You Know You're a Beauty Blogger If...

• Your loved ones feel neglected by your daily blogging/vlogging habits.
• Your family and friends don't understand how one can be truly smitten with a beauty product.
• You have spent hours - or even days - working on a post.
• You have spent countless hours watching YouTube tutorials, reviews, and hauls.

[Photo Credit: www.ceo1shop.com]

• Your make-up, bath, and body products require special storage containers. 
• Your make-up, bath, and body products require a separate room and furniture. 
• You don't own large quantities of beauty products, and fear people will think you are a beauty blog fraud because of it.
• Your bank statements are full of charges from [insert every company ever mentioned on YT, MUAlley, Specktra, and Blogger].
• You have spent two hours painting your face, polishing your nails, and giving yourself a sleek blowout -- all in preparation for a beauty blog "photo shoot"...
• ...but no one is available to take pictures...
• ...so you end up with a million and one up-close self portraits...
•  ... and an arm that appears to be ten miles long.

[Cropped to twenty miles, down from 1,000.]

• Tired of seeing your Stretch Armstrong limb and/or taking pictures of yourself in the mirror, you invested in a tripod.  (This comes in especially handy when your boyfriend/husband/partner/friend/kid isn't available.  Hopefully those aren't all one in the same, redneck!)
• After snapping two hundred pictures, you find that only two of them turned out to be decent.
• You have had to crop the bottom half of your photos because, in them, you are wearing pajama bottoms.
• You could teach Picnik.com classes.  (Their cropping feature is excellent for trimming the aforementioned pajama bottoms.)
• You want to invest in a fancy camera.
  
• You have invested in a fancy camera.

  [Photo Credit: www.amazon.com]

• You think swatches are a bit of a pain to photograph, and truly appreciate the work of Temptalia, Karen, Elessa, and Karla.
•  You know who Temptalia, Karen, Elessa, and Karla are.
• You know that writing a post isn't as simple as typing a few words.  One word: EDITING.
• You occasionally cheat and use Google Images to find pictures of the products you are reviewing.  (Kind of like what I did for this post.)
• You know why this stamp was created:

• You use the words "orgasm" and "deep throat" with reckless abandon.
• You wonder how you will ever find 100 people to follow your blog.
• You wonder how bloggers with a GFC count of 1,000+ got people to follow their blog.
• You realized that posting regularly and interacting with the beauty community is the best way to churn interest in your blog.  For those of you who didn't know this, now you know.  :)  Over time, the followers will come, I promise.  It's not about what you look like, whether or not your grammar is perfect, or how great your make-up skills are.  Send out friendly vibes and I am confident your friend count will increase.  And if it doesn't?  Oh, well.  Write for you.  Write for those handful of people who do appreciate what you have to say.
• You realized that commanding and demanding is not the way to call attention to you and your blog.  "I FOLLOWED YOU.  NOW YOU FOLLOW ME!!!!  PLS!!!!  LULZ!!!!1".
• You get excited when you see your follower count has increased.
• You feel a little sad when your follower count decreases.
• You are a little envious of those who get sent free products.
• You wonder how and why people get sent free products.
• You become the object of envy when you get sent free products.
• You worry about writer's block.
• You suffer from writer's block.
• You have almost gone "Office Space" on your laptop, fancy camera, and Blogger.  (Upside down photos and weird gaps between your paragraphs, anyone?)
• You have gone "Office Space" on your laptop, fancy camera, and Blogger.

• You need an anxiety pill when your Internet connection is on the fritz.
• You feel bad if you allow a week to pass by without posting, fail to respond to comments, or fall behind on your daily blogger reads.  (These "sins" usually occur simultaneously.)
• You understand why bloggers/vloggers apologize for going M.I.A., even if it's only for a few days.
• Having felt this guilt before, you know their apologies are sincere.
• If your favorite bloggers/vloggers don't post for a week, you grow a bit concerned.  
• If your favorite bloggers/vloggers don't show any signs of Internet activity for over a month, you leave a comment in their chat box.  (Appropriate messages include: "Where are you?  I miss your posts!" or "I hope you're okay!  Come back soon, girlie!".)  
• If your favorite blogger(s)/vlogger(s) delete their blog(s)/channel(s) without notice, you request that said blogger/vlogger's picture and information be put on the back of milk cartons STAT.

[Photo Credit: www.mooncostumes.com.]

• You wear the SFOTDED (Same Face of the Day, Every Day),  and are running out of FOTD ideas.
• You wear a smokey eye, even to the gym.  (Okay, maybe that's just a Kate Gene thing.)
• YouTube and Blogger "made you do it".
• You never win beauty blog giveaways.
• You wish there was an easier way to create buttons for giveaways.
• You know basic HTML, thanks to months of posting giveaway photographs in your sidebar.
• You suffer from the Blogger's Four Month Itch.  (Word on the streets is, that is the average life span of a blog.)  For those who have made it past that point, congratulations.
• You don't understand trolls and the hateful comments they leave. 
• You have bravely defended a fellow blogger/vlogger who is attacked by the previously mentioned trolls (a.k.a. some thirteen year old geeks who have no lives).

 [Photo Credit: www.childrenofthenineties.blogspot.com]

• You have posted Adsense ads, praying they will bring in some extra income.
• You have realized the ads will not allow you to quit your day job, but leave them on your page -- just in case.
• You feel honored when someone tags you, or awards you with an... award.  ("Durr...  Allow myself to introduce... myself.")
• You feel special when you see you've made it onto someone's blogroll.
• You are inspired by the girls (and guys!) who share their talent and passion with the world.
• You understand that make-up artistry and fashion are true forms of art.

[Photo Credit: www.trendland.net]

• Initially, you were scared to share yourself with the beauty community...
• ...but you realize that if you hadn't, you would have missed out on meeting some really great people.
• You have exchanged full names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and BB Pins with your blogging crew.
• You consider your "blogger/vlogger friends" friends.
• You understand this entire post.

 [Photo Credit: www.starpulse.com]

We in the beauty community may not be as close as these two, but hey!  I am always down for a sweet photo shoot at Sears.  Holler if you're interested.  ;)

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