Blogger Of The Week

Hello! Ooh it's been a (small) while hasn't it!
Ok, so this is something I want to be doing regularly. Call it a 'series' if you like!

This week's blogger is the beautiful Maliberrymakeup, aka Alison or Mali!

Mali has a really unique beauty blog, but it incorporates some features which I believe either make or break a blog! I think I'm gonna go with bullet points!

• Mali has a 'thing'. That thing... is green. She doesn't do nudes, so there's no risk of another naked palette review. She's reviewed nearly every green shade of shadow, liner and liquid liner on the market! Yet she always manages to find more. Although I very rarely wear green, I find it really insightful to read such precise comparisons between similar products. I love it when a blog is thorough!
• She always swatches, without fail. Nothing bugs me more than when a point is made, without evidence! Mali will say "product X looks really Y over primer, but is a bit Z without it" ...and then we will get to see a photo of exactly what she means. It's brilliant. 
• Mali does both high-end, and high-street. I love nothing more than a broad spectrum blogger! 
• The perfect life/cosmetics balance. Sure, my main interest is make-up. I live and breath the stuff! However, I like to know about peoples studies, relationships, history. Mali does a great job of this, without making me feel like I'm invading, and without losing quality of product reviews. 
• Regular features/brands. I like to know what a person is loyal to. Mali has a 'lush of the week' feature, and is a return customer to Soap & Glory. I love that! 

I sent Mali a few questions...

1) When and why did you decide to start getting into blogging?

This is going to sound completely tragic, but after my first long-term boyfriend ended things in 2011, I was at a bit of a loss.  We'd been together for nearly 7 years so I had no idea what to do with myself or how to move forward. I'd actually started a blog prior to the break up which had a few vague posts about jewellery and a single lonely recipe, but it had been neglected. I picked it back up again after doing some blog reading and playing around with makeup as a distraction, and just went from there!

2) What do you love most about blogging & the blogging community? 

I've always loved writing - I would churn out pages and pages of stories when I was little and that's not really changed, although now I scribble about makeup :P  It keeps me sane to write a blog post - I find it very easy to sit and bash out a post and it's a break from university work!  I also love being able to feel so enthusiastic about something that's relatively superficial and doesn't require much thinking about and not worry about other people judging me for it. Bloggers are so lovely and understand how exciting a limited edition collection or new perfume can be! I think it's great how bloggers are becoming more and more recognised by brands too, and I'm excited to see how those relationships continue to develop.

3) What would you advise someone (like me!) who is just getting into blogging?

Don't stress about the number of people following you - let your readership grow organically. Get as involved as you can in social media as you'll get talking to lots of other bloggers, and you might even get the chance to meet them in person! Finally, this is just a personal preference but don't fall into the trap of writing the same posts as everybody else because it gets so boring to see the same thing pop up on your dashboard again and again and again. Another Naked palette review? Fantastic... *biggest eyeroll in the world*

Give her a 'click'!
That's all for now! Don't forget to tweet me if you think I'd enjoy your blog or you're enjoying mine!

Ashton xxx