Have you Been Influenced by a Beauty Influencer?
Hello Ladies,
I will admit, I am influenced by my favorite beauty influencers in the industry. I follow a lot of inspiring, down to earth girls who don't take life to seriously and just seem to be genuine hard working girl bosses. Which I think are good role models to follow in a 'fake world'. Girl bosses like Zoe Sugg, Aimme Connolly and Terrie Mcvoy are some of many that I'm going to mention in today's post, as these ladies have introduced me to products that I now use and love, and have been for that past 2-3 months now. Following these amazing women over the years, and watching the industry advertisement regulations change (to #Ad #Gifted #Sponsored) and how the influencers themselves changed and alter to fit the new advertising requirements, I now have only a few favorites that I believe to be genuine and true to what they say. Now I’m not calling out any one, everyone needs to make an income at the end of the day but as a follower, and to buy in to your favorite influencers recommendations, you need to have confidence that you are getting a genuine recommendation and doing your own research on the product that the influencer has introduced you to before making the decision to buy. I think we can all agree on that?
Unless your an impulse buyer and will just try & buy it all, which Hun?, if you wanna do that, you do that, treat yo'self!
Do you get sucked into that cute Instagram advert with the famous line 'Its want everyone is using right now'? Do you end up watching your favorite beauty guru and use their discount code? Do you see the same product or service advertisement on Instagram then again on Facebook, then your favorite YouTuber is talking about it too? Well my answer is yes, I got sucked in. So I did my research, checked for hidden costs, or tail tales and entered the paypal deets.
Isn't it funny how advertising works now? Its like our phones are listening to us, which is a little bit scary, but at least as a consumer we know exactly what we are getting and is now quicker and easier to find. So here are some things that I bought about 2-3 months ago, and have been using every day or week since.
Function of beauty - Customized Hair Shampoo & Conditioner
I first seen this as an advert on Facebook, then on a vlog on Zoe Suggs YouTube channel (aka Zoella) she mentioned it while getting ready for her day. So automatically all the adverts appeared on my Instagram and Facebook feed with all the discount codes. So I looked into it, did my research, its comes from the US, vegan & cruelty free, it is a subscription based product but you can cancel at any time or you can buy a once off too. It looked great, I got interested in the whole concept, loved the idea that a shampoo and conditioner was customized to my needs and all for a decent price which isn't not too expensive. I did the little hair quiz, entered my hair goals, the fragrance, the color and even how often I wanted it sent out to me. Plus the 20% off discount code from Facebook. Sounds great right?
I was so excited to get this delivered to me, it took 2-3 weeks to come which I thought was quick since its customized to your order and comes from New York, USA. The packaging was so cute, comes with a info leaflet, stickers to put on the bottles, two pumps for each bottle (which I much prefer than a squeeze tube) and even my name was on the bottle too, which I thought was a cute touch. The smell was amazing, I chose a cherry fragrance, which smelt so good, us blondes don't get much of a choice when it comes to a purple shampoo, because added fragrance means less color protection ingredients, so I was a bit skeptical about that, but one of my hair goals was to reduce brassiness. So I was interested to see if it worked for that particular hair goal, but other than that I couldn't wait to start using this and seeing my hair goals come to life.
Well its almost three months later, and my hair has met the five goals! My brassy blonde, straw like hair that was breaking at points, is now stronger, smoother, shiny and with no more brassy tones. My hair still smells of cherry's, and has grown so much healthier and faster in the last three months. I'm in love with this shampoo & conditioner, I have even changed up my hair goals for my next subscription which is due to arrive in September. I've changed three hair goals, the color of the conditioner and the fragrance to peach. I'm delighted with this purchase and so impressed with the service and results. You can see the difference in my hair on my Instagram, showing you my hair condition before and two months later. I feel like one of those adverts now? ha ha!
Aimee Connolly - Beauty Base
Aimee is a known Irish make up artist who has recently set up her own business of varies make up courses, and even her own beauty line called, Sculpted by Aimee Connolly. Mam is even a big fan of her and her products!! When she brought out the beauty base I was skeptical, as it promised to be a all in one item, which does sound appealing I know, but there is always a but with these type of products, right? So after the hype calmed down and settled I researched the product as I was ruining out of my own skincare and debating whether to invest into a different brand, but the world of skincare has changed so much in the last year, with new skincare terms, scientific words were spoken across the beauty industry. Which is like learning a different language? So I kept putting off the search for a new skincare product until I become a skin nerd, and understood whats what, but I did notice that the term 'Hyaluronic Acid' kept coming up, and I knew that I needed to get a SPF 30 or 40 for my face for protection in the summer months.
So when I did my research on the Beauty Base, it includes Hyaluronic acid which keeps skin hydrated, an SPF30, Peptides to condition the skin and also gives a golden glow. So came across it in a local pharmacy, bought it and yes, BOOM, I love it and have been using it every day since, which is about a month now. My skin before was a combination of dry to oily, with the normal hormonal breakouts. But since using the Beauty Base, my skin feels smooth and hydrated, doesn't feel tight after cleansing/washing face. My breakouts have reduced extremely, the skin texture has improved plus I have a dewy glow when I don't wear make up. When I do wear make up it acts like a primer keeping the make up in place, gives my skin that 'face-tuned smoothness' while keeping it hydrated. Even my mam loves this too, which shows it works for all ages and I'm sure for all skin types too. I will probably still invest in a skincare brand as we come into he winter months, and my skins needs will change, but I'll definitely still be using this product.
Black Magic vs Bahama Body tanning mousse
If you follow me on Instagram, you would know I upload my tanning regime onto my stories quite often as I love transforming from a pastey girl to a golden goddess. I just feel so much better with tan on, my make up matches the color of my body and just look so much fresher & healthier. Who's with me? everything looks nicer with tan, even your nails looks nicer too in my opinion. But as I'm so naturally pale I'm picky when it comes to tanning products, I don't like anything too dark or anything with warm or orange base, as I just wanna look healthy and not a pasty blue shade. So Black magic was introduced to the salon where I work, with a known beauty influencer as the brand ambassador, soon to be Mrs, Terrie McVoy, who lived in Australia but did do a lot of work with Irish based companies. When I saw her I was like that's it, that's the color I want to be, I want that natural Australian glow but in a bottle. So I was hooked on the Black Magic Dark mousse tan, loved the color it gave. I even bought the facial tanner and buffing brush because my skin was getting better with the beauty base and felt more comfortable leaving the house without any foundation on. But as the weeks went by, my skin was getting dehydrated with the warm weather, I was showering more often so the tan was fading a lot quicker, my skin became dry because I was trying to rub off patches of tan, to redo the tan. It was getting annoying because I love the color it gives, and its hard to find that olive natural shade of tan.
So after using this tan for about two years now, it was hard to change but Terrie recently brought out her own tan with a beauty brand that we all know, SOSUE by Susanne Jackson, called Bahama Body. Which got my attention, but as I'm not a fan of Dripping Gold which is another tanning product from SOSUE by SJ, its a quite warm based tan which doesn't suit me. I wasn't to sure if the Bahama Body was going to be the same, but surprisingly it wasn't. It gives a olive natural color in three different shades, I bought the dark shade, its a mousse with added hydrating ingredients like Vitamin E, Goji berry & kiwi. When I applied it first it smelt like Shea butter, and also felt like I was apply Shea butter too. Its applies very light on the skin but after 3 hours it starts getting darker, there isn't much 'wash off excess', and lasts for the week, fades out very natural, and yes the color is nice too. So I was happy that I could trust a beauty influencer that went from one brand to the next, and still have confidence in her recommendations.
Now there’s still a few more things I have got my eye on for the coming months as we change back into a winter regime. (I can’t believe how quick this summer has gone). I’m currently in the in the research stages for a skincare brand and a new make up palette, which if you liked reading this kind of review based post, I can do more of them, Maybe a winter themed one as this was based around summer.
It’s great having beauty influencers on the end of our phones to show us how a product works before we buy it? I remember before blogging, and beauty guru's became a thing we would buy everything to try it out, with no product knowledge, what so ever and most of it didn't work? Remember that draw in the bathroom that was filled with unused products? The amount of money that was in that draw? So it’s great having easy access to product information, genuine recommendations, video evidence of the product working and having confidence to invest in something you haven’t tried before.
Any of my recommendations are genuine and true, If I do like a product I will talk, post & boast about it, because I'v used the product for some time, seen the first impressions to the end results and still use it after some time has past. Which is a winner in my eyes?! If I don’t like a product or service I just don’t talk about it at all, I would rather say nothing and say something negative, because at the end of the day that product or service is someone’s hard work and baby, and just because It didn’t meet my needs it doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else. So I encourage you to do your own research first, to see if a product meet yours needs. I have really enjoyed writing this blog post, I know it's been a minute since I have posted, but I back on the blogging wagon again. I have a Life update blog post coming soon, so I'll fill you all in then.
Talk soon,
Love Steff
