The Foundation of a Beauty Blogger

Anna Lepcin has always been an artist.

“I started a blog as I have a very high interest in beauty and makeup,” Lepcin said. “I guess it’s my artistic view of it. I used to draw on paper before realizing that I can actually do it on my face. So when I look at makeup I see it as art – in which I see the different interpretations in ways to express your own style.”

Before officially publishing her blog, Lepcin spent quite some time on organizing and making it user-friendly to her friends and newcomers.

“I started working on it a long time before I even introduced it to anybody, probably about a month. Coming up with different posts and trying to make it look user friendly. After having about four posts up, I shared it and it was really exciting,” she said. “It was then summer when I was really getting into makeup that I wanted to share things with people, so I figured to start a blog since I enjoy writing.”

As a teen blogger, Lepcin manages her time between school, social life, and her blogging. Though her blog is still at a beginning stage, she works everyday to improve it.

“I try to give myself time to write at least an hour a day so that way I can keep coming up with more posts and make sure that I have things ready for when I want to post something. But I do quite a bit of research on my own before putting a blog post out there just to make sure that I am giving people accurate information, so I usually try to get a post out a week,” she said. “It’s motivating to know that once I finish a blog post all of my friends and family tell me how helpful it was and that they enjoyed it and the good writing.”

Although different makeup artists and bloggers have inspired Lepcin in their own ways, one that stands out the most is Huda Kattan, founder of Huda Beauty. Kattan is an entrepreneur and has the #1 blog in the Middle East while being in the top 20 best beauty blogs worldwide. Lepcin finds Kattan inspiring through her ways of starting from the bottom and creating her own business.

“She started out as a blogger and then became a businesswoman. She was able to create her own brand and I thought that was really awesome since that’s something I’d love to be able to do in the future.” Lepcin said. “I’ve spent a lot of time watching her videos and reading her blogs.”

In order to pursue her dream with makeup and blogging, Lepcin already has a set plan for her next few years to come.

I am taking a gap year next year so that I will be able to work full time at Sephora in the mall, in hopes that I also have more time to work on my blog,” she said. “I am still unsure but if after a year I decide that makeup is what I really want to do, then I’ll probably take another gap year and work some more until I am able to move to Spokane, Washington to go to their cosmetology school I want to go to.”

Her times spent working during her gap year(s), Lepcin not only will be guiding herself through the blogging journey but will be learning different skills and ideas that may be beneficial for her future with makeup.

“Sephora teaches and holds classes that the employees go through to teach them about certain products and new things such as new techniques that are happening. I have to be knowledgeable about certain products in case a customer comes in and has questions. So whenever new things come up Sephora will let us know what those things are and how to do different makeup styles,” Lepcin said.

As a blogger Lepcin has set goals for herself and her blog. From networking to graduating cosmetology school to becoming professional, she ultimately wants to become more well known and help people be more confident when they were makeup.

“I want to work on networking more because right now I am most focused on Instagram since that’s just what I use most often but I want to be more active with my Facebook and Twitter page. I’d love to interact more with other bloggers and doing joint blogging, including a youtube channel. I want to start this summer since it helps drive audience,” Lepcin said. “In a few years, I would love to get my cosmetology license to do freelancing on my own and be able to, not start my own company with makeup, but just individually have people come to me so I can do their makeup.”

Although she faces difficulties with motivation and keeping up with the blog, Lepcin is able to find time to write and keep her readers reading to progress her blog.

“It’s difficult to maintain the blog because sometimes I can get really busy or distracted with other things which holds me back from posting so then I get that sense of urgency which makes me lose even more motivation. So it can be difficult to keep up with it but the way I get around that is by writing ahead of time and taking an hour everyday to write so that way i don’t have to crunch down,” she said.

Since starting beauty blogging, Lepcin has so far has had two offers from small companies to work with them, one being Hartley Watches. Currently her and Hartley Watches are meeting ends for her to review their product on her blog in return of some free watches. In reviewing products and gaining a growing audience, she enjoys helping not only her friends but her readers how makeup works and the different techniques to do it.

“Giving other people tools that I feel like have benefited my life feels good,” Lepcin said. “I know that makeup has brought me great joy and a lot of the posts that I include in my lifestyle section of my blog have helped me a lot in my life so I wanted to get the chance to share that with other people.”