their Afrodita Professional skincare line to the point where I don’t need to look across borders for good skincare anymore. Anyway, they gifted us the new Salt Scrub and body souffle with argan oil and lavender essential oil and the new Nourish-Gold therapy body milk (I got to choose this one for myself). Very excited to try them all out since I loved the previous strawberry version of the body souffle and salt scrub!

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #6 – Avon

Avon hand cream nail polish Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

Avon included some of their bestsellers – the Planet Spa hand cream with shea butter, 7-1 nail polish (I need to research this a bit more) and a cool eyeshadow, perfect for the upcoming holiday season!

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #7 – Essence & Catrice

Essence Catrice Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

We actually received most of these before the conference from Essence & Catrice so we could be picture ready on the important day. I’m looking forward to trying out the Time to wake up sheet mask and I really love both the Chrome blush (Essence) and the matte lipstick (Catrice) which I actually really did wear on the day of the conference.

Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp sponsor #8 – Fidimed

Fidimed Beautyful Bloggers MeetUp

Fidimed hooked us up with a bunch of their nutritional supplements to make sure we stay healthy during the winter months. I’m especially looking forward to trying out the mulitQplatinum and I’ve had great experience with immunoGran. It really helps if you take one when you feel a cold catching on or (pro tip) if you’re hungover. Fidimed also prepared a code for you: between 10.11. and 30.11.2017 you can use the code sledKnSvB on their online page for 10 % off any product.

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5 things beauty bloggers do, and I don’t (but should?)

The title itself may suggest drama, but I promise you there will be no drama in this post. Throughout years of blogging, I’ve been noticing certain habits my fellow beauty bloggers have and I don’t – but perhaps I should? Let me know in the comments!

1. PHOTOS BEFORE USE!

blogging

On beauty blogs, I’ll often see photos of products that haven’t been touched along with a long, nice review of the products. I’m not suggesting that these reviews are fake in any way. I know that the bloggers take photos of the products once they buy or receive them and before they start using them. I admit that I don’t have the patience for that so my photos often look like the one above. Do you find this OK or should I take photos of products before I start using them?

2. IF IT’S NOT ON INSTAGRAM, IT DIDN’T HAPPEN

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I’ll occasionally share snippets of my personal life on Instagram Stories – a good pizza, a glass of wine, a captured moment with my boy or my dirty kitchen. But mostly, I keep the content beauty related. I see that my fellow colleagues try and capture as many moments as possible through their phone cameras – cooking, shopping, work activities, driving, watching a football game and so forth. I love looking at these and I wonder – would you like it if I did the same and took you along with me every day? 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.