Essential Reading for Beauty Bloggers

Beauty Blogging is so much more than taking pretty pictures and writing about lipstick.  To be successful, beauty bloggers need to take into account things like networking, taking good quality pictures and accurate swatches, developing relationships with brands and PRs and gaining a solid understanding of the technical side of blogging, not that I’m that great at any of the above, but I’m aware it’s needed! Below are four great sites that I believe are of immense benefit to any beauty blogger:

1.  British Beauty Blogger

Easily the British beauty blogging queen, Jane knows about all things beauty ages before the rest of us mere mortals get wind of it.  Most days the blog is updated several times and her back catalogue alone is worth spending a couple of hours reading through.  Jane is incredibly honest, up front and willing to write exactly as she finds.  If you’re new to blogging or want to learn from the best then I strongly recommend putting aside an evening and going through BBB’s previous posts as there’s so much to learn about beauty blogging on there that you cannot find anywhere else; it’s absolutely essential reading.

2.  Make-Up Savvy

Fee writes some great perspective posts on beauty blogging as a hobby and her thoughts on certain aspects like blogger events and PR samples make for a really interesting read, so if you’re just starting out in the blogging world, these posts are definitely worth checking out.

3.  The Sunday Girl

This is the site to familiarise yourself with if you’re keen to improve your reviewing skills or seek inspiration on how to make pictures of make-up look absolutely beautiful. TSG also appears to be starting to write tutorials on how to take great pictures, so this is a blog that’s definitely worth a follow for both new and regular beauty bloggers alike.

4.  Girl Does Geek

Pretty much exactly as it says on the tin; this is the site you need to visit if you want to gain a better understanding of the technical side of blogging explained by a girl (so it makes *much* more sense….) who knows exactly what bloggers want to know about with regards to things like Photoshop and Search Engine Optimisation.  Everything is explained clearly and concisely and the blog is broken down into easy to digest chunks so you can learn about it bit by bit rather than finding yourself overloaded with technical jargon.

Obviously there are many, many other great blogs that prove brilliantly useful to aspiring beauty bloggers like myself, but I find myself regularly returning to these four when I’m in need of help or inspiration.  Which blogs do you rely on for such things?