Blogging Made Me Broke – How the Instagram lifestyle can mess up your finances

Think of any given Instagram page and you’ll likely imagine some perfectly curated spread of photos that make the life of the person running it look unobtainable in some way. It might be a barrage of travel photos, make up, outfits, restaurant meals, whatever it is you’re into and using to cram up your feed. Recently, between binge-watching the YouTube channel “The Financial Diet” and speed-reading pretty much the entire finance and business section of Dymocks, I’ve been looking at my own Instagram feed with a critical eye. Blogging makes acquiring these kinds of lifestyles look easy and obtainable, but the simple truth is that they aren’t for most people. If you’re what I would call a “business blogger”, that is to say a savvy individual whose blog is run as a business who is consequently receiving either PR or sponsorships regularly, then living this way probably isn’t driving you into financial ruin because you’ve been clever and monetised appropriately. If, however, you’re more of a “hobbyist”, your situation might look very different. With that in mind, I wanted to share some lessons I’ve learned about the financial truth of “keeping up with the Joneses” on Instagram over the past few years.

 

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Review: Ella Baché Australia Summer Range

So it’s another Australian Summer and two things are on my mind. One of those things is how to prevent myself from turning into a bright red tomato by inevitably getting burnt from three seconds of incidental (and accidental) sun exposure. Another is how I’m going to prevent my pasty white legs from blinding people when I wear shorts because it’s just too hot to be considerate of the retinas of others. Consequently, I was pretty stoked when the summer range from Ella Baché turned up on my doorstep. Today I’ll be reviewing their Active Lotion Great SPF50+ sunscreen, their Great SPF30+ Sunbase Foundation, the Great Tan Without Sun and Great Tanning Mitt. As a hint, these products are pretty aptly named.

 

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Spring Makeup for the Professional Girl (who needs time for coffee) plus Everyday Makeup Review

It’s no secret that I love makeup, but I’m the kind of person who loves makeup when I have the time to stuff around and play with it at my leisure. I’m decidedly less of a fan of the chore of putting on makeup before I go to work. My last post was all about the super-fast lazy approach I use when I hit the snooze button one too many times, but sometimes I want to look a little bit more like I put an effort in (without really putting an effort in). With that in mind, I thought I’d take you through my current daily routine and review a bunch of products along the way – think tutorial turns review turns rambling. Personally, I’m a busy-body and I love seeing which products people actually use on a regular basis, so I thought some of you might enjoy that peek into my routine for the spring season.

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Five-Minute Makeup in Five Products

Let’s be honest: most of the time, doing a full face of makeup is a pain in the butt. It’s all fun and games when you have the time to sit there blending eye shadow for twenty minutes, but when it’s 5:30 in the morning and you’re getting ready for work it’s a different story. Worse still, sometimes it’s 7:34 in the morning and you were meant to leave for work half an hour ago. Most of the time, you need something quick that will hide the fact that you haven’t had coffee this morning but without going too far over the top. With that in mind, today I’m going to share the five products you need for a super fast makeup when you’re on the go. Added bonus? These types of products are also what I recommend throwing in a gym bag to redo a quick face after a sweaty workout.

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Current Handbag Hangouts

I tend to carry handbags so giant that they can fit everything including the kitchen sink and a small bathroom renovation. I have, however, been trying to mend this habit slowly and I’ve consequently downsized my bag in the last couple of weeks. Alas, gone are the days where I can let twenty-plus lipsticks/glosses/balms accumulate in the depths of my bag (and no, that isn’t an exaggeration – that happened quite a lot). With this in mind, I’ve had to vastly cut back on the beauty essentials I keep on hand. I thought it might be nice to share the six products I felt I couldn’t go without – though honestly I’m still a bit nervous about no longer having that kitchen sink in there. You just never know…

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Review: LUSH Father’s Day Collection 2017

Ahhh Father’s Day. As someone whose father is notoriously difficult to buy presents for, this time of year inevitably causes me to break out into a cold sweat of anxiety. Dare ask the man himself and the usual answer is “I don’t need anything”, as if gift giving were even based upon need. If that were the case people would be paying my phone bill for my birthday (actually… not a terrible idea really). LUSH has the answer, naturally. Today I’ll be reviewing the LUSH Father’s Day Collection 2017, which was kindly sent to me for review purposes. The collection will be available in store and online from now until September 3rd unless sold out prior.

My father himself tends to approach skin care products with a typical blokey “meh” attitude. In saying that, my mother informs me that he started using the Nivea Post Shave balm I left on his counter. Apparently he’s even gone so far as to start using the occasional face wash and moisturiser. Perish the thought! My strategy is therefore to leave these products in his bathroom and see if I can get him using them by osmosis. In the meantime, I decided to test them out for myself. I like a lot of the scents targeted a more male audience – basically my entire goal in life is to make my house smell like a pretty boy without ever actually needing a pretty boy to enter it. I’m one of those people who wants a partner just so I can choose his cologne. In the absence of that option, I’ve been searching for a candle or other scented products to fill the gaping hole in my life instead of weeping into a tub of ice cream most weekends (I’m lying – being single is pretty awesome. But so are pretty smelling boys I guess).

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Review: Matrix Total Results So Silver and Brass Off Shampoos

It’s no secret that I change my hair colour about as often as I change my mind, which is to say… a lot. I’ve gone from brunette to ombre blonde, back to brunette, to brunette with purple, to bright purple and finally to blonde in the last couple of years alone. The blonde has been the look which I’ve loved more than any other (apart from maybe the purple), so I’m eager to maintain it. Because my hairdresser (Cara from Daly Salon if you were wondering) just gets me, my blonde is a bit of a balayage style because I’m a lazy, lazy individual who would be very unlikely to bother getting her roots redone as often as they would need to be if I went fully blonde. Consequently, I have quite a few different tones of blonde through my hair and the darkness varies depending at what length on my hair it is. I was thus pretty intrigued to hear about Matrix’s new Brass Off shampoo which is designed to remove the brassy tones that come along with being blonde, especially if you’re naturally brunette.

I had a chat with the amazingly lovely and helpful Josephine from L’Oreal Australia (who are the parent company of Matrix along with a whole host of pretty awesome brands) via email to figure out if Brass Off would be right for me. Based on that conversation, she very kindly sent me both the So Silver and Brass Off shampoo to try. Today, I’ll take you through my thoughts and how to tell which would be right for you.

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Review: LUSH Easter 2017 Limited Edition Collection

 

Is it seriously nearly Easter? I swear it was not five minutes ago that I was judging the flowers other people’s partners sent them on Valentine’s Day (which, rudely, many didn’t actually post on social media this year – totally inconsiderate). Well, if I needed convincing that it was time to get in the hot cross bun spirit then this new LUSH collection should certainly do the job.

 

The Range

LUSH’s Easter collection launches March 23rd and is in stores until April 17th. I strongly recommend you get on board with it as soon as possible because I’m certain some of these are going to sell out (though hopefully not before I’ve stocked up some of my personal favourites while hissing “my preciousssss”). The collection features a few returning favourites as well as a pretty huge selection of newbies too. I was sent six products to try out, but worth noting there’s also a face wash jelly (Flopsy), a shower gel (Wash Behind Your Ears) and a few gift packs (Golden Egg, Carrot and Bundle of Fun) as well as what’s pictured below. Now for the fun part!

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How it feels to work with depression and anxiety

As I’m writing this, it is 7:21am on a Monday morning. As with every Monday morning, I dragged myself forcefully out of bed about eighty-one minutes ago. I had, as always, intended on being up far earlier than that, but last night was the usual cycle of panicking about the coming week and consequently not being able to sleep, leading to me panicking about not being able to sleep and therefore continuing the painfully awake loop. Thus it was under duress that I forced my weary feet onto the floor after tossing aside the sheets soaked in my sweat from the nightmares that came when I did finally fall asleep for a meagre few hours. As I rub my eyes and try to focus on the bleary screen in front of me, the same thought permeates my mind:

“I can’t do this.”

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