Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
ONE STEP I'M TAKING TO REDUCE WASTE | DIY COTTON ROUNDS
Today on the blog I wanted to share something I've been doing to reduce my waste footprint on the planet. One thing I love about the beauty community is how much more conscious we are becoming as consumers. A couple months ago I came across some handmade cotton rounds on Etsy and immediately thought "WOW. What a great idea!". Then I thought about the amount of cotton rounds I've been using for years, you know, the ones that come in those plastic sleeves, usually in a pack of 100 or so, and I felt sooooo guilty.
In all the years I've been using skincare products, I never once thought about how using cotton rounds contributed to waste. Now don't get me wrong, cotton does biodegrade (although some rounds aren't even made out of cotton, so they don't biodegrade), but that usually takes 5-6 months and not only that, but cotton production takes a lot of energy and water. For something that I use once and then throw out, it seems so wasteful to me.
So for the past few months, I've only been using these handmade muslin rounds. They were super easy to make, and literally took no time at all. All I did was trace out circles in the size of a normal cotton round, put two circles together, and sewed all the way around. I have a serger machine, so that made the process a lot easier. I wanted mine to be round, but I've definitely seen them DIY'ed in squares too.
In terms of cleaning, they're so easy to clean and reuse. All I do is put the used rounds in a drawstring bag and when it's laundry day, I throw them in my washer and dryer and they're good to go! I don't know why I haven't thought of this before, so not only am I reducing waste, I'm also saving money by reusing my cotton rounds.
What do you guys think of this idea? I know it's a small step to reducing waste, but I think the smallest things can make a difference. I'd love for everyone to try this out, and even if you don't sew, there's actually quite a few independent companies that are making these if you wanted to purchase them from a local vendor.
Cheers,
Nancy
HOW I EDIT BLOG PHOTOS | BLOG TIPS SERIES #1
I recently asked on Instagram if any of you would like to see how I edit my blog/Instagram photos, and I got an overwhelming response of "yes" so I'm super excited to share this with you today. While I was thinking about how I would tackle this post, I realized that there is just too much information to put in an entire blog post. So instead, I'm going to create a Blog Tips Series, each one focusing on some different aspect of blogging, with an emphasis on photography, editing, and styling. In this first installment, I'll be going through the editing software I use and my three main tips for editing a photo.
THE SOFTWARE | PHOTOSCAPE v3.7
I think that people tend to think that I use a really fancy camera and Photoshop to edit my photos, but I actually own a really old digital camera (more on this later in the series) and although I dabbled in Photoshop in university, I actually have about 1% of an idea of how to use it. The program I have used since 2008 for any photo editing is Photoscape. I like to think of it as a simplified form of Photoshop, and it's also free! As you'll see down below, I keep things quite simple when it comes to adjusting a product shot, and Photoscape makes it really easy and fast for me to do so because everything is laid out very cleanly. Even if you don't know the correct "terms" of photo editing, I recommend taking a photo, and playing around with each feature to learn what they do.
TIP # 1| BRIGHTNESS
In the [Bright, Color] tab of Photoscape, I will always boost the brightness of my photo, even if I took it in good lighting. You'll find that all of the whites in the photo will brighten up, and the photo itself will look less dull. I always brighten more than I think the photo needs, because brightening paired with the next step will almost always guarantee a good edit.
TIP # 2 | CONTRAST
In the same tab, after adjusting the brightness of the photo, I always raise the contrast of the photo. This deepens any colours/shadows, and makes the colours look richer overall. I never raise the contrast more than about 20-30 because then the photo may look over-edited and for beauty bloggers especially, swatches can be skewed and look different in the photo from real life.
TIP # 3 | SHARPNESS
As a last step in my editing process, I like to adjust the sharpness of my photos up to levels 7-9. What this does is it makes all of the edges in the photo slightly sharper, and even though it's so minuscule, I really think that it's the small details like that makes the biggest difference. Adjusting the sharpness often fixes any blurring and especially if you don't have a great camera, this is something I'd definitely try to make the quality of a photo better.I'm sure that if you're a blogger reading, these are things you are probably already doing on the editing program you use, but if you aren't, I hope you'll try these tips out! Every single photo you've seen on this blog has been edited using the three step method of brightness, contrast, and sharpness. In addition to editing photos though, I do think lighting and styling have a lot to do with the quality of photo you put out. I plan on talking about these topics in future blog posts.
In the meantime, below you'll find some before and after shots of photos you've seen on this blog. Hopefully they inspire you to create some pretty flatlays and experiment with different edits!
Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear what you do when editing blog photos/programs that you use. Let me know in a comment and also let me know if there's anything specific you want me to writ about when it comes to blog photos.
- Nancy
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