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Hello. Again. After two years. I have had these words swirling around in my head for some time and now I am pushing them onto here. I am not using AI to write this post though lately, it’s hard to tell what has been written by a human. Mind you, the inclusion of that long hyphen is a dead give-away ChatGPT has been used.
Just Nice Things has been dormant for two years but it actually goes further back with the sudden shift to other social media platforms and the birth of influencers. Blogs have been ditched and people no longer have the attention span and patience to read carefully curated posts. Why am I writing this? I feel like I owe to myself and to this platform to say my piece.
I fell off the beauty bandwagon a long time ago. I have been removed from the mailing lists of all the brands I worked with because I just am not active and brands wants a high volume of traffic and return. Enter the next generation who are accurately called ‘influencers’ because they influence, you the consumer that you “need this product in your life”. I was never an influencer and I never will be. I don’t have the gift for it. At the heart of this, I am a writer and always will be. I will always be honest in my opinions and recommendations, and I believe most people are smart enough to know.
I pay a premium every year to keep this blog live even though I don’t update it regularly. It is something I am proud of growing and nurturing since I started it with my friend, Helen in 2009. It is a record that I will continue to preserve online till the plug is pulled.
When it comes to beauty, I still enjoy it. The difference now is I feel more like a consumer again. To think that once upon a time, I knew about every collection launch. Now I am somewhat out of the loop but I am also more selective and conscious of what brands I buy especially which ones are ethical. In short, my make-up is from Huda Beauty, my skin care is Korean and my bath stuff is Lush. It matters greatly where my money is going.
Elsewhere I have developed a strong interest in fragrances – Middle Eastern ones to be exact, so I love discovering new scents and growing my collection, which I started two years ago. My friend, Lima of Fashionicide is responsible for leading me astray, and knows her stuff. Perhaps I may write a post on perfumes but it won’t be very high-brow. I still feel very underdeveloped in my knowledge and understanding of fragrances. I just know what I like the smell of and what perfumes are my favourites! Speaking of which, it is very likely I will post on Instagram instead. That’s the intention so let’s see if I do!
Offline I have been learning the art of dialling in and brewing a cup of espresso from bean to cup, and steaming and texturing milk to create fancy latte art. It is a passion and I am loving exploring this world.
I apologise for the inconsistency in image sizes and lack of image correcting. I no longer subscribe to Adobe Photoshop and the templates WordPress have built are convoluted. (Just keep the damn thing simple like a wordprocessing document. What’s with the blocks?!) In fact, nothing is free any more. Everything comes with a subscription and I am not committed enough to pay for software I won’t use regularly.
Any way, it’s adios from me for the time being. I’m retreating back to my life offline. This has been fun and wild.
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