In The Beginning

If you sang that as you read it, you’re good people in my book. Even if you didn’t get my reference to slow jams of the past, the message remains the same, it feels great to be back. I began blogging sometime around 2011/2012. My blog was birthed out of my rather intense compulsion to let it be known when I am displeased. Sure, that sounds a bit narcissistic, but it isn’t without altruistic purpose. My goal was to help consumers make informed decisions about the beauty products they may want to purchase.

2017 – Makeup skills on point

There was a time when the internet wasn’t absolutely  saturated with beauty bloggers and vloggers. There were two main sites that would always pop up when searching for reviews, the very informative, but always in the perfect lighting, Temptlaia and the, I can’t see anything you’ve put on your face, Musing of a Muse. Of course on youtube we had Michelle Phan. These were the big league pages as most of the Vloggers and Bloggers you may love today were just getting started or had not even begun. This left a bit of a void where consumers had to trust these chosen few or the advertiser. Let us also consider that advertisers don’t always give a clear idea of how a product will work. I don’t exactly mean the use of photoshop but also the skill involved.

2012 – Not so on point

The average consumer for beauty products at the drugstore isn’t your local MUA, she is your 13 year old neighbor just beginning to explore, the mom looking for some mascara to glam up her routine, or even the cash strapped college student in search of a new lip shade for her hot date. These are the average consumer, or at least were until the boom and rise of the beauty content creator. The skill involved to achieve the perfect glossy lip or chiseled contour sometimes takes years of practice and dedication. So, of course you won’t be able to achieve the perfection shown in print and video advertisements. You may be left in a haze of disappointment, but has the product actually failed you? Or have you failed the product?

Everyone Can Do It!

With the rise of the content creator also came the rise of the tutorial. Now, the fresh faced teen, the mom, and the student had eager creators ready to teach them all the skills they needed. The average consumer could now achieve, or try to achieve, the look of perfection that they were sold with the product. Purchasing would then become dictated more by what the influencers used and less about traditional advertisements. The beauty industry took notice and began to work directly with “Guru’s”, “Influencers”, and “Content Creators”  to advertise in a new and less traditional manner, hence the birth and rise of the creator.

Michelle Phan- The OG

Every girl could simply watch a few tutorials and start creating her own. After all, who doesn’t want to be internet famous? This was something I never really cared much about. Even before this emergence, I was blogging about how Covergirl Blast Flip Lipstick was a total flop and making little pictorials for products like Rimmel London Glam Eyes HD.  And while I watched the small vlogs and blogs I used to love grow into mega stars, my original blog never officially took off. I blame this partly for the low photo quality and partly for the fact that I hadn’t officially discovered tweezers. I had a mustache and Helga brow in every picture that involved my face. I never took myself or blogging too seriously… until I discovered the joy of vlogging.

I officially began my youtube around 2008 as a comedy page that mostly featured my friends and our wacky adventures. Around the end of 2012, with some urging from my followers, I began to vlog officially. With zero equipment and editing software paired with my shy nature, the quality is exactly what you would expect. Surprisingly these first videos have amassed more views than anything else I have ever vlogged about. I like to think that’s because people love watching a train wreck.

I signed up for instagram around the end of 2012 and to be honest I didn’t understand its purpose nor did I find it relevant. It was like hipster Twitter for pictures. How much does one Hipster weigh? One Insta-gram. Ha! In hindsight the hipsters were on to something major. Instagram had become my main platform and allowed me to share mini informative reviews and swatches and YouTube allowed me to go in depth about product performance. I had all but abandoned my blog until my first official NYFW invite arrived in my email. My blog was about to completely transform.

Is It Washable?

I haven’t always loved fashion. Growing up Plus Size, even in New York City – the capital of fashion, there weren’t many options. My grandmother would take me to stores like Lane Bryant and The Avenue sometimes even The Gap. I wanted to wear rebellious cyber goth clothing and live in hot topic however, even if I did desire a more mainstream look, plain T shirts, Jeans, and hoodies were about as stylish as I was able to get due to limited options. It was a bit demoralizing.

If you’ve never been a plus size, teen girl, shopping at the mall with her thinner friends, then you don’t know the struggle of the sock and jewelry corner. For the plus size teen of the 90’s and early 2000’s, mall shopping meant hopping from store to store only to be able to fit the accessories, while your piers flip through endless isles of the newest styles. Occasionally, there would be a store with a plus size section. This section was often hidden in the back and require a walk of shame to reach it. This is where fashion goes to die. Shapeless, plain, and trend devoid. The mantra used to be, if you are plus size, you don’t want to show off.

Mixing Patterns – Plus size girls can do it too.

Clothing options for the plus size woman have vastly improved in last 20 years, but with every step forward there have been some serious steps back. I addressed this often in my prior blog. It became a main focus of mine to address issues and also show off style for plus size options. I focused on a plus size trends like the “Fatkini”,  clothing that was labeled un-washable, and finally I merged fashion with beauty. ‘

Starting Anew

This is where my prior blog concluded and it is where I want to pick up. This blog will serve as a supplemental source of information on all that is fashion and beauty. In depth reviews on beauty and fashion, and even NYFW coverage will be found here! I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you all, and thank you for coming on this new adventure with me!