// GIVEAWAY / BLOG / BIRTHDAY //

It’s Berries in the Snow’s 5th Bloganniversary! I can’t believe that it is 5 years ago that I started this blog. Back then, I never thought that anyone will be reading my reviews. In first line, I wanted to have a space to write down my personal experience with asian beauty products and beauty products in general that I tested myself. Shortly before I wrote my first blog post I was looking for a BB cream that would suit my skin tone, without being too heavy and clogging on my troubled skin at that point. After some online research I read my first review about a Korean BB cream from the brand Missha. I was so intrigued that I looked up more reviews for the BB cream, and finally ordered my first asian beauty product on ebay.

This BB cream was exactly what I was looking for, and, driven by that positive experience, I started to look for other skin care products from Missha. But it was not easy to find many English reviews at that time…and even fewer German ones. And that was the time, when I decided to write down my own very first “review”. It was not a professional one, and neither a long one, simply a “here, look at this product, and this is my impression”. Some time later I added a few more sentences and an ingredients list to the post and some other of my first reviews. When looking back at these first posts (I haven’t deleted them), they are not very informative to be honest. If you are curious, here is a link to my first review on Berries in the Snow. I sometimes thought about deleting these old posts and simply redo the reviews, but on the other hand they have a personal value to me, and they reflect the way that my blog has changed over the past years. Apart from the text, that became more informative (I hope so at least), I was also trying to improve my poor photography skills over the years. I went from “simply take a picture of the product on your desk”, to “white background and product pictures only” first. Then, I started to pay attention to social media, especially Instagram, and my mind was blown...all these pretty pictures! Flatlays were getting big on Instagram, and since my pictures were basically boring flatlays already I tried and I am still trying to improve as much as I can.

What did change in the 5 years for bloggers generally? In my opinion, blogging became widely accepted and known in the past years. There are people who can make their living on it, and I’m happy to see that. But, this makes it harder for small bloggers, too. If you want to be noticed, and you want that your opinion on a certain product is read and spread, it takes so much more effort than some years ago. If you get paid for your effort, you probably are more happy to do so. But most bloggers are not paid for it. They spend their free-time on advertising their writings and work. Many bloggers are utilized by brands as a (mostly cheaper) way to advertise a product. I started blogging in order to spread my honest opinion and experience on a certain product, and until now I was able to hold up to it luckily, and many of the other asian beauty bloggers I discovered throughout the years are doing the same. But yet, the amount of people who start blogging and buying a ton of followers and likes on social media channels, simply to have a higher reach and be noticed by brands, has highly increased, too. After 5 years of blogging I still do not have reached these (insane) numbers, as some ‘newer’ ones have. This makes me feel demotivated sometimes, for all the work that it put into this blog, although I know on the other hand, these are only numbers.

Would I like to change something in future? Of course! I think it is human to need a change once in a while. I think that many things can still be improved. I would like to write more about the ingredients, and I would like to make more professional pictures, and make my blog design more modern, too…But, as with many things in life, time is my limiting factor. Working a full-time job makes it really hard to be motivated. There are times, when my free time is so limited, that I do not want to spend it on blogging, but rather on living my life and enjoying my family and friends, and also take time for my other hobbies. Blogging started as one of my hobbies, but the more professional and perfect you want to be, the more it feels like a second job, too. And it needs a lot of attention and time!

A glance into the nearer future…

Giveaway No. 1

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♥ Thanks again at this point for everyone who read and reads my posts! I really appreciate it! ♥

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