Generation Beauty NYC

At the creator pre-party! My dress is Free People

At the pre-party with Katherine!

At the convention with Megs, Russia, and Adyel

Everyone at the pre-party!

Some of the products I got!

So, it's been a really long time since I have written a blog post. I'm not sure why. I think it's mostly because I haven't been as interested in taking photos of my personal style recently, and I also haven't really been motivated to write anything down. That's why I have been keeping up with my YouTube channel; it's just so much easier for me to film a video of myself in my bedroom than to go out and have someone take pictures of me. But I don't want this blog to completely die off, especially because I am still super active on YouTube and it is nice to have this site as a culmination of all of my Internet things. 

That being said, I have no idea how frequently I will post, although I have a feeling that I will start to post frequently when I go abroad next semester, as I will have so many amazing photos from all over Europe. I always liked keeping this blog as a sort of personal diary to look back on so I really want to continue documenting my life on here. 

Moving on to what this post is actually about, I wanted to post a couple of pictures from Generation Beauty, which took place last weekend. Generation Beauty is a beauty convention hosted by Michelle Phan's company Ipsy, and it was basically a three day event for YouTubers to connect with companies and for fans of YouTube to meet the vloggers they watch. I think the most fun aspect of it was the creator pre-party. I met loads of people who I really admire and made some amazing friends within the community. We also got an INSANE swag bag full of products to test out and share with our viewers, which you can check out in the haul video I posted. The convention was also amazing, and the brands who were there were all really lovely and so sweet to the creators. I appreciated that there was no crazy fangirling at the event and no major security issues like there are at some other YouTube conventions. The whole weekend was really well put together. 

Anyways, I'm not sure if anyone is around to still read these but I have enjoyed writing my thoughts a bit instead of speaking them like I do on my channel. I really want to get back into treating this like a personal diary, so I hope I will get back into documenting the events I go to, places I travel, favorite products, etc. See you soon!

xx, Sophie

Beauty Review: NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams

NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams from left to right: Istanbul, Milan, Prague, Monte Carlo, Copenhagen; $5.99 at Ulta

Hi everyone!

So I wanted to try out something a bit different this week.  I don't think I have ever actually posted a beauty post on this blog, but if any of you follow me over on YouTube, I do loads of beauty videos on there.  I wanted to try out beauty blogging because when I'm at school it is really hard to do outfit posts, because there isn't anyone here to take pictures of me and most days I am just too busy.  Beauty shots are a bit easier because I can set them up myself right from my dorm room.  So I thought I would start doing some beauty reviews, etc. in written form.  I have had some requests for this type of post over on my YouTube channel, so hopefully it is helpful! 

I am starting out my beauty blogging adventure with the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams.  If you watch my videos, you will now that NYX is by far my favorite drugstore brand; I am absolutely obsessed and they are so affordable.  Recently I have been trying these lippies instead of my go to NYX Butter Glosses because I am loving matte at the moment, and I really have a hard time committing to expensive lip products because I change them up quite frequently. 

These lip creams are creamy when you put them on, but in about 15 minutes they are completely dry and have incredible staying power.  They last me the entire day with little to no reapplication.  The one complaint I have about this product is that the color on the tube is often very misleading.  The first one I ever picked up was the shade Milan, which I thought was going to be a neutral pink, but actually shows up as hot pink on my lips.  I have found that most of the colors are like this, but looking up swatches online has certainly helped.  My current favorite is Copenhagen, which is the perfect winter-y purple shade.  I love playing around with fun colors with these products, but not having to feel bad if they aren't my favorite shades because of the price.  Overall, I think these are amazing quality for a drugstore product, and I highly recommend them.  They also smell fantastic, an added bonus!

I hope you guys are ok with me switching things up a bit and including more of a range of posts on here, see you soon :)

xo, Sophie 

Talking to a Camera

Something a bit different today.  You may or may not remember (I hope that you remember) that back in the fall I posted a video demonstrating how I do a fishtail braid.  It was something that one of my blog readers requested, and I never really intended to make another video after that.  YouTube has always been an incredibly intimidating site to me; it is a way to share yourself online in a more personal way than any other platform.  I have been watching other YouTubers (I am subscribed to more channels than is probably healthy) for years.  I watch everything from beauty/fashion gurus (some of my favorites are beautycrush,  zoella, clothesencounters, and beyondbeautystar) to vloggers (I have an unhealthy obsession with danisnotonfire, amazingphil, itsgrace, and the vlogbrothers)  to short film makers (kickthepj and bertiebertg are brilliantly creative) and everything in between, but I never really thought I could be one of them.  However, after that first video, I thought I would give it a shot.  I felt incredibly awkward about the fact that I was posting videos online, and I still do, which is why I don't usually post them on here, or twitter, instagram, facebook, etc.  People I know in real life read this blog and follow my other social media, and the concept of someone I actually know (versus a random stranger halfway across the world) watching one of my videos is a terrifying concept to me. What if someone makes fun of me? Or dislikes one of my videos? Or brings it up in school? Terrifying. 

That being said, today I reached 400 subscribers on my YouTube channel.  Considering I only started a few months ago, that's a lot of people, and so I finally feel a bit more confident about people knowing that I make videos.  I think I am going to start sharing them on twitter and such, but I am still a bit hesitant.  I have included a few of my videos here if you are interested in checking them out, and you can subscribe here! It would make me ultra happy if you did:)

Thank you so much to everyone who watches my videos; it means so much to me!

xo, Sophie