My first bloggers event!

What a week! This is why I like writing on Sundays because I feel like it’s the summary post of the week and I always feel like I have lots to write about from the week. First of all I’ve passed my driving theory on Thursday (hence why there was no post on Wednesday; because I was revising for it) so I’m one step closer to having a driving licence and my dream car and remember if you’re about to take yours or you haven’t passed then it’s not the end of the world as it took me 3 times to pass! Then yesterday I’ve attended my first ever blogging event which I wanted to do for a long time as it’s an amazing opportunity to network and meet new people but if you are anything like me aka shy and awkward and the thought of meeting lots of new people scares you to death then it takes a lot of courage to do something like that but sometimes you just need to go for it and not think about it because the more you overthink going to an event the more reasons your mind will find why you shouldn’t go, that’s why going there was a very spontaneous decision and something way out of my comfort zone but you know what they say ‘great things never came from comfort zones’. Which lead me to purchasing a ticket a few days before and in between those days I was so busy with other things that I didn’t even have time to overthink it or get stressed about it but if you are attending an event for a first time or you’re nervous then just say it, because there’s a 99% chance that people will be sympathetic as everyone started from somewhere and everyone started off as the nervous first timer.

If I have learned anything from yesterday it would be that those girls with thousands and sometimes millions of followers on instagram are not superheroes and they don’t have a team of people working with them, most of the time they’re just really hard working ambitious girls; sometimes even working full-time jobs who want to be successful and that you’ll get further by supporting other bloggers/writers or generally other people in the industry as kindness never goes out of fashion and brands would much rather work with a blogger who’s friendly and approachable than stuck up.
I had the pleasure of not only listening to a talk by the lovely Luoana Negut (and also Nimi Blackwell) who talked about how to build your instagram feed to attract more engagement and attract more followers but I’ve also had a chat with her and she is the kindest and most humble girl, who shared some blogging advice with me and motivated me to keep going with building my blog and social media platforms! You should definitely check out her blog.

If you live in or near the city then I would definitely recommend for you to attend events like this as there’s literally thousands out there on the internet and the best place to look is Eventbrite. You will meet new people, expand your social media community, get advice and most probably get some amazing content for your blog or social media. If after reading this post you’ve decided that you would like to go to a bloggers event, then this is the next one I’m going to attend. As Mona says in the event description it will be a great opportunity to network and meet badass girls who share the same passion and ambition and you can keep in touch with and support each other because that’s one of the great things about the blogging community, we support each other instead of competing because there’s place for everyone.

London Fashion & Lifestyle Bloggers Network Launch Night

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Why should you never give up – Personal story

This post is going to be personal to me but I’m always honest with my readers because there’s no point pretending that I live a glamours blogger life or that I never felt like giving up, as one of the reasons why I started my blog was to encourage people to strive to live their best life and not give up on their dreams as everything is possible.

I know that you’ve probably heard many times before from people ‘oh don’t give up, it gets better’ but let’s face it when you’re down and the person who’s saying it life seems perfect and it can be hard to believe that they understand and I know this because I’ve been there, I used to think ‘what do you know your life is great’ and I didn’t really consider that maybe it wasn’t always great and they had to go through a lot to be where they are today. When we see successful people we forget that they are just like anyone else and that most of the time they started with nothing and the fact that they are successful is purely just because they didn’t give up no matter how hard life got, no matter how many times they failed they picked themselves up and tried again and the struggles they experienced got them to where they are today.

I remember a situation from last year when I was sitting at the bus stop after my shift at a job I didn’t like at 10pm, it was cold, it was dark, my phone was broken, my handbag was broken and I was broke. I felt like literally everyone in the world was doing better than me at that moment, I felt like things will never get better and that this is no way to live. To summarise I felt a lot of negative emotions and I was far from loving myself. I know that this might sound like a cliche but without experiencing that I certainly wouldn’t appreciate my current life situation like I do now. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, like for example if you don’t get a job you want it’s because there’s a better one waiting for you and it most cases it my life this came true. Each job that I had gave me experience and brought me closer to my dream job as there’s never a job that you can’t take anything from even if you think it’s the worst job in the worst. So if you’re right now at a job you hate or you think that nothing will ever change in your life then I’m sorry but you are wrong, and if you don’t know what you want to do in life yet then don’t worry you will figure it out. But remember don’t ever settle for a job you’re not passionate about, don’t ever stick around doing something you don’t believe in. Just do your thing and one day people will understand, as I was discouraged most of my life from doing what I want to do for various of reasons by various of people especially people close to me, but sometimes you just need to listen to your gut instead of listening to others as at the end of the day no one will live your life for you so do what you believe in even if no one else does.

 

Season Trend: Suede Jacket

This season’s must have is a suede jacket, you can see it on all celebrities and bloggers! I went for a grey one from Zara because I’m currently obsessing over the grey and pastel pink combination, although for this outfit I went with grey and white as I feel it’s the perfect spring combination and my last years boots are still in fashion.

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(jacket Zara sweater Miss Selfridge jeans Zara boots Public Desire bag LYDC)

Where can you buy a suede jacket:

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Zara £25.99

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New Look £39.99

light-grey-faux-suede-biker-zip-detail-jacket-00100013442Quiz £39.99

Liquid lipsticks – hit or miss?

I love liquid lipsticks but before I got my first one I had a hard time choosing which brand to go for because there’s so many brands out there offering a variety of choices. To make the choice easier for you I have tested out a few brands and will tell you my thoughts about NYX Cosmetics,Kylie Cosmetics and Anastasia Beverly Hills.

Let’s start with the one that is the best value for money aka NYX Lingerie; for only £6.50 you get an amazing liquid lipstick which doesn’t dry your lips and has an amazing formula nevertheless the con I personally experienced with it was that it dries off quite quickly especially if you’re eating and drinking you’re gonna experience that you need to reapply it every hour or so which can be a nuisance if you’re out somewhere. Furthermore the lingerie collection only consists of 12 shades, there is always the soft matte ones but to be honest I’m not a fan of those colours so I hope more colours of the Lingerie range become available in the UK soon! My verdict for that price is definitely a HIT.

Next up Kylie Cosmetics liquid lipsticks on which there is a lot of mixed opinions online. I personally love them and have nearly used up the two shades that I have which are Maliboo and Candy K which are the perfect shades of nude (Candy K is more of a pinkey nude). They smell lovely like a vanilla milkshake. The formula doesn’t dry your lips out and it stays on well but there is a big con especially for buyers from outside of the US as the price can be more than a little off putting when you consider the price of the product, the shipping and the custom charges. I am not sure if I would repurchase those again so this one will unfortunately have to be a MISS until Kylie starts stocking her products in the UK!

For anyone that knows me, knows that I am a big fan of Anastasia products and probably all of her products are on my wish list well maybe except for the liquid lipsticks yep you read it right. This liquid lipstick was a product I was really looking forward to using but to my disappointment, maybe my expectations were too high? The shade that I got was way too dark for me and my lips felt really dry straight away and topping it up was a big mistake as it made it start peeling off – not a nice look trust me. I really hope that they have improved their formula on the latest range of the liquid lipsticks that have come out. Sorry Anastasia but this one will have to be a MISS.

I hope you found this post useful and if you did please give it a like and share and don’t forget to follow my blog which is on the right hand side!

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What you need to know before starting a YouTube channel

YouTube the same as blogging takes a lot more than you think; it takes a lot of passion and consistency to make a success out of it. More and more people are interested in becoming a YouTuber but what does it actually mean and where do you start with it? It can be scary and overwhelming with all the different types of software programmes and different equipment that’s out there, especially if you don’t have any knowledge about it. That’s why I’ve asked the lovely Natalia (who you can find on instagram and YouTube duh) who is an full time Youtuber herself as well as an film student for some advice that I could share with you guys!

Her first very important piece of advice that applies to YouTube as well as blogging is ‘Make content that you would like to watch! Talk about the topics that YOU like and YOU find interesting and useful, don’t be so worried about what other people ‘might like’, tell your story the way you’d like to hear it, and edit your videos the way you’d like to watch it. Talk about the topics that you’re passionate about, and raise issues that you care about. I can guarantee you, most people in this world might not like you and that’s okay! Because there will always be that 1% that WILL enjoy what you’re making. Just be yourself and express what you feel and what you want, don’t pretend to be someone you’re not, people like authenticity.’

I couldn’t agree more, to gain an audience you need to be true to yourself as well as them and be authentic and never listen to people when they have negative things to say about what you’re doing as they might think it’s silly or pointless at first but when your hard work starts paying off they will start asking you how did you get there. For example if Zoella listened to what people had to say about what she was doing she wouldn’t be one of the best earning vloggers as well as the owner of her own brand that’s stocked in most retailers.

Natalia’s second piece of advice is ‘Be passionate about what you make. Don’t start a channel because its trendy, or you want money. Do it because you have a good message to spread, do it because you want to create a nice little community online and connect with people, do it because you want to contribute in a positive way to the world.’ and most importantly ‘Be prepared to put in the work. Many people think that it’s so easy to set up a camera, talk for 10 mins, edit for an hour, done. That is not the case. The process goes on for days and sometimes weeks! Ideas need to be refined, the research needs to be done. For a two minute video, you need to film for at least an hour and sometimes even up to a couple of days if there is a variety of shots! Then the editing will take at least a couple of hours, and don’t forget to make the thumbnail. You need to know what equipment to use, how to use it, how to edit, how to use different softwares (in my case, it’s all the Adobe Softwares. I use Premiere Pro and After Effects to edit videos, and Lightroom and Photoshop to make thumbnails and Instagram content). Be prepared to wake up early to catch good lighting, and stay up all night editing. I also see many people putting in the work for a week and then stopping because they don’t see any money. It will take months or even years to see growth, so don’t be discouraged and just keep grinding!’

Now if you haven’t been put off by all the hard work you need to put in then let’s talk about the sort of equipment you need to use! ‘All you need is a some sort of thing that you can record decently with and your audience can hear you properly. Although, don’t spend loads of money straight away on fancy cameras and equipment! I recorded my first video with a 2006 camcorder I found in the attic. Then I brought my first Canon 1200D Camera with money I got for my birthday. As years went by and I started pursuing filmmaking more seriously, I slowly began buying better equipment, starting with a ring light and a rode mic. If you carry on making videos, naturally your interest in equipment and cameras will grow, and you will want to learn all about new techniques, new options, lenses etc. just to make your videos better! I currently shoot with a Canon 80D and a 1.4 50mm lens.’

Like in every industry there are things that you shouldn’t do and Natalia has mentioned so of her no go’s!

DON’T: be money motivated. It will take a long time before you start seeing progress, let alone some coin! Don’t go into it thinking about money and business. I sometimes see people with 50 subscribers making merch, and there is nothing wrong with that if they’re doing it for the good of their subscribers, but you can notice very fast when someone is just in it for the money! You can see when they don’t enjoy making content, the audience picks it up imminently and doesn’t enjoy watching it! Don’t expect to be receiving tons of PR packages and free stuff. None of this happens straight away! (Especially with the new Youtube rules)

DON’T: Create or live off other people’s Youtube drama, and dragging others. For the past year, this has been something that’s been really bothering me about the platform; You see many small channels picking up drama that is trending, like whatever Logan Paul did on that day. That is a shortcut to gaining short-term attention. Your video might get 100K views but no one will care as soon as the drama is no longer relevant! And think about it, do you really want to become ‘successful’ riding on the back of other people’s success and spreading negativity to earn money? That is not a good long-term plan.

I hope you enjoyed reading it and if you did please like and share it and if you have any questions about starting your YouTube channel I’m sure Natalia will be more than happy to answer them. Make sure to check out her video below!