Let’s chat...

I’ve been writing Stuff That I Bought for a while now (coming up on three years and over 300 posts for those of you playing at home) and there have been loads of changes over the last few years. I have gone from sporadic posting, to weekly, to daily, to now 3 days a week plus extras when I have more to say. The face of beauty blogging in Australia has also changed a lot and that has an influence on the content I post. Sidenote: If you’re a beauty blogger who hasn’t already signed up to iBlogBeauty, make sure you visit here and get your form in as soon as possible (submissions closed yesterday, but you can try emailing Helen and pleading your case!)

As an industry, beauty is only just starting to understand the power of bloggers. Some brands are embracing it with both arms and legs and even torsos.

They get it and they want to be involved. A lot of brands don’t understand it. Some brands hate it. Some other media hate it too. I’m not sure why, because beauty blogging will never replace magazines and newspapers; we are merely complimentary rather than competition.

The brands that are embracing beauty bloggers (like me) often send us products to review. Considering that the premise of my blog is stuff that I bought myself, I sometimes feel like I am inadvertently deceiving you. I want you to know that I don’t make any money at all from this site – it is a labour of love. The ads that occasionally run on the right hand side pay me pennies (literally pennies) and don’t even cover the cost of my hosting. The beauty brands don’t pay me either and I’m not obligated to run positive mentions because of advertiser spend or stuff like that. I have a good relationship with a lot of the PR girls both through this site and my Real Life Day Job – they are all really nice people - BUT that doesn’t mean I have to write nice things about their products. They know that. They send me things that they think I will be interested in and therefore that you would be interested in. I always trial everything I write about and only review it once I’m satisfied with it. I value the trust you guys put in me and I take it seriously.

Right now we don’t have disclosure legislation like they do for bloggers in the States, but I am making a commitment to always let you know what I have been sent for consideration and I am also making a promise that I will continue to be completely impartial and provide thorough reviews.

Thanks for your continual support – it means a lot. Beauty blogs wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the readers!