This week’s Campus Celeb is the multi-talented Emily Stoker. She is not only our Social Media Director, but also Founder of the beauty blog prettypleaseblog.co.uk, which is definitely worth checking out! She tells us more about blogging, beauty products and Bristol life.
What’s your course, where do you come from and why did you decide to study in Bristol?
I study French with ab initio Italian and I’m from the Salisbury area. I remember thinking I’d like to come to university here when I was about 14, and as luck would have it, when I decided to study French and Italian they had a great course here.
How did you first get interested in blogging?
I’d followed the beauty community on YouTube for a really long time and even contributed a bit with my own videos when I was still at school. After starting uni I really wanted to get involved again, but blogging was a much easier commitment for me at the time. Since then I’ve branched out from writing exclusively about beauty, and I even have a nice camera – quite a change from when I started out using my phone.
How has it been running a blog and being a student full-time as well?
It’s a real struggle. For some people blogging is a full time job, and when you’re competing with so many other blogs there’s such a temptation to stay up until 4am messing around with the coding and writing posts. There’s also the photography, which has to be done during the daytime when the lighting’s good, so it’s a real juggling act. Some people seem to manage it a lot better than me, but when I feel like another aspect of my life is starting to suffer I know I have to take a step back from my blog.
Can you tell us a bit about the Briz Blog Meet you organised earlier this month?
The Briz Blog Meet was an idea that I got after attending a blogger meet up at the end of last year. I could finally put so many faces to blogs that I had read before, and decided that I’d like to do something similar in Bristol. With the help of my boyfriend, we managed to get almost 40 bloggers together at the beginning of the month for drinks and networking. There were a couple of brands there including a Social Media company and Lush Cosmetics, and every guest went away with a goody bag full of PR samples. It involved a lot of hard work and emailing different companies, but I’m definitely glad that I did it. For a ‘social media’, blogging isn’t always as social as you may like it to be, so it’s important to have these meet ups to remind you who’s really behind the blog.
What are your top three products of all time that you’d encourage anyone to buy?!
Beauty products can be so subjective, and what works for one person might not necessarily work for the next person. I think that it’s really important for everyone to find a three step (cleanse, tone, moisturise) skincare routine that works for them – your skin will thank you for it! Although that doesn’t really count as a product, that would be my first suggestion – the first step to great makeup is great skin, after all. My favourite discovery to date is Bioderma Sensibio H2O; it gets all of your makeup off in a flash, even if it’s waterproof. It also prevents you from using makeup wipes which are actually really bad for your skin! I’d also strongly recommend a Tangle Teezer hairbrush to everyone. It’s essentially an easy-to-hold hairbrush with soft, yet durable bristles that get through the toughest of tangles with a fraction of the pain. They’re only about a tenner from Boots, and I don’t think I could go back to using a normal hairbrush.
Do you know yet what you want to do after graduation?
I can definitely see myself doing something to do with PR or perhaps social media. I would really love a job that incorporates my love of writing, although I have no set plans. I’ve even toyed with the idea of doing a Masters, but since mine is a four year course I have another year to decide. I even joke with my parents that I’ll just move home and blog from my old bedroom once I graduate, but I get the impression that they’re not too thrilled at my suggestion.
What would ultimately be your dream job?
As I said before, I would love to involve writing in whatever I do, and something in PR would definitely interest me. I’ve always really wanted to work for myself, though, so starting my own business in something I love would be a dream come true for me. I’m yet to decide what I’d be doing, but even when I was little I would try to think up business ideas, and I suppose my blog is a bit like my own little business, too.
Do you have a favourite Bristol spot?
I love the general area around the harbour. I think that it looks stunning on a sunny day, and I love the way that it looks when it reflects the lights from all of the restaurants at night. There’s so much to do around there, and after I walk through I always feel hungry after passing so many amazing restaurants.
Do you have any advice you’d give to those wanting to get into blogging, or any general advice for Freshers just starting at Bristol?
I would advise any Freshers in Bristol, or anywhere for that matter, to really get stuck into university life. There are so many opportunities here that you won’t get once you’ve left education, so join loads of societies and when you find something that you like, get stuck in! I suppose the same is true for blogging. I would recommend just starting to write. You can change the style of posts or what you write about as you go along, but getting those first few posts out there will make the rest of it seem a lot less scary.
All Photo Credits: prettypleaseblog.co.uk