Happy last day of February everyone! This year is flying by and I for one am ready for a vacation. It has been the most exciting few months of filming and magazine collaborations which I can not wait to share with all of you! Between Health Magazine announcing my campaign with Olay (we have another surprise coming soon!), Redbook featuring my charity and I got to announce my partnership with Vanity Fair, February will be hard to beat. However, March brings some awesome projects with Glamour, New Beauty and Amazon which I dying to see! I started my site 9 years ago because I worked for the best beauty and skincare brands and it felt like no one was leveraging experts or sharing product formulations and information in the way it’s so readily available now! And the fact that this industry (not just in beauty but fashion and travel too) continues to surprise me and push my creativity, it is never a dull moment. What I did with Olay was groundbreaking. I’ve never known a blogger or really any identifiable person go through clinicals to have their skin checked during product testing. It’s always just an anonymous clinical statistic and some number of a percentage of women that saw changes. I’ll have more to unveil on that soon! I think the best part of working non-stop this new year was after months of being excited but so exhausted from early call times and the hours I spent researching, testing and reading before going on camera is now I get to sit back and see all of these projects come to life. Every collaboration has been so different and I’m so inspired how much magazines are embracing bloggers, these past few months I have been inspired and challenged in ways I didn’t even know were possible.
Outfit details:
Sunday Somewhere Isabella Sunglasses
Lafayette 148 Visionary Plaid Silk Blouse, Lacquered Lambskin Skirt, Elise Coat (similar)
Kenneth Cole Booties (similar)
Balley vintage bag
As of mid March most everything I’ve giving my blood, sweat and tears of joy too (but literally though, I actually let Olay do a biopsy on me — but no more hints!), will have launched and I’m off to Iceland to celebrate and visit the Blue Lagoon. I’m so excited, I don’t even have words. I’m taking a tour and learning how they make the products followed by getting the royal Blue Lagoon experience. The great debate, do I bring this Lafayette 148 Elise shearling jacket with me, or a big puffy jacket, ha! This coat has been the best winter investment, it’s so warm and cozy! I’m actually loving all of the recent Lafayette 148 launches, and this was one of my outfits from Fashion Week — I was going for a retro vibe.
If you’ve been to Iceland let me know your recommendations, I’ll be there for 4 days! Otherwise I can’t wait to share everything with you. And if I don’t say it enough thank you all for your encouragement and support. I had a few readers recently ask me how I get so many cool collaborations and my advice to all of you is don’t compromise, and figure out how you can do things differently. I get a lot of offers, many of which I see on some of your instagram pages that seem plagiarized and recycled and dictated by the brand. I don’t feel comfortable working in that way. It’s just not my choice to be put in a box, even for extra income. Which I totally understand is a necessity for some of you. Just consider the longterm ramifications and why I would turn something like that down. Again my blog is 9 years old. And I held major positions with top beauty brands before starting my site so I’m a marathon runner in this, not a sprinter. The more corners you cut the less endurance you have for the long game. Also don’t be afraid to push back and change programs. Also ask for extensions if you don’t have enough time to really try a product. I’ve actually had a lot of luck with brands listening to me and letting me do things my way. The reason my collaborations seem different is because they are. And I’ve customized what I want to try, how I want to try it and the experience around it. I also work in all my trial times. You’re doing yourself and your readers a disservice if you’re agreeing to like something before trying it. If you want to be taken seriously, take yourself seriously because whether you’ve had your blog for 5 days or 5 years, or have 5 followers or 5 million, we’re all part of a blogging community that looses integrity, every time you let someone control your voice. And we become so much stronger every time someone pushes the envelope. So I encourage you all to stay creative and shine! Believe it or not brands respect criticism, it just has to be constructive feedback and not emotional.
Who’s ready to rock March?