Full circle – influencer edition and the disappointment

Hi my Readers

Today, a video has been circling the web and it is about influencers and their false claims.
The particular video is about influencer that shows mascara and some of her colleagues are calling her out on it because she looks like she is using false lashes. The video is sponsored and it caught the eyes of the people too.

I have stopped following as much as I used to and even if I do, I tend to not get involved too much, but this one was interesting to me because the people who jumped to defend her, mentioned big corporations and how the influensers or the people weren’t calling them out on it. I have seen influensers and many people talking about that subject so I know that’s not true, but what struck me the most is that people defend something that influencers have made influencers in the first place – their reviews and their honesty because people were tired of the big corporations lying and spending so much on marketing and tricking people into buying things that are far from that glitzy commercial that has played over and over again.

The disapointment comes because the whole point of influencers is to prove the marketing side of the big companies that are wrong. People started trusting influencers because they were honest with their reviews and once they start to seem dishonest, then it all goes downhill from there.

I am very pleased to see that other colleagues and influensers have cast a light and hopefully it will be a lesson to everyone – the consumer as well because consumers and potential consumers have the biggest power when it comes to this.

Just let’s not cancel people. Mistake is a mistake. If we don’t see improvements after they have been exposed, only then we can move toward canceling. Let’s leave that thing in the past, along with the pandemic.

Wishing you a good one,

Antidote 😉

First post via the WordPress App

Hi my Readers 🙂

Since I was on the road..in the sky..in another country.. whatever.. I decided to download the WordPress App.

 

I am the type of person that wants to sit down on a PC and write my posts on the actual keyboard. But I already have my phone so I decided to try this app out.

I also don’t want to hang too much on my phone because it is not good for my eyes and I noticed that I am constantly bringing it closer and closer to my eyes, even if there is no need for that.

But, it is what it is.

Luckily for me, this WordPress App turned out really good. It doesn’t take up much space and it doesn’t lag.

On my previous post I had previously prepared the textual part and just added the pictures. But this one is completely new.

What it lacks of is spell proofing. Typing on phone makes it especially mistake – prone. Or maybe it has and I just still haven’t found out about it.

I also can’t find the text alignment option. And to have one post put together that option is kinda necessary.

I will update you how it goes but other than those few things, so far is looking good.

What do you use to write your posts? I genuinely am curious.

Have a good one.

Antidote

Using eyeshadow for highlight and contouring

Hi my Readers 🙂

Highlight and contouring are big thins as of few years ago. Makeup „addiction“ in general is big as in few years ago. Since then, we are filling our makeup drawers with tons of makeup. I get it, makeup makes us happy. I use it because it is like a way of expressing yourself. It is a form of art.

But enough about that.

Before the highlight and contouring craze existed in the non-beauty world, and even after that, improvising was and still is the way to go.

There are still countries that most of the makeup is not available. Or countries with such a small salary that very few thing are affordable from the already small available makeup amount.

So, to improvise, I used to use very dark blush as a form of contouring the back of my cheeks. Ming you, this is way before I discovered youtube videos, I had available internet more than a few documents worth of download and had to use it sparingly or even this kind of videos existed.

This next two things you use it as you would use highlight and contour. They are just labeled differently – eyeshadow.

Contouring

After that, contouring was something that not even makeup store sellers knew about. I tried darker powder but that didn’t work because even though I am very fair, there wasn’t shade that was dark enough for me to like it (I like darker, to be noticeable because it tends to disappear quickly when you don’t wear foundation – and I don’t). Or they were simply non existent. If someone was few shades darker than me, the only somewhat affordable powder was orange and really, wasn’t that darker.

So I decided to improvise. I started looking for a single eyeshadow compact that will not be orange and suit my skin tone. I was in another town and determined to find something since in my town, such thing was non-existent. So, in the rush I was, I bought slightly darker shade, but that was not bothering me since I could simply use it whenever I want and if I wanted to be lighter, I could tone it down with face powder.

Highlight

As you may or probably may not know, I only bought my first highlighter few months ago since I wasn’t into highlighting that much. It might had to do with the VERY limited amount and very expensive selection. When I wanted something, I would use a very light pink, very finely mild single eyeshadow compact. After so much videos, I finally bought my first highlighter. I don’t know If I expectations were so high because I saw it in so many videos or I just got a dud (it figures), but you can read all about that in this post that I wrote about that. Since then, I bought another one that I use everyday. Some day looks very bad (when I over-apply (sue me 😀 ) and some days looks amazing. Depends on my skin condition and my mood in general. Overall, I bought it very cheap (it might not have the pest ingredients, but hey, it makes me happy) and that makes me use it in the amount that i’m using it – too much 😀

Thoughts

I feel like companies are making me expand my makeup collection. I used to have very limited amount but at the same time used to be very inspired. Nowadays, I find myself looking in my makeup drawer, I have everything but my inspiration is not what it used to be. I still love it, but when I see all the neutrals, I always do the same brown looks. Since I wrote this post about my feeling about neutrals, I forced myself to be more colourful – as I used to be.

 

You might read this, probably not, but here it is. And you might think that I am just someone that writes about „I’m interested in your thoughts“ just to write something, but I genuinely am.

 

Also, I wanted to share a song that I listened to way before Billie Eilish invaded the world 😀

 

Have a nice one and hope to read from you. Link me your posts 🙂

Antidote 😉

 

*as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. But that still hasn’t happened. 😀

European version of NetNeutrality, only worse; no more blogging

Hi my Readers

This post is going to be about really serious subject that is going to affect the Internet in whole on all of the continents, not only Europeans. Because if it is implemented on one continent, It can be easily implemented in all of the others.

Imagine your TV programs saying that they are showing a movie or a music video but instead you get this in mute:

This picture could be the internet if this continues.

 

You wonder why you still don’t know about the European version of #NetNeutrality (only worse)? That is because big media and big stakeholders are not posting about Article13 for one reason only – it is in their interest. It is already voted for and it is expected to be finalized by the end of this year, IF IT IS NOT STOPPED. Big media and conglomerates will have the monopoly over what could be shared on the internet. That means:

• no YouTube
• no facebook
• no twitter
• no twitch
• no pinterest
• no tumblr
• no reddit

 

• no memes
• no gifs
• no freedom of speech
• no blog posts too

And this could happen by 22 of January! This year!

„Every small company, creator, artist who make their own content won’t be able to upload their content anywhere because they don’t belong to big companies and big companies will only allow whatever suits their needs and whatever benefits them. so no fan art, original art etc.“

The lines of „what is copyrighted“ can be blurred to the point where you can’t even post a selfie if you have tattoo because the tattoo is copyrighted to the tattoo artist!

How will the blogosphere be affected?

Taking pictures of products means that those products are copyright affected and therefore your post could be banned.

How will the rest of the world be affected? 

Europe created content won’t be able to be viewed in USA and vice versa.

So, imagine how many of the traffic could be lost.

That means that if you live in USA, Canada, Africa, India, China, anywhere except Europe and you create something, people from Europe won’t be able to see it. And if this happens it is only question of time when this could happen to YOUR continent/country.

As Europe helped with #NetNeutrality to USA, help European citizens to save their internet and  #SaveYourInternet and spread the word because as I already wrote, big media haven’t made a single article about this.

Here is what you need to know about #Article13  #SaveYourInternet

https://twitter.com/daeguanswr/status/1066797380627038208

The Film Theorists:

 

PewDiePie:

 

Even the CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki  is concerned and warns about this issue. She asks creators to „take action’ against EU copyright law“.

Learn more about European copyright rules and how Article 13 could put the creative economy of creators and artists around the world at risk: https://t.co/YJyHaYOGn7

— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) September 8, 2018

Whether you live in the European Union or not, Article 13 could impact you. #SaveYourInternet pic.twitter.com/hskTsgTqUL

— YouTube Creators (@YouTubeCreators) December 3, 2018

Please inform yourselves and share and make people aware of this bizzare attempt of censorship.  

 

Mini cosmetics shopping

Hi my Readers 🙂

Catrice, Garnier, essence and more…

I am NOT a fan of the word „haul“ so for my shopping spree I used this „cosmetics shopping“ title because I couldn’t think of better one.

I ran out of stuff, needed stuff and needed to try some new stuff so I bought myself some stuff 😀

Of course I had to bust everything open but at least I saved some of the packaging just for photos for this blog 🙂

Lets start with the make up 🙂

Catrice mascara – Glam & Doll – Curl & Volume mascara

I needed mascara after I found out that my Miss Sporty is no longer carried in my country (smh) so in a search of a good one, I spent too much time searching for the next one, especially because I already had few that were not that great.
I know that it looks like it was carried a lot in my bag and that is because it was – in a shopping bag 🙂

Catrice eye brow stylist – brow pencil 

Again, my brow pencil is discontinued so in addition to 3 others I added this one to my collection that are not comparable to that one. I just searched for one that will match my ashy brows even a little bit.

essence dip eyeliner – waterproof 

This one I know it will work because I have the non waterproof version already used up.

Hair products 

All of the hair products are repurchases.

L’Oréal ELVITAL hair oil 

This is a really good one. leaves my hair shiny and healthy, especially after frying it up for the blue collor 🙂

Schwarzkopf Gliss – spray – on hair mask

This is a spray that I use for detangling. It is actually spray – on mask. I used to use the yellow one before they repackaged it and it was really good with repairing effect. Nothing really repaired my split ends but with that one I saw difference. Smelled amazing too! This one – not so great. It states that oils are added but it is clear that only water and some detangly ingredient is added. I should really change it up to something other. For now, it is ok for detangling.

Marion star color hair color in Jeans

I am really careful with my hair and with that, I am trying to be careful with my hair color too, since it is blue. So if I want my blue hair to be fresh – I keep this just in case I need touch up. But this product is really good and touch ups are not that frequent unlike other similar products that I used.

have you seen my terrible photos of my hair? I’ll try to make another post about it, like an updated hair color.

Lip care 

Carroten Summer kiss 25 sfp protection

I searched for liquidy balm that will be with spf for the summer days, I did not find what I was looking for so decided to take that chance with that 20% off and try this one.

Balea lippen pflege, mit shimmer – effekt

Having to use another lip balm with balea that tasted sweet, I bought this one that I see myself using for cheek highlight too (not too ofte, it is still oil). And the other one was with sweet taste. This one – IT’S NOT! Bu hey, it is shiny 😀

Face products

Coton rounds 

Well, this one is just something I needed since I ran out from my aldi one. I used them once and since then my eyes were little red and hope that this one didn’t cause that. I simultaneously tried another lotion so I’m hoping it is the lotion and not the cotton. I will have to use them more to see the results.
I like how the white part is actually the lady’s hair 🙂
Also, have you seen this post? Well I think that the packaging got me to buy it 😀

Garnier micellar water

This micelar water is amazing. More on it in some of my next posts.

Body 

Garnier deodorant anti transpirant

Repurchase – again. At least I found few stuff that are not bad and are not discontinued…yet 😀 But I will be writing more on this product in some of my next posts.

Tools 

essence sharpener

I needed one but after my Estée Lauder I don’t think that this one cuts it (did I just made a pun? 😀 ). More on this in some of my next posts 🙂

I will try to do updated post about how this products are working for me, even though most of them were repurchased items.

 

Have a nice weekend and remember to do something good 🙂

Antidote 😉

 

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Shadowbanned on Instagram? Did the things that I wrote about actually worked?

Hi my Readers 🙂

Not that long ago I noticed something was keeping my posts to be seen on Istagram. I didn’t knew what was going on untill I dig through the internet and found out what was going on. I was shadowbanned. If you want to read about all of that,  here is the posts with all of my tips and what I did to lift the shadowban. I wrote that I will update you if it will work.

After signing in through my personal computer (to come to think that there was a time where you couldn’t do anything about instagram on a personal computer and now everything that depends is there…), went through the instructions and found out that there was a parasite app that I haven’t even downloaded. After removing all of the permissions given to that app, I uploaded few pictures with the hashtags that I used to use with a few changes. I immediately noticed a change since I immediately started to receive likes and comments on those pictures.

Safe to say that there is a way of lifting the shadowban (even though you haven’t done anything to provoke one). So if you are shadowbanned, click this link and follow the instructions there. I recomend waiting a day just in case and you should be fine and you will get those likes in no time 🙂

Oh, and a bonus tip. If you are from or visited Antwerp/Antwerpen, apparently it is wrong to travel or live there so that hashtag (the location) is flagged as inappropriate…go figure.

 

Have a good one,

Antidote

Shadowbaned on Instagram? Your pictures are not being seen? Hashtags not working? Here’s what to do

Hi my Readers.

How is it going. Are you getting frustrated from your favorite social media? Me too.

Your engagement on Instagram is reduced? Your posts are not showing up even though you have been using hashtags? Here is why.

Instagram is my favorite social media. I don’t have anything „favorite“ so this is saying A LOT!

I had some problems with the tablet that I used to transfer my pictures from my camera and I haven’t posted a lot on instagram. But, I have been so active with insta-stories, liking and…well…liking some more posts.

Everything started to go down since the algorithm changed and I wasn’t enjoying instagram as much. I used to spend hours until I scrolled to the photo that I last seen the last time I was on instagram. And that is a lot (trust me 😀 ). After that, I made a mistake and updated my app. It was showing me the local insta stories that I was absolutely not interested in. With scrolling on the explore page, I wasn’t seeing those pictures, but the whole account from the picture I clicked on. It’s got to a point where I am afraid to update the app again because I might like it even less and I don’t want that.

I stopped using instagram for at least several months and when I started using it again, I wasn’t that active as before.

When did I notice the lack of engagement on the posts? 

When I post pictures, I always use hashtags and as soon as I press the „share“ button, I have few likes. I don’t get that much, but still, I like seeing that my posts are being seen by anyone. Few days ago I’ve noticed that after posting the photo, the only likes I’ve got were from 3 of my folowers. That mens that anyone else can’t see my photo. I was wondering what was going on since I don’t post so much.

How did I know what was going on? 

I did some research when I notice the lack of activity (only 3 likes? I call that LACK of activity) and turned out that there is a thing called „shadowban“ and not only that, but some of the hashtags instagram has banned and if you use them, your profile gets automatically banned. Your pictures are not showing on the explore page or under the hashtags that you used.

Which hashtags are banned? 

I’ve seen a lot of absurd hashtags. You as beauty bloggers are affected because #beautyblogger is banned. Some are even more ridiculous: #books #brain #Kansas #citycentre and many more.

What is the reason behind the banning? 

Apparently, to prevent the harmful posts to get to the users.

What NOT to do? 

1. Don’t use the banned hashtags (I think it goes withouh mentioning) bit the problem is – no one knows which ones are banned.
2. Use the same hashtags over and over again.
3. Don’t use third party app.
4. Don’t follow and unfollow very fast

How to know? 

1. Your activity is not as big as it was.
2. You don’t get as much likes.
3. You don’t get followed.

Is it a way to check? 

Yes, there is. I did so much research on this subject and read so much articles written by people that did even more research and thankfully, I’ve read this article and it provides you with an app. You can use this app to check if any particular photo is shadowbanned. (Obviously, I’m not payed or anything, just supporting someone that did research and providing you with the link to that post).

What to do BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE? 

First of all, here is another article for you to read before anything else and follow the instructions. (Again, obviously, I’m not payed or anything, just supporting someone that did research and providing you with the link to that post)

In the article, you’ll notice a part with login in from desktop version of instagram – DO THAT IMMEDIATELY! I’ve noticed apps that I haven’t authorized to manipulate my account. Remove them IMMEDIATELY to be assured that you won’t be banned again.

I just did that. If anyone is interested, ask me in comments and you will be informed as soon as I check this.

Here is yet another article for you to read so you can avoid harmful apps.

 

At the end….

I am probably not a big factor for instagram, but they should surely listen to their users. After all, we a re here for them every time they place an ad on our timeline.

Have you been experiencing this problems as well? Did you find this post helpful? I’d like to read comments from you 🙂

 

Hope you are having a great end of the week,

Antidote 😉