Fakery Within The Influencer Network

November has been the month of the so called 'blogger scandals'. The tweets dug up from a decade ago, and witch hunts to bring influencers crashing to the ground. Perhaps they deserved it?
It's common knowledge that the blogging community has become cattier than ever. Quite frankly it's embarrassing. But something that is striking me now more than ever is the fakery. It's a bad smell you just can't get rid. It lingers.
This is WAY beyond the real life vs Instagram paradigm.
I was at a 'place' a couple of weeks ago. Bloggers and influencers flock to there on a regular basis. To snap pictures against what probably is the dreamiest backdrop a gal will ever find. It's a bloggers dream. No denying it.
But it's not all that meets the eye. Firstly, to say I felt out of place is an understatement. I even got the memo about wearing pink, but nope. We paid the £5 price tag for a tiny, all be it dry cupcake to soak up the atmosphere on a cold table outside. LOL life.
Before we knew it there was 'influencers' descending on us. Sitting on the tables next to us, posing. Only leaving 5 minutes later with the shots that they had and uploading to Insta. We actually found these pictures on the influencers account afterwards claiming that they had been there. 
Like lol, no hun. I don't know what stopped me from calling her out then and there. It made me think. What is real that we see?
It was embarrassing. Way beyond embarrassing. It was everything that I would never want to be. I actually said 'I really hope I'm not like that'. DONT CHEAT THE SYSTEM. You pay for this £5 cupcake like everyone else to get the shots.
I have encountered 'influencers' like this before at events who turn up for the free s***, are nice to your face (or not) and then unfollow you as soon as they get home. 
Everyone is out to make a quick buck in this materialistic and quite frankly fake industry. It appears that being fake sells. But for how long?
How long are we going to continue buying into influencers who wear an outfit once, its up on depop within the hour and what comes with it is often no personality. More 'girls grab 40% off this top now' and *insert cliche quote*.
I'm fed up of endless beach shots, in bikini bottoms wedged up between bum cheeks (JUST BUY A GOD DAMN THONG BIKINI) when I'm slaving away in a 9-5 job and feeling guilty for looking between my curtains for the dominos delivery guy to pull up.
As influencers, you are ultimately a role model. You have responsibilities for you what you post. So it begs the question, do you think they are healthy role models? Do you honestly want to be like that?
It is not an attainable or easy lifestyle for your average, everyday person. It never will be. A person who works a 9-5 day, comes home to work on their own goals, still finds time to comment and reply to peoples questions, and bags their clothes up for a charity shop, rather than making money on something that they got for free is a role model.
Followers need to understand that these are not everyday lifestyles to buy into. That perfect bikini shot? It has been taken 153748 times, probably before breakfast and after a gym session. That 'jacket' they're promoting? They probably don't even like it. They've just been paid x amount to promote it, they're laughing. It's fakery at its finest.
That's why I'm buying into real people. Real bloggers who share their personal life, the high bits, as well as the low. The ones that stay true to themselves no matter how high their follower count reaches. The ones that exist past their Instagram account.
I've dropped a 'few' influencers off my Instagram feed in the last week. It's unhealthy, not realistic and quite personally a fake and unattainable lifestyle that I'm just not interested in.  

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Life Lately Through Instagram - April

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Hello April! How did that even happen? The months and weeks really do blur into one when you're busy, and it's hard to sometimes get a chance to stop and smell the roses. March was a really good, but busy month for me, and whilst I'm still managing to post quite regularly on my blog I would like to be posting more on social media about what I have been getting up to. The truth is I'm just so tired in the week that I sometimes just want to have some down time without having to look at my phone, so whilst I still have been active on that front somewhat I have been having more periods of time without using social media, and I'm feeling so much better for it! So for those interested in what I've been up to recently, here's a quick snapshot at what I've been doing over the last couple of months!

1. At the start of March I went to the wedding of my friends from Uni. James was the best man so we got to attend the whole day, the wedding was held in Portsmouth at a church which was followed by the most amazing reception at the Royal Marines Museum. It was such a perfect day and I loved every minute of it, I find that weddings always go so fast though! I absolutely loved my outfit too, the dress was from Asos and it is easily the dreamiest dress I own, I matched it with blush pink accessories which really complemented the grey shades of the dress!

2. I spent Easter weekend in Hitchin with James which was such a lovely relaxing break from work, we headed to Cambridge on one of the days which I thoroughly enjoyed, it's such a pretty place and as you can expect, a real hit with tourists so it was insanely busy!! For the rest of the weekend we had lots of walks in Hitchin, some shopping and a big roast on Easter Sunday. I always love visiting Hitchin as there is so many cute cafes that I'm yet to try, on Good Friday we tried The Groundworks where I had the most amazing lemon bundt cake, I always think it's so much better trying independent cafes as opposed to chains like Costa and Starbucks.

3. Many an hour has been wasted on Pinterest, but it's a place that I find so much inspiration, well for everything! I spotted the most amazing dog print on there a couple of months ago and put out a desperate tweet for anyone who knew who the artist was. Much to my delight I stumbled upon the artist Lisa Bengtsson last week who is from Sweden. Luckily I found Royal Design who ship to the UK at quite reasonable rates. The whole print cost £25 including delivery which I think is pretty good, her monochrome prints are just so dreamy, she does a selection of other dog designs like this depicted in a human like way. I just have to find a suitable frame for it now before I can transform my room into my pinterest worthy dreams!

4. It wasn't until last month that I posted my first ever flat lay! There's nothing more attractive than a picture that includes lots of pretty items which have been arranged in a visually appealing way. After reading Fashion Slave's blog on how to create a marble or wood effect flat lay, I purchased some marble effect paper which I have been using for my recent flat lays - it's life changing!! For so long I actually thought that I was the minority that didn't have marble work tops and wooden floorboards, oh how wrong I was!

5. New York happened! I posted about my week in New York last week which I hope you all loved reading! It was undoubtedly one of the best holidays ever, there's always something happening in New York & it literally is one of the best places on earth! Good food, amazing shopping and so many sights to see!

6. I discovered the chopstick styler from Lee Stafford in February - seriously though, this really is a life changing appliance. I have been meaning to include this in a favourites post for so long now as it is the only styler that makes my hair super curly and which doesn't drop out of my long hair. It does take a long time to achieve and is probably super damaging to hair if done often, but the effect that it achieves is amazing, it creates such tight Afro like curls that no one would think it wasn't your natural type of hair. I wore it like this to the wedding and it lasted ALL day, amazing!

7. OMG! Another amazing discovery of 2016, when Lauren tweeted me that this was a thing and I headed straight to Iceland. Millie's Cookies is definitely up there as one of the best, and whilst I can't justify a trip to my nearest one in London for a cookie fix, the convenience of Iceland makes things a lot easier for me. They sell both milk chocolate and white chocolate ones and they come pre cut, all you need to do is bake them in the oven. I can confirm that they taste just like the real thing too!

8. I'm trying to curb my spending habit at the moment whilst I'm saving for a house but who could resist this pleated skirt from primark? It is probably one of the best things they have had for a while, and it is an exact dupe of the Topshop one, but which is £20 cheaper. I loved shooting the pictures for this outfit post and I was so happy that I got a regram from Primark on Instagram for it too! Roping my mum in as my resident photographer is paying its dividends!

9. I've been on a real health kick over the past few weeks which really helps my overall health, I've mentioned a few times before that I have to be careful what sugars and fats I eat. I've also recently joined back up to my old gym as it is SO much closer to where I work now which makes sessions in the morning and evening much better. Healthy eating can get boring so I've been on the look out for lots of different exciting snacks this month, the Kuxxin healthy subscription box is one of the best discoveries so far, including 5 full sized bags of organic snacks, they really are so good! Some other healthy snack ideas that I've been trialling and would definitely recommend are; 3 ingredient healthy cookies, Almond milk, Primal pantry bars and trail mix (I've been making a homemade one with nuts, dried fruits and bits of 85% dark chocolate, yum!).

That's it for now - I'll be sending a round up your way in the near future! What have you been up to lately?

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#SotonMeetup Southampton Bloggers meet up!

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On Saturday I made the 8 hour round trip from Plymouth to Southampton, but it was all for good reason and totally worth the very long day! The trip was in aid of the #sotonmeetup which was organised by the fabulous Alice from Annie Writes Beauty and Amy from Amzy In Wonderland, they also organised the first one back in April which at the last minute I was unable to attend. So this time I was not going to let anything get in my way of attending and finally meeting some bloggers that I had been speaking to for about a year! The lovely Jessica from Chique Unique Critique picked me up from the station and we were then on our way to Orange Rooms for the meet up!

The lighting wasn't that great inside so I do apologise for the difference in quality of all the pictures! Anyway, I first clapped eyes on the Lush stand in Orange Rooms. It's always going to be a fab event when Lush are in attendance! 

They had most of their Christmas stock at the event and their new range of massage bars. The star bubble bar is the next on my list to purchase, apparently it lasts for 8 baths which is pretty good value for money!

This is 100% on my wishlist too, definitely not just for kids!! Not only can you mould shapes and snowmen with this it can be used for soap, a bubble bar or shampoo once you've finished playing with it, amazing!

Seriously, I'm going to be broke by the end of this post but the Santa lip scrubs are also a necessity. It smells of cola bottles and their lip scrubs never disappoint.

Bee Good were also at the event who are a brand local to the Hampshire area. The brand blossomed from an experienced bee keeper called Simon and it was then his wife Caroline who thought about starting their own skincare company incorporating the honey into the products.

They had such a lovely range of products ranging from lips to hand cream and to facial skincare, they also have another few products launching very soon. The packaging of the products is gorgeous and I love the ethics of this brand using all natural and British ingredients. We even got to take home a lovely lip balm in our goody bag!

There were also delicious Bee and flower shaped biscuits which were beautifully decorated and were even flavoured with honey too mmm!

Another well known brand at the event were Weleda, I've used a few of their hair products in the past but never delved into the rest of their range. I love how all of the products are coloured differently depending on their purpose.

I loved the little crackers too with products inside which make for perfect christmas presents!

Also on the day Oloves had a stand up but I didn't get any pictures of it unfortunately, they provided some lovely snack packs for the goody bags though which you'll see below!

With the lovely Jessica and Alice, this was one of the only pictures with okay quality that I got unfortunately!

At the end of the meet, it was time to be given the amazing goody bags, Alice and Amy seriously did such an amazing job getting all the different brands onboard!!

I'm sure you're all dying to have a peek inside...

So the goody bag is amazing!!! I had such an enjoyable and exciting morning yesterday going through the whole bag. I can't believe how full of amazing brands the bag was, the last goody bag from the #sotonmeetup was equally as good as this!

Super excited to try out soo many of these goodies, especially the Makeup Revolution palette, the dream dots and the nanshy blending brush!

It felt like Christmas had come early, a beauty bloggers dream!

On the day there were raffle prizes as well with all proceeds going to the British Legion for the Poppy Appeal, we all managed to raise an amazing £50 with Alice and Amy matching that which I think was such a lovely gesture! I also managed to win one of the prizes which was this Bodhi & Birch skin care set, I've never heard of the brand before but will be testing this out soon, the packaging is just gorgeous!

I want to say another big thank you to Alice and Amy for such an amazingly well organised event, it was soo nice to finally meet the bloggers that I had been speaking to for months and meet new ones too. It was a lovely day to mingle and discover some new brands. I'm now very excited about testing out some of the goodies, expect lots of upcoming reviews in the next few weeks! Also please leave your links below if you also attended, I would love to have a read!

Did you attend the #SotonMeetUp? Have you been to a blogger meet before? What do you think of the goody bag?

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