Blogger Interview - Alyson from The Gloss Menagerie!

The lovely Alyson from The Gloss Menagerie kindly offered to take part in my blogger interview series. I've really enjoyed reading peoples answers to these questions! Remember if you want to take part just leave a comment below and please be sure to pop over and read Alyson's blog :-)

Quick fire question – tell us something you love about blogging and something you’re not too crazy about!

Something I love is super easy - getting to try all these amazing products from brands I'd never have heard of otherwise. There's really something to be said for getting out of your bubble! I also love all of the great, great women I've met via blogging. People say there's a lot of cattiness and drama in the beauty community, but I have not gotten drawn into any of it; I've made a lot of great friends and networking contacts. As far as something I'm not too crazy about, there isn't much I don't love, but sometimes trying out new products constantly will get in the way of getting to use something I love more often. That's not a very bad problem to have, though! ;)

·         * Why beauty/ makeup? What made you decide you wanted to blog about it?

I've been blogging and writing in general for many years before I started The Gloss Menagerie, as well as building websites and chatting, etc. As I was getting into makeup and learning things, trying stuff out, etc. I wanted to share those thoughts with my friends online. After getting some complaints about too much makeup-related chatter on my personal blog (from the boys mostly lol) I started The Gloss Menagerie as a place to write just about beauty-related topics. If someone were to go back to 2008 and check out some of my earliest posts you can really tell that I wasn't doing it for anyone but myself. My posts were erratic and just kind of "whatever", haha.

·         * You have 5 minutes before you have to leave the house. What items do you throw on?

Many times in this sort of scenario I don't wear anything at all. I don't like doing it half way, you know? But if I need to look semi-decent (heehee) I would fill in my brows and smear on some tinted moisturizer, and perhaps dot on some concealer if I have any blemishes. Brows are most important to me because they're "incomplete" and finishing them off makes such a huge difference, I think.

·        *  Are there any brands that aren’t available in your country that you would love to try? What ‘local’ brands do you think everyone should have a chance to try?

Oooo!! Love this question. I haven't tried Sleek yet, though I have a package coming. I am very excited for that! I also like what I've seen from Collection 2000. There are others that I've seen on youtube that look really fun too. To me I think drugstore lines from other countries are super exciting because it's one of the few things you can't get at home. With so many global chains and the increasing ease of global trading, it's hard to find anything in a foreign country that you can't get at home! Since drugstore makeup is designed for mass appeal, it's kind of a fun cultural experiment to try other countries' mass-market cosmetics. It's one of the reasons I'm stoked we have such a high Asian population in my area. The Asian markets are really fun to explore! Here in the U.S. there are a few mass market chains that I just don't have here in so-cal that I wish I did. I really wish I had a Fred Meyer and a Duane Reed. I got to visit Fred Meyer in WA and they had an awesome nail polish selection!

·        *  What entices you to follow a new blog? What puts you off?

I tend to follow blogs via email, because I like that I can just get updates on my phone by checking my email. So if a blog either doesn't have the option for email subscription or cuts off most of the story, etc. I get turned off. I also don't like it when blogs are hard to browse on my phone. However, I don't even get to that point unless the person has great content. What that means to me is an engaging writing style, intelligent reviews, helpful pictures, and if they do videos a fun personality! I get a ton of email. Only the best of the best make it to my inbox. There are lots of blogs that I think are good but don't read that regularly, too.