We were (are) on a break

Advanced warning – this is probably going to be some sort of ranty word-dump. I’m about a 9.7 on the pissed-off scale, disenchanted with a whole lotta things and annoyed with myself for forgetting to bring Mini Eggs to work today. Although my 5 day birthday weekend food baby is probably thanking me for the last point.

The past few months have been a bit of a struggle for me blog-wise. My brain has been an ongoing circle of wondering whether to keep focusing solely on beauty or to widen things up a bit; worrying about actually getting some time by myself to Netflix and chill on a Sunday instead of spending 10 hours working on my blog and to be honest, feeling quite meh about the whole thing.

Blogging is no longer the fun, casual little thing it was when I started back in 2012. That might not seem like a long time given the stalwarts that have been around since the internet began (well, almost), but it certainly feels like it to me. Blogs these days are now perfectly polished things, with photos that would make Mario Testino jealous and a lifestyle that is all about the ‘goals’.

As a ginger, size 14 (that bit was hard to write), 32 year old, I can tell you now, my life isn’t a Pinterest worthy dream. I have a Mini Egg obsession, a whole load of mis-matched vintage furniture and a rental house that has purple carpet. I also have a full-time job that requires a decent amount of brain effort, so blogging has been my creative outlet for the things I wanted to share. And because I’m not loving blogging at the moment, I feel a bit lost.

I feel like I’ve lost my voice, like I don’t know what I should be doing. It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the big PR machine and spit out review after review of some lovely new products, but long-term, that’s not interesting. You deserve more than that.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing to be able to test out so many things and find the ones I honestly think are the best, but there’s so much pressure that goes on in the background to please people, that it’s often easy to forget that you have to please your readers. And yourself.

So I want to mix things up a little.

I’m going to give myself a week off, recharge and get my brain cells pumping again. Well, hopefully. When I come back, There’ll be more of a variety of things on here, ranging from my birthday dinner with the girls (love you ladies) through to the best non-sparkly highlighters that’ll give you cheekbones of joy (apologies in advance as one is from Chantecaille and is so expensive it makes me cry. But the cheekbones are worth it.).

I want to keep things real – some days you might get actually get an Instagram shot that’s actually instant (shock horror). Others it might be a photo of my favourite pink lipsticks that took 20 minutes and a crap ton of blue tack to perfect. And I’m ok with that.

Fingers crossed you’ll join me with my mini re-launch. See you on the other side!