Life Update: Quarantine Beauty Routine

Hi all, I know it’s been a long time coming since I’ve last been on here but I’m here now! It’s been a crazy little bit for me. So before I start sharing my routine, I wanted to give you guys an update and explanation where I’ve been. I recently moved out to my own home and for the past little bit, I’ve been just decorating my new home along with stocking up/taking the precautious measures against COVID-19. I’m currently working from home but will be returning back to work next week (varying in what our Prime Minister says, later on, this week.) I hope you all are doing well and practicing social distancing. As we will need to for the next couple of months to suppress and minimize the spread of COVID-19. Many people were affected during this time of crisis, lots have lost their jobs, family members affected by the spread and etc, I just want you all to know, I’m sending you all love & positive vibes. I want us all to practice kindness and be considerate of our surroundings.

Now for many of us, we are likely working from home/stay at home because schools are closed. Some may be enjoying this time off, some may be really bored but regardless, I hope you’re all staying at home and avoiding going anywhere you don’t need to be. I’m not going to lie since I was away from the office, it kind of threw me off from my existing day by day schedule and forced me to create a new one. I came from having a very well structured week to not having any structure at all but I’ve been gradually implementing good little things into my life so I can live a better life such as working out, eating less junk and focusing/prioritizing house chores.

Here are 10 things I implemented in my life that have made this quarantine period a lot more chill and nice for me.

1. When stocking up for groceries, I like to buy 2 weeks of groceries in advance so that I’m not making a bunch of trips back and forth for small little things.
2. Meal plan, before even thinking about going to the grocery store, has an idea of what you want to eat for the week and write down your grocery list. Don’t shop blindly and take your time. Act like you have a limited time at the grocery store and go in and get your supplies and out as soon as possible. We are in a pandemic here, friends – now is NOT the time to dilly dag and take our sweet time. The less time you spend at any public place, you will minimize your exposure to COVID-19.
3. Sanitize everything and especially every time you return back from going out, sanitize your keys, wallet, credit cards and if you drive, your stirring wheel.
4. WASH YOUR HANDS, I feel like I’m in kindergarten again whenever I say this. I’ve been practicing good hygiene since I was very young because I grew up around germaphobes such as my mom. I find myself unconciously and obsessively washing my hands everything I handle so I need to apply hand cream. The hand cream that is heavy duty and that works best for my dry hands is the bioderma atoderm ultra repair hand cream. This hand cream works like no other and no, I was not sponsored to share this and I genuinely enjoy their products and I will continuously support them.
5. I love junk food and snacking but there comes to a time where things need to change. I did myself a favour and I stopped walking down in the snack aisle and I bought foods that would fill me up. If I felt snacky, I had vegetables I could grill, fry or bake myself. I’ve been avoiding anything frozen, packed because it’s not good for you and all that sodium is bound to affect your health whether now or later on in life. So I make my own comfort food and know exactly what I put in it. Take, or instance, I made myself some delicious Chiptole Lime Homefries and I also made a Pizza flavoured Homefries. They were way better than any packaged food I had.
6. I never hated working out, I was either too lazy to do it or I was not in the right environment. Gyms are closed, anything public is closed so enough is enough – I made myself a mini-workout studio at my own home. There is a whack load of workout routines you can do at home without needing weights so no excuses! Just make sure you don’t go too hard or eat/drank before your workout because you could throw up and hurt yourself and you don’t want that. Learn from my mistakes.
7. I stopped reading about COVID-19 articles and minimized the number of youtube videos I watched regarding this topic. Yes, we need to be aware of what’s going on the world but if it takes a toll in your overall mental space and you’re panicking about something you have limited/no control over, then don’t put yourself through that. Instead, practice social distancing, good hygiene and minimize the spread of COVID-19. Be kind to yourself and those that are around you. We all have family and loved ones we want to protect.
8. EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE FEAR MONGERING + SPREADING HATE. There’s a lot of racism, hate crimes and ignorant individuals out there that have very limited education on COVID-19 and what it is. Because it’s a novel virus, medical professionals are working closely to formulate a super vaccine to fight this virus and stop it from spreading in the future. In addition, because this is a novel virus, many people are panicking and scared so they act out in hate. I just want to be very, very clear that this virus is not caused by Chinese/China. It surprises me to hear this behaviour and what people have said so far. If we dive in history a little bit, there were so many plagues, viruses long before this. This is nature, people. Things like this happen. The Black Plague, Spanish Flu, HIV, Ebola, SARS were WAY BIGGER issues that were rarely even spoken about today and the fact there are people opening their mouths and rambling about how a certain race or country originated this virus is sickening. I don’t tolerate garbage behaviour and those who are uneducated and speak poorly of any race, I don’t spare a minute of my time and neither should you!
9. Find new hobbies and things to keep yourself occupied like painting, dancing, singing, anything you like! Step out from your comfort zone. It’s not like every day (before) where you can do these things in the comfort of your own home so do it now! Life is too short and we should keep ourselves occupied and uplifted.
10. Practising generosity is crucial during a time like this. If you or you know someone who has a surplus supply of products and supplies, please offer it to anyone who in need of these sorts of things. I have elderly neighbours who go grocery shopping once a week and I’ve offered to help them, not only because they’re elderly and at a huge risk but because things get harder when you’re older. You don’t process things as fast, vision and hearing can be limited – so I get it, I really do. I personally find offering help to others gives me such a warming and comforting feeling.

I hope this helped you all and sending you all love and good vibes during this time! We can get past this, just be sure to practice social distancing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Pet Peeves of Instagram Folks

Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well. I’m in the process of moving so I have not been quite inactive off my social media platforms and I plan to come back real soon. I wanted to open up a discussion today that could very much be controversial and have mixed responses to but here it is; As much as I love sharing my thoughts on products and sharing tips & tricks on how to make up or skincare, I wanted to shed some light on a topic that isn’t really discussed and perhaps maybe you’ll find some of this relatable to a certain extent.

*Disclaimer: By no means am I trying to offend anyone, these are my own opinions and thoughts on the platform and the stuff I’ve seen in the past couple of years that have been bothering me.

1. Follow for follow
   No offense but this method does not work and it ruins the whole purpose of you follow the content you genuinely care for. When I first joined Instagram, I followed back pretty much everyone who followed me then realized that a lot of these accounts don’t have anything I care for so I did a mass unfollow spree. Also, stop dm-ing people to follow you back because this is just embarrassing. No one needs to follow your page unless they really want to. IT IS WHAT IT IS! Also, hate to burst your bubble but if you had content that served, you would have gained those followers without needing to beg every single person to follow you. Truth be told, friends. PS: Nobody owes you a follow back, sorry.
2. Hashtags to counter the algorithm/gain attention
   Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. I’m sure the majority of people who use this think this is some life hack to gain likes and following but it’s seen as desperate and annoying. I actually check people’s hashtags to see how accurate and relevant they are to the photos and often, a lot of them are very spammy, copy and paste or just generic hashtags like L4L, Like for like, mass likes and etc.
3. INSPO-PLAGERISING
   I know we can’t trademark anything from our photos, captions, and hashtags but I have caught a handful of people literally copying element by element of other people’s work to “stand out” and be seen as creative. It’s ok to be inspired and share whatever you want to share but if you’re legitimately copying other people’s photos for the sake of likes, validation and follows, maybe social media isn’t for you.
4. Constant complaints about the algorithm
   As a fellow content creator, I know the struggles of growth here. Sometimes growth is slim and limited but that shouldn’t limit your creativity and ability to expand on your page. That being said, a lot of people who blame the algorithm for their lack of engagement are usually the ones who are simply in denial. YOU as a content creator have to understand and figure out whether your content is serving or not. YOU also need to be aware that if you don’t engage with others, your engagement will be low and stay that way. Maybe you need to change and switch up your feed’s style, write compelling captions, understand your audience + when to post and ensure you have relevant hashtags. There are many factors to posting on Instagram and how to get successful posts. You’re not guaranteed a successful post every time but the least you can do is try and be consistent whenever you can be.
5. Oversharing about personal details
   Sure, share about mental health and spread awareness. I’m talking about the ones who are going on social media and spilling out their problems – whether being addicts, in debt and family loss. Sorry to burst your bubble but a lot of people social media won’t know what to do with the information you’re sharing and a lot of them simply don’t care. If you’re not in the right mental health space you should be in, seek help from your family & peers. People online do not know you and those details should be private. The more strangers know people about you, it puts your life at risk.
6. No/Low Buy Movements
   No/low buys should be a lifestyle change and it should allow you to view things from a different perspective rather than a temporary ban. Like crash diets, these movements are not effective in the long run and only effective for the short term. Once the No Buy Cycle/Time ends, then most people are likely to return back to their old ways of shopping for unnecessary things – from hype, friend recommendations, impulse urges and etc. Regardless of the case, this puts you through a vicious cycle of “crash” movements. If you truly wanted to make a lifestyle change, you would do it without having the motives of getting a “reward” in the end.
7. Nudity/Soft Core Nude Images
   Yes, be proud of your body! Good for you that you’re comfortable in your own skin but I think it’s really important to be respectful of our surroundings because you as the individual do not own the platform, place or the world and you should be considerate of those who are around you. I personally am not offended by soft nude images but they can sometimes make me feel uncomfortable because of my views. We also need to keep in mind that these sorts of images can set an example for the younger generation and perhaps even children so please be considerate and mindful of what you post because you never know who is seeing it.
8. Excessive Use Of Vulgar Language
   Listen, I know it’s 2020 and there are children/teenagers who swear too but I think it’s also very important to again, be very cautious of what we post because, at the end of the day, it reflects us as a person. I don’t think it’s ever professional to cuss in general. Sure, I’ve seen people cuss here and there on their stories and captions but I’m talking about the ones who cuss all the time on their pages. I have trouble supporting these people because they often come off as negative and I really don’t need that energy anywhere near me nor will I allow it. There are plenty of words in the English language rather than resulting to using such vocabulary.
9. Just because it works for someone, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you
   I’ve seen a lot of people “sUdDeNlY” change their feeds to try to be relevant and become popular. There is no secret trick to a successful page, you’re going to have to invest a lot of time in it to allow it to grow and that means you will need to engage with people, be responsive to your comments and even messages and also be consistent with your content posting and content style. The moment you change your style, your existing followers who already followed you will notice the change and they may or may not want to continue to support that. Instead of trying to find tricks, you need to understand what YOU like and how you’re going to make it work on YOUR feed. Nobody has this answer but yourself.
10. Reposts, unless you’re a brand
    Brands repost content creators work to express their appreciation of their support to the brand and share exposure for the content creator to gain follows or interest on their page. I find reposting pages completely pointless and I find it even more disrespectful that they go ahead and repost your images without consent. Content creators spend a long time to put their pieces together, please be considerate and not repost for your selfish reasons. The content piece is not free for you to use because you can’t make your own.

 

 

 

PRODUCT FLOPS: CHAPTER 3

You win some, you lose some; what can you do right? It’s been a long while since I’ve done these and just so you know, I came across a lot of mediocre, fail products but I just didn’t really care enough to announce them until now. I think I have a good amount of products to share with you that just didn’t work out. Nothing against these brands, some things just don’t out as plan or work the way we want them to.

Glow Recipe Watermelon Sleeping Mask

I’ve tried time overtime to make this sleeping mask work for me, I really wanted to enjoy this. Don’t get me wrong, I love their other products such as their watermelon mist, pineapple-c serum, avocado sleeping mask, and blueberry cleanser but this, this was not a hit for me. No matter how thick or thin I applied this on my face, it would just pill on me. Whether I had skincare underneath or no skincare, I had the same issues. I’ve tried really hard to make this sleeping mask work for me and it just wouldn’t.

Etude House Double Lasting Serum Foundation

I used this foundation a handful of times and every time I was left disappointed. Not only it separated on my skin, but it also made my skin appear extremely oily. Somehow it clung onto dry patches and leaving a layer of grease on my skin, not sure what to think of this. Perhaps I got a dud, perhaps I didn’t shake it hard enough for the serum to mix well with the foundation. I know what dewy looks like and this ain’t it. Luckily, I got this from PR because I would have been annoyed spending 20 bucks on it and just have to throw it away. I ended up giving this to my friend and she said it works for her dry skin so yay.

Farmacy Honey Potion

You may have seen this on my Instagram feed a while ago and I liked it but maybe it was all placebo. Sure, it gave my skin that warming sensation but I didn’t really feel a significant difference when removing it off my skin. I think I just liked how it was warming and it didn’t irritate my skin. It’s quite overpriced if you ask me and I don’t think I should have gotten it in the first place. I should have gotten the smaller size and tried it prior to getting the medium size. I did like the packaging for its magnetic lid and spatula but other than that, there are better honey masks out there, such as the Naisture – honey honey mask and also the “I’m from – honey mask”.

RiRe Liquid Eyeshadow

This is a small Korean brand and I got one of their liquid shadows from a Joah box and let me tell you, it was the chunkiest glitter shadow I have ever seen in my life. It’s definitely not eye-safe and I don’t even know why these brand develops these glitter products without being mindful of the environment and also user’s health. I swatched a tiny bit of this on my hand and it instantly turned red without me putting any pressure during the application. Could you imagine if I put it on my lids? It would have been over for my eyelids. You want a good liquid shadow, try Peripera – they’re just as good as the Stila liquid shadows but a fraction of the cost.

It’s Skin Tiger Cica Calming Serum

It’s funny that I’m mentioning this because I had a huge obsession for It’s Skin products and the more I learned about the ingredients and the more I understood what works for my skin and what doesn’t. I have dehydrated skin issues so gel creams are not ideal for my skin type because they don’t serve that much purpose for me. During summer, I tend to use them the most but other seasons? no. This particular serum is a gel-based serum and it just does absolutely nothing for me. Sure, it might be a TINY bit hydrating but nothing more than that and it kind of just forms a film on top of my skin doing absolutely nothing. I think I’ve “graduated” from using It’s Skin skincare. I still enjoy their power 10 ampoules and hand creams but other than that, I don’t think they really interest me as much as they did when I was a lot younger. You know when you have certain phases in your life and you’re over it to move onto the next big thing? yeah, that’s how I feel about their products.

Colourpop Pretty Fresh Tinted Moisturizer

Why? This isn’t the worst product I’ve tried however that being said, why is so overhyped? I don’t understand why this is so hyped up. It’s a very underwhelming product, you won’t get that glow as promised. Also, it’s not that hydrating nor has tinted moisturizer coverage. It’s pretty full coverage for a tinted moisturizer and just doesn’t really match the name of it. I purchased this myself and I am a fan of Colourpop products but this one was probably not as good as a drugstore foundation and you guys who have followed me from time would know I don’t like drugstore foundations that much. I mean, I have a lot of product left so I’m contemplating to use it up or forward to someone who may like it.

I Dew Care Plush Party Lip Sleeping Mask

Their packaging is so stinking cute and I had so many hopes for this little guy. It burned my lips like no other, I was in shock because I was hoping it to be similar to maybe the Laneige lip sleeping mask but for a fraction of the cost. You know when a product burns your skin on the surface you feel it, right? This product penetrated into my lips and burned it on the inside. How is that even possible? Luckily I didn’t have an “allergic reaction” to this where it could have been swollen but I did, however, have that burning sensation and it was ongoing for a good hour before it went away. Concerning and a big nope for me, I’m SuRpRiSeD by the amount of “positive” reviews on Instagram about this specific product. Anyway, I did repurpose the container and I put some vaseline in it instead.

The Saem ICELAND Hydrating Toner

Oh man, where do I even start with this? The first thing you’ll notice is it’s the heavy fragrance the moment you open it. Not to mention it was very drying on the skin, it was far from hydrating. It also left an unnecessary strange slight tack to the skin, which I did not appreciate. I’m not sure why The Saem thinks it’s a brilliant idea to pour a bottle of perfume in their products. I said this once, I will say it again. Skincare doesn’t need to smell good, it just needs to work. It’s as easy as that but to some brands, they believe fragrances make a product more attractive. It might attract certain consumers but fragrance is a very irritating to the skin.

Glowhill (In General)

They gifted me their products and I was so excited to try their products when I first got the PR package. I want to share that just because a product looks pretty and cute, doesn’t mean it will work on your skin. I should have known these would bad news the moment I opened their peel-off masks. Peel-off masks are extremely harsh on the skin because think about it, it dries on top of your skin and you’re peeling it off and sometimes, it really hurts when you peel it off. Anyway, this was heavily fragranced as well so I don’t know why I thought it was a great idea to apply it all over my face. I left this mask on then peeled it off, my skin was very red afterward. No surprise here because peel-off + fragranced, those are two red flags right there. Another concerning thing, there’s glitter in these masks. Why is there glitter in skincare? At first, I was attracted to the concept but the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s not as great as it seems. Roughly 2 days after, I got a giant pimple on my forehead and I’m 99.9% sure this triggered that because I don’t break out that easily and I’m pretty blessed with clear skin for the most part. It’s usually irritating products and poor diet that triggers my breakouts.

That’s it for now, friends. I know there were a lot of products I shared today that may or may not work for you but keep in mind, no two skin types are alike with one another. Be mindful of what you buy and use and also check the ingredients.

Things We Are Leaving In 2019

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and I do not intend to offend anyone. These are my thoughts on things that need to be changed. You’re more than welcome to disagree with me and exit/read another blog post.

1. Fake/non-passionate Creators –  I said it, I’m sure many of you creators and non-creators know exactly what I’m talking about. This needs to really change in the beauty community, both youtube and Instagram. There has been an uprising of new accounts that are obviously here for the wrong reasons whether it’s for PR, recognition and etc. You can tell them apart from a genuine creator because they’re just NOT excited to create content and they’re constantly complaining how difficult it is to be a creator. When you’re truly passionate about something, you don’t complain about it. You enjoy it and continue to work hard. These “fake” creators ruin opportunities and take up campaign slots for those who genuinely want to work with the brands therefore they take up unnecessary room in the community.  Also, creators working with brands, please do not be afraid to voice your opinions. Your opinions help the brand improve its products and quality and if they cannot accept that, that’s not on you. It’s on them.
2. Tin-man highlight – Yep, I was one of those and to be quite frank with you – it was fun while it lasted. I really appreciate a glow but not like a striped shade of metallic on my cheek. I also am not a fan of nose highlight because it looks super obvious and you can fully see that there’s product there.
3. Mystery Boxes– Whether it’s beauty, misc products – these boxes are usually made up of products that brand cannot sell and they put it together saying it’s an x amount of dollars to hype it and make it appear worth getting. These are a complete gimmick and people are better off having a choice on what they get. Next.
4. Drama –  It’s 2020, people. I know it’s hard to avoid and it’s pretty much everywhere whether it’s online or in real life. Let’s try to keep things civil and chill, it’s not worth getting all worked up over rumours and having sleepless nights trying to think of the most epic, brutal comebacks. The calmer your life is, the happier it will be. I promise you this because I pretty much live this life.
5. Overpriced makeup/skincare – I’m sure some of us love luxury and I do too but Sephora is one of the biggest companies that are known to mark up prices. LANEIGE is a good example because you can find a lot of their products online whether – eBay, YesStyle, amazon, Jolse for a fraction of the price. Please shop smart and do your research prior to buying from anywhere because you can probably score a better deal and save a whack load of money. Check out my blog posts on how to save money | how to shop online

Thanks for dropping by, stay tuned for upcoming blog posts and more product reviews. Wishing you all a wonderful start to your 2020. Have a wonderful weekend, my loves!

 

[ROUTINE] Haircare + Lessons I learned (tips)

Hi friends, as many of you already know – I am very big on makeup and skincare however, I don’t seem to really care for my hair as much as I should. I was blessed to be born with very thick hair, that being said, I never really appreciated as much as I do recently because I notice I started to lose a lot of hair recently; which is normal because that comes with ageing and possibly because of stress. They say the average person loses between 50-100 strands of hair a day so don’t be alarmed if you see that many or approximately. I wanted to come on here and share with you some hair care tips and what has been working for me.

Brush your hair

I recently started to comb my hair more, I know this sounds ridiculous but I honestly never cared much for combing my hair. What combing does it separates your hair strands apart so they do not get tangled, evenly distribute your scalp’s natural oil to nourish the rest of your hair and the trick behind this is to be gentle as possible as you brush your hair. Do not brush your hair aggressively, you will do the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve and you find yourself damaging and breaking your hair by doing that. I really love using the wet brush, it’s fantastic for my coarse hair and gently brushes away tangles. These can be found at your local drugstores, beauty supplies stores and if you’re in a pinch and you got no time to go to those stores – amazon has them and it’s available for amazon prime as well.

Available here:  Amazon | Sally’s

 

 

Don’t overdo your hairdo, avoid using chemicals and don’t overwash

I am very low maintenance with my hair, I do not care to style it so this is never a problem for me really. When I do style it, it’s likely because I am going to attend a wedding or a party of some sort. Now, onto the unnecessary chemicals part – I don’t like to blow dry my hair, I usually just let it air dry so I don’t really use heat protectants. On very rare occasions, I will skip a day of washing my hair with shampoo simply because it’s very dry for scalp and I find myself losing a lot more hair when I constantly wash it every single day. The only time you will ever see me use dry shampoo is when I have to go out and look professional for work meetings. Overall, I don’t like the idea of using silica-based powder from an aerosol that can temporarily fix my hair because I don’t know exactly what the chemicals can really do to the hair for the long term. I stopped using batiste dry shampoo altogether and have been using the VERB on really rare occasions.

What has been working for me is I would do something called “co-wash”, this stands for conditioner-only wash and I would do this every other day so I’m not drying out my scalp too much by over washing it. Conditioners have a lot of nourishing, rich ingredients to keep the hair healthy and soft, it does contain a small percentage of surfactants to clean the hair. I would wash my hair with my VERB ghost shampoo and then the following day just use my Live Clean Conditioner and this has been working for me. Let me know if you have tried this and if whether it has worked for you as well.

Try not to tie up your hair too often

If you’re going to tie your hair up, try to use the hair ties without any of the metal piece and ones that stretch nicely without feeling too stiff. You don’t want your hair tie tugging your hair. If you tied your hair too tight, then try again but tie it looser. What I like to do is I use hair clips to hold my hair in place and that’s how I avoid from tieing it up. The hair clips I use are stylized ones but you’re more than welcome to use bobbi pins or plain design ones, they work just as well.

Say goodbye to tangles

For someone who has coarse, dense hair, I also struggle with very stubborn and annoying hair tangles. I recently found an amaaazzing product from Cohorted subscription box and they curated this box with a beautiful hair product called Color WOW dream coat. This hair treatment spray separates my hair strands and loosens them up making it comb through easily. I won’t like, I thought it looked quite gimmicky when I first looked at it but man, this is stuff I swear by to detangle my hair. I will be repurchasing this over and over again.

Available here: Amazon

 

Take your vitamins

These are words of wisdom! I see this as the adult version of telling adults to “eat their vegetables!”. I know this sounds ridiculous but you’d be surprised what happens to the body as we age, we think we’re invincible and aging+illness will never affect us. As we age, our health declines and our bodies are vitamin deficient. The vitamin I’ve been taking a lot to maintain my hair and nail health is biotin. You might have heard of it before but the biotin is fantastic for those who suffer from hair loss, thin hair and there are countless research shows that biotin can improve hair thickness, shine, and quality.

Available here: Amazon | Amazon – Gummies

Wear a hat

If it’s cold out and super windy, I really suggest you wear a hat. Your scalp will get extra dry. Now that it’s winter here in Canada, it is crucial to wear a hat when we’re going out anywhere. It doesn’t have to be a tuque, baseball hat, it can even be your jacket hood.

Well, that’s all, for now, folks, I hope you found this helpful or even some of it because these steps definitely were a game-changer in my hair care routine.

 

*Some links on this post are affiliate links. This means that I will earn a small commission if you purchase from these links.

 

 

[ANTI-HAUL] Vol. 4

Hi! I feel like I should do one of these each month because there’s always such a high volume of new products in the market being released pretty much every week.

Beauty Blenders – In General

 

There’s better out there for a fraction of the cost. Now, before you @ me, I’ve purchased a large sum of beauty blenders in my life and to be quite frank with you all – it’s nice but it’s quite ridiculous when you hear the keywords “$20, beauty sponge”. Like, why? Listen, if you love the beauty blender and have the budget for it – continue to buy them. I’ve tried a handful of great dupes from the Sephora collection ones (specifically the pink pear one), Miss A sponges and also a Canadian brand called QUO makes great sponges. I did not like real technique sponges and I find the quality has definitely gone down throughout the years. As for the Eco Tools sponges, they’re alright, they absorb quite a bit of product.

Farsali – Lip Mask

I’m sure most of you know this brand for its iconic jelly highlighters and primer serums. I would never purchase anything from this brand simply because they’re stuff looks extremely gimmicky, not to mention the number of influencers on Instagram doing some cringey looking makeup videos with it. I don’t find any of the ingredients beneficial to my skin’s needs let alone how expensive their products are. It’s a big no or me.

Tarte brushes – In general

I don’t get it, I’ve owned a few of their brush sets in the past and to be quite frank with you all, Aliexpress and Yesstyle have the same quality as theirs for a fraction of the cost. They’re really overpriced and often tacky looking. I mean, if you enjoy this kind of style- by all means, continue to get them. I just wanted to share that there are a lot more affordable options out there and you can buy them in bunches if you want. I own quite a few brushes from Aliexpress and Yesstyle and they work perfectly fine and I’ve had them for years.

Nude Palettes – In general

They’re boring and how many do you already have? The next time you see another nude palette release, look at your collection first to see if you already have something like it or similar. Dodge these palettes if you own so many because they can quickly become excessive and it’s hoarding. If you love nudes and you use them every single day then go for it. I’m a person who does not wear eye makeup and sometimes even foundation every day because I’ve become lazy and also comfortable with my own skin so I don’t really invest my time applying makeup as I use to. However, that being said, I always wear SPF because it’s important to.

 

Sulwhasoo – In General

I love luxurious products if they’re worth my money. There’s a lot of unnecessary filler ingredients and fragrance in their products and that really turns me off about their products. I’ve tried a handful of their samples and they all smell really strong for my preference. I do prefer my skincare to be fragrance-free, simple and affordable. There’s a lot of hype on this brand too so I was iffy to share this or not but I did and I’m glad I did because we all have our preferences in what we want in our products and these just don’t fall into what I look for in skincare.

Be sure to check out my previous blog post:

Anti Haul Vol. 3
How To: Shop Online Smart
How To: Save Money

Well, that’s for now, friends. Until next time! Save your money for products you really want rather than just falling into the hype.

 

[REAL TALK] Influencer survival guide and Genuine content/ product reviews

Hey friends, I wanted to start on a new series for my blog where we can discuss, rant and share our experiences with similar issues from topics that aren’t really discussed. I want to welcome both creators and also non-creators to join me on this topic.

Disclaimer: This post was made to open a discussion and allow people to whether influencer or not, see the ugly side to social media reviews and what to look out for.

Today’s topic, I will be shedding some light on product reviews. Whether it’s on youtube, Instagram, Makeupalley, Sephora or Influenster. There are billions of reviews on the internet, some are helpful… some, not so much. I specifically want to target Instagram reviews today. I personally don’t trust Instagram review for multiple factors.

• You may come across some brands have really close deadlines when you receive the product – leaving you with limited time to try out the product and have an opinion on it.
• Some influencers (big or small) are afraid of giving bad reviews about products simply because they want to be on the brand’s good books – this can be harmful to the community and also those who are just consumers because the information listed/review is inaccurate and not truthful.
• There are some influencers I have caught where they just misinform their audience, whether that was done or purposely or not, I am not aware of that. Brands sometimes make insane claims about their products and I think influencers should be responsible for what they choose to say for and about the product. It’s vital for influencers to do their research about the brand, ingredients, and products prior to posting. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts where people just copy and paste the product description of the brand’s website. This is irresponsible behavior and needs to change.
• Take everything you see through the internet with a grain of salt. Brands will sometimes as you to write POSITIVE reviews on Sephora. Shady, I know. This is why I usually check reviews on youtube or blogs because these are evergreen content, you can always access them and people are likely to the tell the truth when exposed in that sort of nature. I find a lot of people are more comfortable speaking freely on blogs rather than Instagram (there’s also no character limit).

My tips how to survive as an influencer at any size:

• Whether you’re big or small, stay humble and always stay true to yourself and create genuine content.
• Be serious about yourself and brand because no one will take you seriously if you most certainly don’t. Hold yourself accountable to things you post and say on social media and own it!
• Stay professional, I know it’s funny and some of us may think it’s “cool” to be vulgar on social media but at the end of the day, remember that you have an audience of all sorts of ages. Be respectful and thoughtful with the content you choose to share to your audience.
• Set up a schedule for everything you do. No, not an internal schedule in your brain. An actual one! One that you can refer to, whether’s it’s on your phone as an alarm clock or calendar.
• Ask yourself if whether you are here for the long term or short term and set some goals what you want to achieve and your end game goal. We often get sidetracked with ideas and what our peers are doing with their accounts. What do YOU want to do with your account? Think, plan and make it happen.
• If you dislike the products you’ve tried and feel “uncomfortable” to share your feedback, you don’t have to post it at all. What’s worse? Misinforming your followers and readers or being honest and critical? You decide. I personally will post it anyway because I know my negative/honest feedback will always help someone!
• Don’t be afraid of being honest. A lot of brands will understand and take your feedback, you could benefit others and also the brand by providing them your honest feedback and experience. And if a brand, dislikes your feedback simply because it wasn’t positive then forget them! At the end of the day, it looks bad on them because they don’t know how to handle criticism.
• You should with brands you enjoy and have experience with. Never settle for less and work with just any brand even if you feel bad rejecting.
• Never take things personally especially on social media. There are trolls, people who are unaware, brands that may reject your PR inquiry. Point being is, you need to understand that there are people that won’t see you eye to eye and you may face rejection. Brands will always welcome you try again later. Learn to take “no” as a positive answer and give yourself the opportunity to level up your content game.
• Never see rejection as a failure, always try and try harder every time. If you give up so easily, that means you never really wanted it and if you make excuses for yourself… one after another, that means you were never really passionate about it. You just wanted something to come to you easily and fast.
• Most of us already think our content is perfect or/ and does not need to change. Truth is, sometimes we need to welcome change and accept it so that we can see growth. How will you know if you don’t even try? 
• Be patient with yourself, experiment around, change your content and learn what works and what doesn’t. Step out from your comfort zone and try something new!
• Don’t buy things for the sake of the gram. It’s just silly. Do you see how silly that sounds even reading that? Check out my blog on decluttering and getting organized, where I discuss being more of a smart shopper.

 

I hope this helped you and if you’re curious to know more about this subject or want me to share something along on the lines to this topic, please feel free to suggest it in the comment section or DM me on Instagram. I love hearing from you all! I hope you all have a fantastic and blessed week.