When I started blogging all I thought I needed was a computer and a dream. After a few weeks, I realized I needed a bit more than that to really make my blog look professional.
I honestly wasn’t prepared for all of the tools I would need or even the cost that is associated with some of them. Through trial and error, I figured out what tools work best for me and make running my beauty blog so much easier. I’ve also been able to determine which ones I absolutely needed and those I could hold on to for a while till I saved up to purchase them.
I’ve compiled a list of my top 15 tools for beauty blogging. Some of these tools can be found online. Others are free and a few may be ones that you already have.
We’ve all probably had that moment of panic after we combed our hair and happened to glance down and saw more hair than normal scattered across the bathroom floor. It looked like a lot of hair. So much hair we started looking in the mirror to see if any hair was left on our head.
When I’ve had those moments I’ve had to bring myself back from the brink of panic and reassess the situation. Anyone with hair on their head sheds anywhere from 50-100 strands a day. For some people, normal shedding may even be a little bit more.
So seeing hair on the floor isn’t always a need to panic. It could just be a normal shedding cycle. I know when I go a few days without styling my hair I tend to see more shed hair because some of it was trapped in the style.
In instances where the shedding does seem to be more than normal, especially on a consistent basis it may be time to start taking action.
As a blogger and a content creator, I’m always interested and looking for tools that can help make all of my blogging tasks easier and in some cases faster. Especially when it comes to social media.
I’m not a huge fan of social media but I realize as a blogger it’s a necessary evil to promote my blog and interact with my followers. Half of the battle is deciding what content to post and the other half is creating the content.
When
I started my healthy relaxed hair journey I was clueless. I had started reading some hair blogs and watched a few videos but I really didn’t know anything about hair care outside of you need to wash and condition your hair. I also didn’t know anything about my hair even though I’d been caring for my own hair for well over 10 years.
I’m still amazed that I was doing the bare minimum with my hair, and in some cases not even that, and still had hair on my head. I didn’t use moisturizing products. In fact, I really didn’t moisturize my hair at all. I also did little to no protective styling and used a lot of heat on my hair. This resulted in thinning ends from hair breakage.
After a couple of years of the breakage, I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and needed to find out what I could do to get my hair healthy again. Thus began my healthy hair journey.
In my post
How To Start A Beauty Blog That Stands Out I shared six tips for how to get a beauty blog started. Starting and launching a blog may seem like the hard part about being a blogger but it’s really not. For me, that was the easy part. One of the hardest parts for me was getting readers to and interested in my blog.
I think that’s something several beauty bloggers struggle with. For a special few it’s been easy to grow a following. For the rest of us, we have to work a little bit harder at promoting our beauty blog.
When it comes to promoting your beauty blog how do you do it? What are the best ways or best places to promote your blog? There’s no one answer or one-size-fits-all. What worked for me may not work for you.
Have you ever had a morning when you woke up, went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and saw a pimple had started to erupt on your face?
I have those mornings every now and again and it’s always on the days when I don’t have a lot of time to get ready and out of the house. Those are the days when I reach for an at-home or DIY pimple treatment.
When I started my blog I really didn’t set out to become a beauty blogger. In fact, I really didn’t know much about beauty bloggers, what they did, or especially how to be one.
The more I blog and delve into the world of blogging the more and more aware I am of what it takes to grow and maintain a beauty blog. Especially one that has an engaged following. Honestly the same could be said of just about any type of blog but I feel that beauty lovers have so many options to choose from when it comes to beauty - there are Bloggers, Vloggers, and Instagrammers.
So how do you start a beauty blog that can stand out from the crowd?
When it comes to using heat on my relaxed hair I try to use as little as possible. That’s probably why I’m not even sure if my flat iron works anymore. In the instances I do use heat I make sure to use a heat protectant and take certain steps to
minimize the damage from the heat.
When I’m halfway through my typical 12-week relaxer stretch I start using a blow dryer on my hair to help blow out my hair to give it a smooth look. This means that once a week for about six weeks I’m using heat on my hair. Cue the cringe.
I’ve been on my healthy relaxed hair journey for a little over four years now. And over that time I’ve had several successes and some setbacks. I’ve also learned a lot about my hair and what it likes.
I have to laugh as I look back at some of my
old wash day posts. I was using so many hair products trying to get my hair healthy again and trying to find the products that would work best for my hair.
I love shopping at Ulta. It’s one of my favorite stores. I love walking down the makeup aisles to see what’s new in high-end and drugstore beauty. I also love that just a few steps away I can also shop for hair care products.
Ulta is the beauty store where I can find something that fits my budget. I’ve tried many different products either purchasing them (and maybe returning them when they didn’t work) or just trying them out in the store to determine what works and doesn’t work for my oily skin.
Whenever I see a Sephora I get the urge to walk in. Even if I don’t have anything that I need to buy or can afford to buy. In fact, when my mom and I were vacationing in Vancouver we saw there was a Sephora near our hotel so we decided to pay it a visit.
Now, while I’m a fan of Sephora I do wish they had more sales throughout the year. Makeup and skincare can be expensive. I only have so much discretionary income that I can spend before I have to start skipping visiting my family or meals. So when Sephora has a sale, I start putting together a list of things I’d like to buy.
Since I decided to start wearing liquid foundation I started scouring the drugstore makeup aisles and making multiple trips to Sephora and Ulta. I wanted to find a medium to full coverage foundation that wouldn’t irritate my acne-prone skin and could stand up to my oily skin.
This brought me to the Neutrogena SkinClearing Oil-free Foundation. Now Neutrogena wasn’t my first choice or even in my consideration set. Not because of the foundation formula but because of their limited shade range.
Neutrogena was known for only having foundation and powder shades for lighter complexions. And while I’m not on the deep deep part of the shade range I’m nowhere near the light side either.
Imagine this. You’ve come home from a long and want to take a nap or go to bed. But you’re too exhausted to take off your makeup. Should you
- A - go ahead and follow your skin cleaning routine or
- B - leave your makeup on and wash it off in the morning
It’s no secret that I’m a gal with oily skin that sometimes acts like combination skin. So throughout the day, my t-zone gets slick and shiny. This can make wearing foundation for more than a few hours a bit challenging.
I would sometimes go into the bathroom after being at work for hours, look in the mirror, and notice my face looking like it had a layer of oil on it. So I’d have to blot or apply some facial powder. I’ve even had issues with my pores being extremely visible and my foundation disappearing from my face throughout the day.
As you can imagine it was embarrassing but I thought it was just something I had to live with because of my oily skin. As I’ve gotten older it got worse and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
Probably one of the things I dread the most is trying to find a foundation shade that works for my skin tone. There are so many things to keep in mind when finding a foundation shade.
Now while new technology has been created to help us more easily shade match our foundation the technology is only helpful if the brand has a full range of shades.
If you’re a woman of color until recently it was a daily struggle to find shades on the darker end of the spectrum. Because of that struggle, there were so many drugstore makeup brands that I completely dismissed.
Now because of higher-end brands like Fenty Beauty launching dozens and dozens of foundation shades that cover a wide color spectrum drugstore brands have woken up and realized they were missing out.
What good is a blog if no one reads it?
You created a blog to share your point of view or help others. But if no one is reading your blog then you’re not achieving your goal.
So how do you introduce your blog to people who would be interested and entice them to visit it? Well, there are multiple ways you can promote your blog. SEO is probably one of the best ways. And I’m not talking SEO with Google or Bing. I’m talking about Pinterest SEO.
Yes. if you haven’t heard Pinterest is no longer a social site like people thought when it first launched. It is a visual search engine. It’s a place where millions of people go to search for inspiration, tutorials, and to learn about new products which makes it a great place to get your blog content in front of your perfect audience.
I admit, I procrastinated. I thought starting and managing an email list would be way too much work with very little gain.
Boy, was I wrong!
Now confession time, I’ve been a little lax of late when it comes to managing my list but despite that, I will see the value in having one for your blog.
When summer rolls around we tend to spend more time outside and get to be more active. While that can be great for our bodies and health overall, it’s not always good for the health of our hair.
The sun, wind, sand, and water are your hair’s worst enemy. They all can cause short-term and even long-term damage to your hair erasing all of the progress you’ve made.
So what can you do besides hide away inside and never step foot out your door until fall rolls around? Well, there are several things you can do to protect your hair from the summer elements. I’ve listed seven of them below.
When I decided to become a homeowner I had my mindset on buying an existing home because of all of the horror stories I’d heard about building a house. Because of this when I researched the process of buying a house I focused on the existing home purchase process.
Related read on my financial blog: How I Decided I Was Ready To Buy My First House
After looking at several older homes I came to the realization that building a house would be the best way to get the type of house I would looking for and wanted. Little did I know that the process of building a home involved so many more considerations than buying an existing home.
If you look back at any of the blog posts from my first two years of blogging, you’ll see they all have at least one thing in common. Bad pictures.
Yep. When I first started my blog I oddly enough didn’t seem to care about taking nice, attractive-looking pictures or editing them to make them look better. I’m not sure why other than I just didn’t think about it and many of the bloggers I was following at the time had dark, grainy pictures as well so my posts fit right in.
As time went on and I became more and more serious about blogging I also became more and more aware of how bad my blog photography was. So I started to take steps to correct that.
I never used to be one for spending time at the beach, but now that I'm an adult I've grown to like it. I now enjoy spending time in the ocean breezes, exploring the coast, and people watching, well I could go on and on.
Despite all of the fun I have at the beach I've found that if I don't properly prepare and think about protecting my hair and skin beforehand I end up regretting my beach time.
The sun and ocean breeze I enjoy so much can dry out my hair and skin causing damage that will take weeks sometimes months to reverse and repair.
To avoid that damage I make sure to pack in my beach bag these seven beauty and hair care essentials.
For years I thought I was alone in my struggle with oily skin. I thought it was something I would always battle with and lose. Then one day the stars aligned and my oily skin and I finally called a truce. The truce didn’t last long.
Imagine this.
You just got a new shampoo or conditioner. They may have been a free sample, a gift from a friend, or a new release from your favorite brand you’ve been dying to try. You use it on your hair and go through the rest of your routine. But something doesn’t feel right. Your hair may feel too dry, too greasy, or something else not so great.
The new product doesn’t work for your hair.
So now what do you do with that hair product? You can’t use it on your hair anymore.
Have you ever looked down at the floor after washing, combing, or brushing your hair and seen lots of little bits of hair on the floor?
I have. And it was recently. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been dealing with hair breakage. At first, I didn’t think it was that bad. Just a few broken strands around the front and top of my hair. Then I had a trip to my hairstylist and she revealed some serious breakage around the nape of my neck.
When you're starting out as a blogger you may not have a lot of money to put towards your blog. Or you may not want to invest too much money into it until you know you'll get a return on your investment.
Either way, you don’t want your blog to look like a fly-by-night operation. You want it to look as professional as possible so that you can attract visitors and grow it so you can start investing money in it. I know I did.
I’ve become a big YouTube watcher of hair and beauty tips videos. What I’ve been finding though is many hair YouTuber’s don’t share tips that are always applicable for relaxed hair.
In fact, I’ve gotten several comments on the hair videos I post on YouTube about how it’s hard to find good videos about how to care for relaxed hair.
Deep conditioning is an important part of a healthy hair regimen. It can help eliminate frizz, hydrate dry hair, strengthen hair. Overall deep conditioning your hair can give it a second life. If it’s done the right way.
Before I started my hair journey there were many times I would go to the salon and my hairstylist would tell me my relaxed hair felt dry. This was puzzling to me. I couldn't understand why my hair felt dry. I was moisturizing my relaxed hair and even deep conditioning so my hair shouldn’t be feeling dry.
I can’t remember the last time I got a manicure. I think it was about three years ago when I was trying a new nail polish for a blog post and needed to take some pictures of it on my nails.
I tend to stay away from manicures for one main reason. Nail polish doesn’t stay on my fingernails. I’m being serious. Probably an hour or two after getting a manicure the polish has started chipping and about 24 hours later it looks so bad I have to remove the polish. Which is essentially like throwing money and time down the drain.
Have you heard? Sephora’s 2018 Spring Bonus Sale is now in full swing. The sale started Friday, April 20th, and will end Monday, April 23rd. To take advantage of the sale you need to be a part of Sephora’s Beauty Insider rewards program to get the discount. The discount varies depending on what level you’re on
- Rouge Members get 15%
- VIB Members get 15%
- Insiders get 10%
Plus, if you
shop via Rakuten you can get cashback on your purchases and save even more.
Oily skin is both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side, it helps keep your skin smooth and looking young for years. While on the negative side, oily skin makes you look shiny and greasy, causes breakouts, can enlarge your pores, and quickly ruin your makeup.
If you’d asked me several years ago if I was interested in starting a blog I would have laughed at you and said nope. I hated writing assignments throughout my school career. Writing papers felt like a punishment to me. Especially when there was no writing prompt. So there was no way I could see myself writing for fun or even for a living.
I also always thought that I could never understand website coding and all that went into creating and maintaining a website. But here I am today. Writing weekly blog posts for a site that I built and maintain myself.
I’ve found that blogging is a great creative outlet for me. It allows me to learn new skills and do creative things that I don’t get the chance to experience anywhere else. It also allows me to inspire and help people who I wouldn’t have had a chance to otherwise.
If you’ve been following me on Instagram you’ve gotten a glimpse of my battle with oily skin and enlarged pores. I’ve always had oily skin. In fact, it’s a trait I inherited from my mother’s side of the family. As I’ve gotten older my skin has started to shift into more of the combination space with a good dose of oil.
So I’ve been changing up my
skincare routine and using different skin and makeup products to help lessen the amount of oil, shine, and pore sightings that happen throughout the day.
You wake up in the morning and look at your phone to see what the weather is like. You see it’s going to be warm enough for you to wear a dress without leggings or boots. That’s when you realize your legs aren’t ready to be exposed. After being cooped up in jeans, pants, leggings, and boots you may have noticed your legs look a little pale, dry, and maybe even hairy.
The cold dry air during the winter months and indoor heating can dry out the skin and cause it to be flakey, feel rough, and look dull.
If you suffer from dry hair whether on a constant basis or from time to time, you know how hard it can be to find a hair mask (A.K.A. hair masque) that not only will your hair like but will also hydrate it.
So what is a hair mask?
For years I thought deep conditioners and hair masks were the same. The only difference was that mask or masque was a fancy way of saying conditioner. I was kinda wrong.
Several questions many bloggers have are centered around their blog theme: How often should I change it? When should I change it? What makes a blog theme a good one?
While there are no hard and fast rules on when to change your blog theme, there are multiple reasons for doing so. And it’s not as uncommon as you may think. Many bloggers, including myself, have switched up their blog themes multiple times. I’ve used four themes since starting my blog.
Confession time. I have a love/hate relationship with makeup. I love the way I can use it to change up my look, cover blemishes and just have fun. I hate how hard it can be to find the right shades that work with my skin tone. Now that I think about it, that could be the reason I tend to buy the same makeup over and over.
For years I’ve been wearing the
Mary Kay Mineral Powder Foundation in Bronze 3. I like the foundation, but it’s a loose powder and isn’t easy to travel with. It can be pretty messy. Especially if you’re trying to apply it in a moving car.
Have you ever read something that seemed off the wall? Something you couldn’t believe? I did when I read how a particular way I wore my hair could be damaging it. While I’d heard some whispers about it, I didn’t think it was true.
So I recently did some research on the subject. From that research, I found several articles that quoted hair stylists and experts all saying the same thing - parting your hair in the same place for an extended period of time can damage the hair in that area.
I can’t believe January is gone. It’s now a speck in the rearview mirror of life.
That was probably the shortest month ever.
On the plus side, now that January is done I can share with you my January beauty favs.
I’m currently on a
no-spend challenge, not just for beauty products, for anything that’s considered a non-essential. As a result, I didn’t buy any new products in January so I only have three items to share in this video - a perfume, a lotion/body cream, and a mascara.
When I started my blog I knew it would take work to my blog started. But I didn’t have any idea how much work it would take to keep it running. There’s always code to tweak, pictures to edit, and posts to write. All of which take a lot of time. The time that I don’t always have is because I work a full-time job and have a life outside of blogging.
So I’ve learned that when I do have a little bit of time to work on blogging tasks I need to make the most of that time. I need to maximize my productivity.
I recently saw an article talking about how cable subscription fees are rising this year. Yikes! Cable is already expensive so even a little increase of $8 a month can really eat into your budget.
I don't watch a whole lot of TV overall and in particular cable networks. So I decided years ago that I wasn't going to pay these ever-rising cable costs every month. So I cut the cord and became a TV streamer.
Like many women, I’ve worn the same brand of mascara for years. Not for any special reason, just because I liked the brand and knew it worked for me. Because of this it never crossed my mind to try another mascara from any other brand.
That is until I realized I was running low on my favorite mascara and had some good coupons for L’Oreal mascara. So with my coupons in hand, I paid the makeup aisle at Walmart a visit to search for the perfect L’Oreal mascara.
If you’re like me, you may suffer from dry hair. And wearing satin caps to bed or during the day can be a great way to keep your hair moisturized day and night. But most of the satin caps available are very unattractive. So I would only wear them in my bedroom and remove them when I would leave my bedroom in the morning. I would never wear them outside of my house for fear of looking unkempt and a hot mess to my neighbors.
Since these satin bonnets were really all I’ve known my whole life, I never even dreamed that something better existed. One day I was reading a hair post in an online magazine and the post mentioned this thing called a SLAP Cap.
If you haven’t heard by now Pinterest is an amazing site for bloggers. The main and biggest reason is Pinterest can help you create and build awareness for your brand and blog.
Currently, Pinterest is one of the top ways I generate traffic to my blog. Typically I get 40-50% of my traffic from Pinterest. So it goes without saying that since Pinterest is such a great tool for building your blog and brand, your Pinterest profile should be branded.