Q&A and Blog Anniversary!

Hi everyone,

So last week marked the one year anniversary of my blog. I cannot believe just how fast that year has gone! It’s crazy! Given that many of the people who read my blog are people who have never actually met me before, I thought it might be nice to do a little Q&A to help some of you get to know me a bit better. When one of my friends suggested I do this, I initially thought it seemed a bit self-indulgent, but I put the feelers out on my Instagram Stories and the response was very positive. Thank you to everyone who sent me a message with a question. Here I am with the answers :).

There were quite a few repeat / similar questions so I have tried to group them together. There is a good mix of personal, blogging, beauty and general lifestyle questions. Here we go……..

Why did you move to the UAE, and do you miss home?

This is by far the most common question that I get asked. I left home (Ireland) and moved to London when I was 21. I had just graduated from university and moved to London for work. A few of my friends were also living in London so that was a massive draw too. When I moved to London I met my husband Dan, and after five years we both agreed that we would like to spend some time living abroad. When it came to choosing the destination, we had the following criteria:

Somewhere in a central location that provided us with the opportunity to do lots of travelling
Somewhere that speaks English
Somewhere we would get good work experience
Somewhere with decent weather
Somewhere with direct flights to home and within a reasonable(ish) distance

For us, the UAE ticked all of those boxes, and after what felt like a lifetime in the making, our move to Abu Dhabi happened. Initially, the plan was to stay for about two years, but almost five years later we are still here……

As much as we love living here, we do of course miss home, but we know that our time in Abu Dhabi is temporary and will one day come to an end. We are also very fortunate that Dan works for an airline who fly to Dublin and London daily, so home never really feels that far away.

What do you find the most rewarding part of blogging?

For me, blogging is about writing about things that I am passionate about and sharing my thoughts (cheesy aren’t I?), so that in itself is very enjoyable. The most rewarding part for me, however, is definitely when I receive feedback on a blog post – for example, when someone messages me to tell me they have bought something that I recommend and they love it :).

What equipment do you use to take all of your photos? How do you edit them?

It depends where I am and what kind of photo I am taking. I have a Nikon D5500 camera, which I use if we go on holiday or if I want to take a particularly good quality photo for a blog post. However, I only know how to use the very basic functions on it, so I definitely need to learn more to get the most out of it! To be completely honest, 90% of my photos are just taken on my iPhone, especially my day-to-day photos for Instagram. The iPhone cameras are so advanced these days, and it is so quick and easy to use that I rarely feel the need to use my ‘proper’ camera. Often I will even use the iPhone’s built-in photo editor to brighten my photos slightly or increase the exposure. I try to take photos in the best light available so that they need as little editing as possible, but if I do want to edit something properly I use an Adobe program called Lightroom. Again, I really only know the very basics when it comes to using Lightroom, but that’s all I need at the moment. Lightroom also lets me automatically sync my photos with WordPress for the ones I want to use in blog posts, which is great! I spoke briefly about how I take and edit my photos in an earlier blog post, and not much has changed since then to be honest.

How do you look after your skin in the extreme heat?

When I first moved to Abu Dhabi, my skin really suffered with the changes in the atmosphere. There is so much dust and sand in the air here (I knew I was moving to the desert, so I can’t be too surprised) but it really did play havoc with my skin. As it is a hot and humid country, I fully expected my skin to look like a shiny, oily mess, but actually the complete opposite happened. My skin was very dry and dehydrated. On top of this, I developed pretty bad adult acne!

Given that I was due to get married a year later, I had tried everything to improve my skin. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I ended up on a short course of roaccutane, after many failed attempts with other milder medications. I know there are a lot of differing opinions on roaccutane as it can come with a lot of side effects. I had done a lot of research so I knew exactly what I was taking on with. Luckily for me however, my side effects were minimal and I had an extremely positive experience, but I know that this is not always the case, and everyone reacts differently, so it is a big decision for anyone to make.

Whilst the roaccutane did an amazing job at clearing up my acne, which was my main concern, it left other problems behind (such as extremely dehydrated and dull skin) and this is what I constantly work on improving (whilst of course keeping the acne away).

It took some time to overcome this and learn how best to treat my skin given the new environmental conditions, but I feel as though I have this under control now. This is what I find works best for me:

Using a heavy-duty oil or balm cleanser to thoroughly remove dirt and grime every night.
Exfoliate religiously – at least a couple of times a week. I alternate between gentle exfoliates and more targeted facial peels.
Pump as much moisture into the skin as humanly possible (through sheet masks, facial mists, facial oils, serums, hyaluronic acid and moisturisers). I also like to use the Kiehls Cilantro & Orange Extract Pollutant Defending Masque regularly. I have spoken about this before in a Kiehl’s event blog post.
Drink as much water as humanly possible!! I know this is an obvious one, but I need to practice what I preach – I definitely don’t drink enough water and this really shows on my skin. I’m trying very hard to change this.
USE AN SPF!!! I do not leave my apartment without factor 50 on my face. This is something that I have probably been too slack with until more recent years, but I do think that recently there has been so much more awareness surrounding this topic. I really wish I had started this earlier! I mentioned recently that my favourite SPF is the Haliocare 360. It contains factor 50 and is high in anti-oxidant properties, which is exactly what I need in this climate. It works perfectly under makeup and doesn’t have that the horrible sun cream feel to it.

What are your two favourite blog posts?

These would probably be my honeymoon blog post (because it gave me the opportunity to relive it all lol) and my Kiehl’s event one (which I mentioned above). I have particularly fond memories of that one because it was one of the first blog posts I had written, and it was the first ‘beauty event’ I attended since starting my blog. They also gave us an incredibly generous goodie bag (including the mask I mentioned).

What is your number one beauty ‘hack’

Use a bath or shower oil! Bath and shower oils are, in my opinion, an absolutely brilliant invention. They are so much more moisturising than normal shower gels and bath products. They are like a 2-in-1 beauty product that’s cleans and moisturises at the same time. I actually have a blog post coming next week which includes some of my favourite, affordable shower oils, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Be sure to check back next week :).

What’s your favourite product from Jo Malone

This was such a common question, so it is very obvious that people are aware of my love for Jo Malone lol. Given that I do really love lots of Jo Malone products, this is a very tough question, but I think my answer has to be the Lime Basil and Mandarin bath oil, for a number of reasons. The first being the fact that it is a ‘bath oil’, which we have now established I love. Secondly, Lime, Basil and Mandarin is the scent I associate with our wedding day (I wore the perfume and body cream, and had the candle burning when I was getting ready) so this smell will always be special to me (being cheesy again). Thirdly, as much as I love Jo Malone perfumes, body creams, diffusers and candles, there are so many other brands also doing these products that I love just as much, if not more. However, I have not come across a bath oil that I prefer more than this one yet. There are certainly dupes for this one that I also love, but the Jo Malone bath oil is such a special treat. I had previously mentioned it in my pamper evening blog post, and I still love it.

What’s your favourite holiday destination and why?

I am going to cheat with this one and say I have 2. The first one is a place that was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so it’s not realistic to say it’s a favourite destination, but it’s certainly my favourite place that I’ve visited , and the second is somewhere that I would go back to every single year if I could.

The first place is of course, Pangkor Laut, where Dan and I went on Honeymoon. I have written a full blog post on this, so you can read about it in detail there if you like.

The second place is Rome. Europe has some of the BEST cities in the world and Rome is without a shadow of a doubt one of my favourites. Everything about Rome (well this could be said for the most of Italy, but Rome in particular) is beautiful; the people, the architecture, the food, the weather, the history. I could happily spend weeks there just wandering the streets, eating pizza and gelato. Dan and I went a couple of years ago for a few nights and we are dying to go back. It’s the simple things in life, like sitting at a table on a cobbled street outside a tiny café drinking coffee that make me insanely happy. Rome is the perfect place to do this!

What’s your favourite café in Belfast?

Speaking of cafés – I was asked what my favourite café in Belfast is. It’s been almost 10 years since I lived in Belfast when I was at university, so it’s safe to say that a lot has changed since then. However, on one of my last trips home, I went to a place called ‘French Village Patisserie and Brasserie’ on the Lisburn Road with my mum and aunt, and it was really nice.

Where have you had the best spa treatment

My honeymoon has definitely featured a lot in this blog post lol, but I have to say the best spa treatment I have EVER had was at Pangkor Laut. My blog post gives a detailed description of the treatment (or ceremony I should say). It was an unbelievable, highly entertaining and somewhat over the top experience. I’m pretty sure I will never have a spa treatment as indulgent as that ever again. If you want a giggle, take a read of that blog post.

What is your favourite thing about living in the UAE?

As I mentioned earlier, we have been living in Abu Dhabi for five years now, so obviously there are lots of things that we love about living here, otherwise we wouldn’t have stayed! My favourite thing has definitely been the friends that we have made and the opportunity to travel. On a less serious note, my favourite thing is the valet parking everywhere you go – I don’t know how I will ever move home lol lol :).

What are your favourite kind of blog posts to write?

There are so many things I like to write about, such as makeup and travel, but I think it is fair to say that skincare and home interiors are where my main passion lies. I could talk about these two things all day, every day! 🙂

I think that has pretty much covered all of the main questions. If there is anything I have missed, or if you didn’t get a chance to ask a question, then please feel free to send me a message or write in the comments section below and I will happily respond :).

I hope that helps some of my new readers to know me a little better, and to know what to expect from my blog.

I have learnt a lot about blogging over the past year but I am looking forward to learning more over the coming year. I have given my website a little freshen up for its birthday lol, so you can go and have a look if you are interested to see how it looks now :). I’d love to hear any feedback that you might have.

Thank you so much to everyone who subscribes, comments and reads my blog posts every week. I really appreciate it and look forward to bringing you more content this year :).

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Claire x