As the name of her blog suggests, Leigh van den Berg is obsessed with lipgloss. The owner of Lipgloss Is My Life – who has over 7000 Twitter followers and almost 6000 Instagram followers – enjoys 1.6 million visitors to her blog. Leigh mostly writes and reviews beauty products but occasionally includes other lifestyle elements like fitness and food. We got to know theblogger.
How and when did you discover your love for all things beauty?
I've always loved make-up and had an interest in skin care for as long as I can remember (Tinkerbelle make-up for the win!) but it was while working as the assistant editor for Clicks ClubCard magazine and hogging all the beauty-related stories for myself that I realised it was my favourite thing to write about.
When did you start your blog?
About five or six years ago, I think.
How easy or difficult has the blogging journey been?
It's been both easy as pie as well as hard as hell. A real labour of love.
What are some of the highlights of being in charge of Lipgloss Is My Life?
I love being able to share all the insider beauty knowledge I've learned along the way with my audience. Being sent a myriad of free beauty products is fabulous too. I've also gotten to attend loads of exciting, interesting launches with great food, free-flowing bubbly and spoilicious goodie bags that definitely compensate for the tedious ones. In a way, it becomes a lifestyle and it's (mostly) a fun one.
What are some downsides/bad moments that you have experienced on this journey?
Having to deal with certain PRs who just don't understand how to work with bloggers is pretty draining. You can't send me a random toe nail clipper and then harass me for a week as to why I haven't created a video and beautifully styled Instagram post about it. I carefully curate what I feature and creating great content is hard work that deserves a decent trade exchange. I've also had run ins with a few bad apple bloggers who view their peers as competitors and attempt to get all 'mean girl' on you but this kind of thing isn't unique to my industry. My response to the latter is Taylor Swift-inspired in that I simply 'shake it off'.
Do you blog full time? If not, what else do you do to pay the bills?
Blogging helps to pay my bills but the rest of them get sorted out thanks to my freelance writing career. I used to write a lot for magazines but now the majority of my workload is scripting for TV and copywriting for ad agencies.
What are/have been the biggest trends for 2016?
I couldn't give a damn about trends. The hottest look is the one that suits you best, not what's coming down a runway. I do keep my eye on beauty and skincare innovations, however, and love chatting to aesthetic docs and dermatologists about what's new and exciting. I think we're moving into a space now where women are realising they can trust Botox and fillers and that it's best to use them from a younger age so as to avoid possibly wanting to get a face lift later on. (I started at 27!) Prevention is always better than cure.
What are your plans for 2017?
I'm just going to keep on trucking. One of my blog's aims is to help better educate women about the anti-ageing products they're buying as there's so much misinformation put out there by brands with an agenda to sell overpriced, badly formulated rubbish masquerading as luxurious innovation. For example, few women need an eye cream – most can get what you need for your eye area via their facial treatment provided its a good one. (I'm a retinol fan for life.) And if you're still buying anti-ageing products in jars as opposed to airless pumps then you're wasting your time as the majority of active ingredients don't remain stable when exposed to air. But that's why I'm here. Visit the blog, become a regular reader and you'll learn to become a savvy shopper.