Chicago: Rebecca Minkoff #RMRoadtrip

Meeting Rebecca Minkoff at Nordstrom for #RMRoadtrip was a.... trip!

Add meeting blogger Clare from C Squared W in real life with her friend Kristen? Perfection.

It made for a wonderful time in Chicago...and I bought this for my sister, which Rebecca signed.

BAStar Eyeshadow

Who doesn't love a smokey eye? Add a bit of sparkle, and you're ready for a night on the town, right?

BAStar sent me a sample of their natural shadow palette to try out.

There are five colors, a dark metallic brown color, a taupish bronzy color, a champagne beige color, a gold glitter color, and a holographic white glitter color.  Of these five, the two darker ones are the most pigmented, and provide the most color pay-off, but they don't blend as easily as other shadows I've tried. I wore the taupe shade on my lid, the dark metallic on my crease, and champagne in the corners of my inner eye. The beige colour didn't apply smoothly, and I had to dip in a few times to get some evenness and depth to the color.  They have a mostly shimmery satin finish, but tend to have more glitter based than I would like to wear on a day to day basis. I have glitter all under my eye from fall out during application. I don't think they are milled as finely as other shadows so they're not as satiny as I had hoped they'd turn out to look. And again blending wasn't easy.

  

I swatched the glittery ones on my hand, since it's not something I would wear during the day to work, but I can see it being useful for a club outing, or even a dance event. Not much use for those two colors otherwise.  In terms of color payoff, perhaps they can be layered with the other colors in the palette to create some depth, or worn alone for a more subtle sparkle.

 

Overall I'd give this a 5/10 rating for quality, color payoff, blendability, or color scheme. Not great and not horrible either. The case and plastic sleeve give it a cheap dollar store makeup appearance. 

I see primary customers being teenagers;  I'd see them pick up a palllette of this quality at Forever 21 but even teens have inexpensive and better choices in NYX and ELF cosmetics.

This was a sponsored post.

Seoul + Jeju: What to Pack

Headed to South Korea, specifically Seoul and Jeju! I've never been to that part of the world but from what I've learned, the people over there dress very well and the women like looking feminine and like to dress up!

So, I'm thinking my love for blouses will come handy and will be packing many a girlie shirt, the florally, ruffly and lacey, the better! It's SPRING afterall!

I actually did buy the Prabal Gurang dress from Target, and I love the way it fits!

The key to rainy island weather is layers! I will take a couple of light cardigans as well, just in case but here's my wish list of what to pack.

Seoul + Jeju by hoggerandco featuring 1920s jewelry

Danielle from Story Of Style

Danielle of Story of Style is one of the first bloggers I met in Boston. I love her vivacious, warm personality and cool girl vibe! She was also one of the first fans of my photography, and we both share our love for the Big Apple!

Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled to photograph her recently, before her big move back to New York City!

We were supposed to meet last week on Monday April 15, but we all know how that day panned out.

So, with a beautiful Spring day in Boston this past weekend, we were able to shoot at The Liberty Hotel and in and around Beacon Hill.

Here, some of my favorites....

Boston: Blog Better Boston Style Summit

This past weekend was the Blog Better Boston Style Summit, a local blogging conference organzied by Amy and Alana and held here.

I was honored to be invited to host a discussion session on Instagram sharing 10 tips on How to Make your Instagrams Better and Finding Your Voice (Thank you Kait for this shot of me!).

I also enjoyed attending the style summit to hear the other speakers discuss topics such as working with brands, creating content calendars and media kits. 

It was so wonderful to meet bloggers in person (Kaitlin, Melissa, Georgina, the JustUsGals, Allie, Tieka, Julie, Emily, Alyssa, Susan, Brooke, Holly, Sheryl) and see others I hadn't seen in a while (Alison {who I accidentally called Amy during my sesh!}, Shauna, Alana, Amy, Emily, Kristen, Amanda, Surabhi, Noelle and Elissa)

If you missed my Instagram discussion, here's a recap:

10 tips on how to make your Instagrams better

• Find your voice on Instagram by connecting and following others in the IG community
• Hashtag so that people can find you!
• ie: #igersboston (Instagrammers in Boston), #igers, #igdaily, #ignation etc., will allow you to connect with other IGs in Boston and around the world!
• Take a genuine interest in others, and leave comments
• Be visible, not just online (attend events such as Blog Better Boston and other blogger events)
• Be passionate about your IGs, treat them as you would photos with a real film camera
• Explore other apps to make your IGS better (ie. VSCOcam, Instasize and Afterglow)

There were a lot of sessions I wanted to go to, but alas, could only attend a handful, so here are some things I learned:

Working with Brands led by Kristen

• know your stats using google analytics
• a media kit is really important to introduce yourself
• create a pitch and send to a brand you really like and identify with
• know which posts are most read on your blog (most interaction/likes/views)
• your time is valuable
• follow up once you have worked with the brand/done a post

Creating a content calendar led by Julie:

• identify your priorities
• create a content calendar and schedule posts so that there is consistancy for your readers
• use google calendar or even a paper calendar and pencil, whatever works for you
• stick to a general theme and find your niche
• save your great idea for when you have time

Creating a media kit led by Tieka:

• a media kit is a pre-packaged set of promo material on YOU
• selling yourself to give a brand a few facts on whether or not you are a good fit for them
• include: about page, you and your blog, site stats, past brands/partnerships
• what you can provide as a service (ie. sponsored blog post, giveaway, side bar ads, text links, be gifted products to review)

Here are just a few snap shots from the Style Summit, as I was mostly taking notes! For more #BBBos coverage, check out the Twitter feed, and for more photos and updates follow Blog Better Boston on Facebook.

Thank you Amy and Alana for having me, and for all the sponsored goodies!

Here's how you can join the next Blog Better Boston summit.