Interview with Dolcé Vanity
This week, we’ve been chatting to the beautiful LaaLaa, owner and author of Dolcé Vanity – one of the UK’s top beauty blogs, featured in the likes of Cosmopolitan, Instyle and NEXT.
Now, we all love playing around with make-up and indulging in some beauty therapy and there’s no shame in that! But Dolcé Vanity is about so much more than superficial beauty. LaaLaa takes the definition of Beauty to a level we should all be familiar with but too few of us are. Her blog is about appreciating that we’re all kinds of beautiful.
I don’t want to get all Disney on you guys but LaaLaa really is an inspiration. She’s had plenty of battles to fight and she’s kicked ass with the whole world reading as she does it. I know I’m not the only woman out there who’d like to say a genuine ‘Thank you’ for showing us how it’s done.
Nicci: Let’s start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got into blogging.
LaaLaa: I began Dolcé Vanity officially in October 2008. Earlier on in that year, around May, I had started blogging about personal topics; sort of an online diary so I had already got the blogging bug.
But after being on bed rest for a month after an operation, I didn't have much to do except watch the few U.S. beauty channels on YouTube and I just thought that could be the path I'd like to go down.
I jumped right in with no blueprint. It was just fun for me, having a new platform to be able to discover another side of beauty but at the same time still share who I am and speak to new people - who 8 years later, I still keep in contact with.
Becoming more involved and buying books on how to do make-up and care for your hair & skin made me want to go ahead and actually learn professionally, which lead me to enrol at the Academy of Freelance Make-Up (AOFM) to gain qualifications.
Since 2012 I have been lucky enough to be able to say that I am more than a beauty blogger.
Nicci: Did you always intend to write about issues that were close to your heart, or was that a decision that came later?
LaaLaa: My blog pretty much started like that. When I started my blog I had not long been diagnosed with agoraphobia, manic depression & anxiety, also not forgetting becoming a vegetarian. I shared it from the beginning. It was an outlet for me to be able to share how I was feeling that day.
It’s crippling suffering from severe anxiety and agoraphobia. At its peak I couldn't do what I use to be able to do.
I would blog sometimes twice a day and I would receive such caring feedback and others would tell me how they found it inspiring that I was sharing my pain. It led to me getting emails from some of these followers, who I now consider friends, and who wanted someone else to talk to that maybe wasn’t going through exactly the same thing but who also had moments of anxiety or depression.
I didn't want to change that. It’s not for everyone to blur the lines between personal life and beauty but in my eyes beauty is more than makeup & hair. It just got marketed more as a beauty blog than lifestyle.
You’ve posted about some really powerful topics on you blog, like persity in beauty advertising, mental health issues and animal testing. Is there ever any part of you that wonders how your readers will react to certain topics?
LaaLaa: No, not at all. That’s not to say that I don't care what they have to say or how they feel but I've been brought up to speak on what you feel.
I also think how you write something can be the key to bridging the gap. Not everyone is going to see my point of view but I try to look at both sides and not to be judgemental while still upholding my views.
I've been lucky enough to receive good feedback on such topics but it also opens up a chance for conversation either between my readers or all of us. That, to me, is what blogging should be about. We don't all have the same views and that’s versatility.
I think there are ways to be opinionated without being spiteful or judgemental.
You’ve posted about how you felt you needed to reclaim you blog, can you tell us about why you felt that way and how you got to that point? Also, what did you do to start taking your blog back?
LaaLaa: "If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies."
Blogging changed, in a huge way, it became THE thing to do and there's nothing wrong with that but for me, when I feel a shift and it doesn't sit right with me, I take a backseat and change my role to suit me.
After I won the Cosmo Blog Award, which I am eternally grateful for, all of a sudden a good amount of companies took an interest, wanting their products on my blog and to meet with me.
I got an abundance of followers overnight. The majority of those followers, who were up and coming and also getting popular, didn't want to speak to me. They just wanted to follow, just because a company said I was the best at that moment.
We had nothing in common, not even beauty could bond us. It was all superficial. Although I rode that wave, I realised that my blog lost its character. It began to be just review after review. There's nothing wrong with blogs like that, but for me it feels like a magazine advert. Post after post, I just didn't want mine to be that.
I contemplated either starting from fresh and distancing myself, changing the name but it felt as if I was killing something I wasn't ready to kill.
Instead, I'm now mostly just working with brands & companies whose products I truly believe in and like.
Once in a while I may try something new but I'm into more organic/natural products and D.I.Y beauty where possible, so it's taking it back to what I enjoy.
Sometimes I shut off comments, I just want to write and share. Unfortunately people think a blog is good on the amount of comments and followers, it’s rarely about content and originality. I'm still trying to claim it back if I'm honest, but in time…
Do you have any particular aims or goals in mind for the future of your blog?
LaaLaa: I’d like to do more make-up looks on the blog. Maybe even collaboration with a brand, a natural, organic beauty box possibly once I get my blog to that point completely but I’m going to continue to document my yearning for a more minimalistic life.
For the future? I'm just living in the present and whatever presents itself - I will deal with.
Nicci: That sounds like a moto we could all try to live by!
