MAY BEAUTY BLOGGER

 

The beauty blogger for May is Karen from Balmain Beauty! Karen is one of my blogging inspirations and I was very honoured to be able to ask her a few questions about makeup, fashion and tips for beginners so keep reading to find out more about her and her blog!

What inspired you to begin beauty blogging?

I'd been reading quite a lot of blogs earlier last year and had dabbled a little bit on wordpress in 2010, but I guess it was the wrong platform at the time, everyone was using blogger and I didn't have many reader's or know how to get readers etc then along came twitter (for me) so I created a blogger account "aussiegirlblogs" and it went from there. As a side to this, when I was a teen I wanted to be a Journalist and I actually studied freelance journalism. My tutor was Simon Townsend, the Simon Townsend from Simon Townsend's Wonder World, which used to be on Channel 10 in the afternoon's many moons ago. Jonathan Coleman got his lucky break being a reporter on the show too, but then I met someone and I found I didn't have much time (with a very busy fulltime job), friends and a wedding to plan and also a move ,so I ended up leaving my course without graduating but I've always wanted to publish my own work and I've been online since 1994 so I like working for myself on something I enjoy and I'm gaining confidence each day! I really should enrol as a mature age student and get my degree.

How would you describe the clothes you wear?

Since I've seriously started blogging (around April/May 2011) my style has changed. I love jeans. I could wear them all the time but I also like pretty tops, tunics and blouses. I'd say I go for comfy casual clothes with maybe a pop of colour eg a belt, bangles, necklace, a splash of colour in a print design or something like that (my fave colour is pink) but I'm really enjoying pastels and the neon trends and I think clothes are an expression of your personality so I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone eg. the jeans and go for tailored trousers and maxi dresses and skirts in colours I wouldn't normally wear. I'd say comfy casual - towards smart casual is my style!

How would you describe your makeup style?

My makeup style is minimal. I can get away with not wearing foundation outside the house to the local shops but if I go to town I have to be wearing foundation, blush, lipstick. I don't go for the heavily made-up look. I like natural with maybe a hint of colour to even up my skintone. I don't go for super heavy bronzer and I don't wear eyeliner because I don't know how to do it without looking stupid plus I have small eyes and the eyeliner makes them look even smaller, but now I have brunette hair (thanks to inspiration from dannylynnforever) another Australian girl I subscribe to on YouTube, so I'm thinking maybe a brown eyeliner might bring out the blue of my eyes more so I'm currently experimenting with liner's.

When your not blogging, what do you enjoy doing with your time?

When I'm not blogging and I'm in a town (and not in the sticks where I am now for a few more month's) I enjoy going out to the movies, dinner, shopping, the beach, friends bbqs etc. I've recently become a shopaholic on ASOS.com and a mad pinning queen on Pinterest. I might spend two hours+ a day on twitter, Facebook, pinterest and checking email. I also have an iPhone4s which I'm joined at the hip with, it's the last thing I check in bed before turning out the light and the first thing I pickup when I wake. I can't imagine a world without my smartphone and a working internet connection! I'm a very social but shy person but I like to go out for walks and when I lived in the UK I lived by an Estuary which has a gorgeous wood with wild rabbits, badger's, hedgehogs, water foul and squirrel's in it. I love nature and animal's so I love being outdoors taking photographs, which is another hobby of mine.

Do you have any beauty products you couldn't live without and why?

If I could only have 3 beauty products they would be a foundation, a concealer and a lipstick/lipbalm eg. a Revlon lip butter. I could use the lipstick as a hint of blush and eyeshadow. I can't live without those 3 things! I'm not confident enough with flawless skin to go makeup free. If you were to ask if I was a nail, foundation, mascara or  a blush girl, I'd have to admit that  I have more blushers than mascara, eyeshadows and foundations. Blush is my No 1 beauty product. I'm still on the lookout for the perfect blush, not too colourful/bright and not too glittery!

Do you have any tips for young girls just starting out blogging?

I'm by no means an expert blogger, but I think if you be yourself and write about what you enjoy, the reader's will follow but it takes time, be patient. I would suggest that you buy the products yourself and state this and also when starting out don't contact brands asking for freebies because you'll get upset if they say no. Lots of blogger's think getting freebies is a way of getting reader's and it's not. Most brands or PR companies still don't send me things even if I ask and I've been doing this for 13 months (apparently I don't have a big enough readership to qualify) so instead of getting upset that you don't get free products to try and blog about, set yourself a limit to spend per month to buy new things that you will use yourself, no point buying a red nail polish or a shocking pink lipstick if you hate red nail polish and pink lipstick isn't your thing. I'd also suggest thoroughly testing a product before writing about it, a test of 1-5 days really isn't enough I'd say 7 to 12 days minimum. I would also not reply to nasty comments, just ignore them, remove them or keep them there but you need to have a thick skin and if your a sensitive person prone to getting upset by strangers slagging you off then blogging's not for you. Take baby steps, start small and grow your readership. The basics you need are a blogging platform like blogger or WordPress, a twitter or Facebook account (to post your links there as well) and you don't need to have competitions all the time, save those for when you get your first 500 readers or 1,000 or so. I've found small blogs with a small readership think they can get more readers to stay once the competition is finished but the reality is once the competition is over and they don't really read your blog they either ignore your future posts or unsubscribe ,so space out your competitions, listen to feedback, don't respond to the haters, try to reply to the genuine questions about a product and make sure you list in the description the price, the shade name, the brand, where you bought it from and a list of other places its for sale and include links to those products so people can click on them and find it straight away. If your lucky enough that your blog is an instant success then start contacting PR companies and brand's but the reality is PR companies and brands are being rather conservative and they won't send freebies your way unless your an Elle or Blair Fowler, a Fleur de Force, a Miss Glamorazzi or have hundred's of thousands of YouTube subscriber's, blog subscribers etc. Blogging isn't a way to make money when you start off, you have to be patient and passionate about it and good things will start coming your way. Also don't be too harsh about a failed product as it may put you on a PR,brand blacklist just be honest about why, it may work better for someone else but maybe it didn't work well because you didn't use a primer or you have oily skin or something like that, state that and then list the good thing about it, don't focus on the negatives of a product but don't omit them.

You can catch up with Karen on her website, Twitter, YouTube, Pintrest, Instagram or Facebook.

Thanks again to Karen for being my May Beauty Blogger!