One year blog anniversary

This time 12 months ago I was just starting out as a blogger .... again. Having had several blogs since around 2009 none of which I truly put my heart into, this time I was determined to stick it out. To celebrate a year of Eskay Beauty I thought Id look at the reasons I started this blog in the first place, the things I've achieved through my blog so far,  what I've learnt from it and what I want to accomplish over the next 12 months.

Why I started Blogging...

So here is where it gets a little deep, apologies in advance... when I was 14 back in 2006, I got 'jumped' (a gang of girls beat me up for no reason) and I sustained some pretty serious injuries not to mention the mental damage it inflicted. Because of this I spent the next three years glued to my computer during any spare time I had. At this time YouTube wasn't really a thing for makeup tutorials, it was mainly music covers. I was actually one of the first to watch some of Justin Bieber's covers and say "he'll be famous one day" (had to throw that in there HAHA) along with that I discovered the world of blogging and would sit up reading endless posts on healthy recipes, makeup routines and more. I decided to start my own called sophisorus, CRING!! That was one of about 5 over the last 6 years, none of which I took seriously. In those 6 years I discovered the world of Youtube and 'vlogging' and each time I started again, I would concentrate that little bit more.  I would watch videos from people like Carah Amelia and think 'I could do that' and with no one in 'real life' to share my passion with I wanted to meet like minded people to talk endlessly about make-up and such things. I watched a Nikki Phillip video last year and it really inspired me to just go for it. That's when Eskay Beauty was born :)

In my first year of blogging I have...

After about 3 months of blogging I got invited to my first ever blogger event by Next. If you've been with me from the beginning you may know about my battle with anxiety, so for me this was a HUGE deal. The Next Blogger Event was held at the Hoxton Hotel in London and was a day filled with so much useful knowledge from industry specialists and experienced bloggers, like Lily Pebbles and Anna from Vivianna does make-up. Here I met up with some lovely girls including Mel from Vintagetearoses and Holly from I2Style who I still keep in regular contact with and would now consider friends. Mel took me for a little tour around london and then we met up the following day to go to the event. It was amazing and so inspiring and really opened my eyes to the world of blogging.







I started talking to Abbi from Abbigayle Warner and we met up in Birmigham and had a day shopping and went for a coffee. It was a really nice day and we still keep in touch now. 

I then went to London for the Bloggers Lounge London Blogger Fashion Week with Holly from I2Style. We had a great evening meeting lots of lovely bloggers including Beth from Beauty in Beta and April from Beautiface 



The past year has been crazy exciting, and makes me so excited for where else my blog will take me.

What I've learnt from blogging...
Blogging has taught me so many things but I'd say the biggest thing I've learnt is to be myself. There are so may bloggers these days and it can be really hard to not duplicate what others have already done. I've learnt to not feel pressured to be the first to do something but just make sure I do it in my own way. Follow people you actually enjoy reading and watching or those who you have built genuine friendships with. Don't feel pressure to follow back everyone. There will be people who follow you and expect a follow back, if you don't they'll delete you. Let them. Concentrate on the people who love to read your content and the stats will look after themselves. When I first started blogging and I was constantly checking my follower count, I would always notice the un-follows and worry about what I was doing wrong, it's easily done. Now I try to concentrate on the people who actually communicate with me regularly through comments and on twitter. Don't get me wrong, stats are important and make you feel accomplished but don't let it possess your every thought.

What I want to accomplish over the next 12 months...
The biggest thing I'd like to do over the next 12 months is to complete organising and hold my first ever event, the #midlandsbloggermeet. If you haven't heard about it yet, you can read up on it here. I'm really looking forward to attending more blogger events and meeting lots more people and making friendships. I want to get super organised with blogging and post a lot more frequently and it would be amazing to reach 1000 followers this year :)

I thought I'd include all of my stats across all social media as a little reminder of where I am now and I can look back next year and reflect on how far I've come.

Bloglovin: 237
Members: 80
Google+: 68
Twitter: 700
Facebook: 203
Instagram: 818
YouTube: 61
Pinterest: 22

Making the decision to finally start this blog and follow through has been the best decision I've ever made. The past 12 months have been my best yet!

Thank you so much to each and every one of you. Here's to the next 12 months :)

♥