At 2:00pm after a fun filled day spending up big at IMATS we made our way back to the Novotel for the Beauty Directory Event lead by the founder of Beauty Directory, Jackie Maxted. I warn you this is quite a wordy post and will probably be of more interest to fellow beauty bloggers than anyone else as this was an informative session.
We were given information about some new products.
Lapurete: A skin care range that touts itself as natures alternative to botox. Peter Rays gave us some background into the range that uses the Okuru plant, a plant that grows in Western Africa which the locals have been using for centuries as it has high nutritional value and amazing benefits of minimising expression lines. I was given the La Purite night cream to trial and I can’t wait to start using it.
The Purist Company: Iona introduced us to the The Pure Therapy range which was developed to address a number of common skin concerns such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis. The products contain a unique blend of natural ingredients to help nurture and maintain the skin’s barrier function by replenishing moisture, Piroctone Olamine to help control the appearance of dry flaky skin and Colloidal Oatmeal to help soothe and reduce dry skin redness by moisturising the skin. We were lucky enough to be given a goodie bag containing a shampoo, conditioner, body cleanser, body moisturiser and the intensive repair gel.
Tri-shave: Larissa told us about these products that were developed for men and women to prevent shaving rash. The products don’t sting or clog pores and work as a moisturiser, antiseptic and shaving cream in one. We were gifted with the 3 in 1 Anti-rash shave cream in the men and women’s formula, the 3 in 1 Post Shave Moisturising Lotion and the SPF 30 UV Body Defence Post Shave Moisturiser.
Jackie then came back up to give us some tips on how to handle relationships with PR’s. I thought this was invaluable as I’m new to this whole game and want to push my blog to be a success and these relationships are key to that success. Some of Jackie’s tips:
- Approach with a friendly respect.
- Always reply to invitations.
- Don’t say you can attend functions then not show up.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for an invite but make sure you can justify why you should be granted an invite.
- Let PR’s know that you are out there.
- Remember that the PR needs to justify why you were sent a product so be respectful.
- Be prepared to talk about your blog in a snapshot, build a PR kit.
- Use constructive criticism, good and bad points.
- If you have asked the PR for a product and you feel you will write a negative review chat to the PR first and maybe send the product back.
- Send a link to your review within a week of publication to the PR.
- Handwritten thank you notes go a long way and PR’s appreciate the gesture because they give so much out they love to get a personalised thank you in return.
- Think of your audience when writing a review, whether you have 10 readers or 10,000.
- Find your point of difference and execute that in a way that is educational to your reader.
- Spelling and grammar are extremely important.
She was then joined on a panel with Eleanor Pendleton, Beauty Editor of Instyle Magazine and Kimmi of The Plastic Diaries and we were invited to ask questions about PR relationships. Afterwards each table was asked to conduct a discussion on a range of topics. My table was asked to discuss out motivation for blogging , why we started, what we hope to achieve and what we can offer as a blogger – our point of difference.
I learned a lot from these discussions and it was great to hear perspectives from someone like Jackie with a background in PR. I’ve only been a beauty blogger since February and I never really know how to react when I’m contacted by PR’s. In some ways I feel obliged to review products since they have taken the time to track me down and offer but I actually turn down a lot of offers because I know I will not use the product and I work full-time and just can’t review everything. When I’m at work I’m also completely out of contact via mobile/internet so I can’t steal a few minutes to work on posts – it’s probably a good thing or I’d be so distracted. I have started taking a notebook to work though in case I have some ideas for posts and need to jot them down.
Afterwards we were given some amazing goodie bags:
So… many… goodie bags
Then it was time to go back to my hotel and get glammed up for the Maxted Thomas Gala more of that in my next post – Part three.
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4 Responses to The ABBW Part 2 – Beauty Directory Seminar
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Love how well you documented the day! My memory is like a sieve
I took quite a lot of notes throughout but I wish I could have been better with keeping track of all the other bloggers I met throughout, can’t wait until the list of everyone that attended came out so I can follow everyone’s blogs!
The PR stuff is really interesting, mostly because I would never ask a PR company for invites or products myself! That scares me and I would worry about coming across as rude or demanding :X I’m taking notes though about emailing them links and sending thank yous. Thanks for sharing this with us non-attendees!
No worries, I thought it would be interesting reading for those that didn’t attend. I’m the same I couldn’t ask for products or invites either and I buy so much I struggle to review everything that I buy! We don’t have events in Perth anyway and with my shift work it would be a bit impossible to go to most things. It was a really interesting seminar though and made me realise how important it is to build good PR relationships.