Guys. It’s finally happening. I finally got off my butt and placed my first order at Glossier. Can I have my beauty blogging street cred back now? (Can you imagine if beauty blogging street cred was actually a thing?!) After a whirlwind of a weekend last week at the Chicago Planner Conference (watch the vlog if you haven’t the foggiest clue of what I’m talking about), I decided to treat myself to some new beauty bits. Glossier was my first stop followed quickly after by Sephora.
I have yet to really test out any of these products so expect more posts and reviews in the future!
At Glossier I kept things simple. I went for their Phase Twoset to test out three of their popular products while saving some extra cash by getting the bundle. I also picked up the Moisturizing Moon Mask after hearing The Anna Edit rave about it one too many times. Plus click here to save 10% off your Glossier order.
StriVectin also sent along their new Instant Wrinkle Blurring Primer. I’m getting the sense that they might start venturing into the makeup game. I love a lot of their skincare items so I can’t wait to give this an honest go.
My pal Aimee from Lilac Pineapple Co is a couponing wizard at the drugstore and gifted me a TON of new drugstore bits to try out. I made it one of my beauty goals of 2018 to get back into drugstore so I’m definitely well on my way with all of these products.
I think I’m most excited about checking out this Magnif’Eyes Shadow Palette by Rimmel. They are one of my favorite drugstore brands and this palette sure looks impressive in the packaging. Now to find out if they’re as great as the look…
My Sephora order contained just two items, one of which is a repurchase. I’m still only about half way on my Bumble and Bumble Sunday Shampoo but it’s such a favorite I made sure to get a backup. Plus it helped me get to free shipping which is always a must.
The First Aid Beauty Coconut Skin Smoothie Priming Moisturizer spurred the Sephora purchase in the first place. I got a small sample of this a few months back and recently started testing it out. It’s love. Heart-eyed emoji love. It’s even started to replace my beloved Stila One Step Correct as my primer before foundation. It’s just that good. More to come on this I’m sure.
So this girl has a lot of new products to slap on her face and report back. Let me know in the comments if there are any products in particular you want to see first!
Whenever I find myself falling slightly out of love with blogging (key word slightly. I can’t quit you blog!) I always like to think about what the last ten years have taught me. A blog is more than just its daily posts. There’s a whole lot more to it than that…
1. Consistency.I’ve talked about how this blog has landed me actual jobs in the past and that’s largely due to consistently posting. This blog has shown me that I’m not going to be an instant success overnight, but with a lot of hard work this space has truly become something.
2. Photography skills. Ironically enough I thought I was a pretty good photographer when I started this blog, but boy have I improved since then. With every post my skills have gotten better and better. Now I do freelance photography for other companies. All thanks to this piece of the internet.
3. Pride in my work. This goes along with the first point, but I’m so incredibly proud of Microscope Beauty. For the longest time I didn’t feel comfortable sharing this blog with people in real life, but now I talk about it to anyone who will listen.
4. It’s ok to be different and have a weird hobby. What used to make me uncomfortable about beauty and lifestyle blogging is now such a defining trait. I love that what I’m into isn’t super common or a popular hobby. And that’s ok.
5. You don’t have to spend tons of money on new products to be a good blogger. I’m fortunate enough to every now and again have the opportunity to review pr samples, but for the longest time this blog ran on literally no spare money for new products. Instead of giving up I found other things to blog about to fill the gaps when there weren’t new products. It helped me become a stronger writer, be able to brainstorm a bigger variety of posts, and improved my blog overall.
I’m pretty sure you all know now my complete and utter love for blogging. I sincerely think everyone should have one. So get to it!
Planning supplies are the first things to get out of hand in my household. It’s so easy to get swept up in washi, stickers, and countless planners one person could never use. So I try to keep my obsession corralled to one IKEA cart to make sure things don’t spread across the entire house.
I think it’s super important to have a designated area for supplies so you’re not only able to find things, but you don’t go overboard with things you probably won’t use. These carts come in a bunch of different colors and are sold practically everywhere now. They’re great because they can be pushed around from room to room, but are also portable enough to pop into a closet.
So in today’s video I’m giving you a walk-through of all the bits and bobs I keep jammed onto this cart on a regular basis. My traveler’s notebook supplies are kept elsewhere, so let me know if you want a tour of that stuff as well.
I’ve been talking about small business since I started Oh, Hello Stationery back in 2014. So I thought it time to gather all of the posts from the past four years into one post.
I’m a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel. Someone, somewhere has made something that can make your life easier. You just have to know where to look. This is definitely true when it comes to small business. Although I love social media, I don’t love spending a ton of time promoting my business when I should be running it. So here are some of my favorite apps and programs that make my business life a whole lot easier.
Later. This is definitely my favorite program to use to post on Instagram and Facebook. It has a super easy to use interface that allows you to add a bunch of photos, plug them into a calendar, and write up captions for them. Plus there is a feature where you can see a preview of how they’ll look in your profile feed. It doesn’t auto post for you, so you’ll have to download an app that notifies you when it’s time to post. It’s super easy to use and doesn’t feel like a burden to post. It’s free for 30 posts a month.
Planoly. This platform is strictly for Instagram and you have to pay to use it. It works just like Later does, but now has the capability to auto post for you (I have yet to check this feature out). Plus Planoly lets you respond to comments right in the browser. To me it’s the beefier version of Later and takes a bit more time getting used to and figuring out all the bells and whistles. Let me know in the comments if you want a more detailed walk through.
Tweetdeck. If you’re on the twitter train, Tweetdeck is super easy to use and allows you to run multiple accounts and follow different hashtags all at the same time. It’s owned by Twitter and and allows you to schedule tweets ahead of time.
Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a one stop shop for social media. It allows you to run a ton of social accounts in one place so you don’t need to have multiple programs for different platforms. You have to pay to use it, but you’re able to respond to comments and manage everything from one place. Definitely an option if you’ve stretched yourself a little to thin over a bunch of different accounts.
There are a ton of platforms and apps out there to help run social media smoother for your business, but these are the ones I’m most familiar with. If you’d like more specific walk-through’s on any of these platforms, leave a comment below and I’ll type up a more in-depth look.