Andreea Opris
I moved from my hometown of Bucharest, Romania, to Sligo back in 2007, when I was 23. I had studied finance and banking in Romania, but after six months talking to my now-husband, Ioan, online, I decided to move to Sligo and do an add-on course in management at IT Sligo. Ioan [who is also from Romania, but was living in Sligo] and I had a mutual friend who introduced us to each other on Yahoo messenger. Before coming to Ireland, I had never even seen my husband.
While studying in Sligo, I was also working full-time. I wasn’t eligible for grants and rent had to be paid, so I worked in Cara Pharmacy. I was in college every day, from nine until two, and I would rush over to Cara Pharmacy and work until nine at night. I started off my career working as an over-the-counter adviser, eventually moving on to becoming the Lancome counter manager. This was the beginning of my career in luxury cosmetics.
Once I finished college, we moved to Dublin, where I worked as the business manager for Clinique in Arnotts. When I became pregnant with my daughter Sophia (pictured above), everything became so hectic that I had to take a step back. I now work part-time, on Saturdays and Sundays, and I mind Sophia from Monday to Friday.
I have always loved beauty and I have always been consumed by beauty blogs. Ioan is a web developer, so he encouraged me to start a blog, saying he will build me a website. I am not great with that side of the blog, so I usually pester him for redesigns and blog maintenance.
At the moment I have been using Instagram a lot more — it’s quick and easy. It’s fast blogging, and you can show the product quickly. Taking photos of products is such a huge ordeal because I am such a perfectionist, and I put so much time into my pictures. I’m known for my photography skills, so I would love to branch out on that in the future.
Sophia takes so much of my time that I’m not spending as much time as I’d like to on my blog. She has just started Montessori, which will definitely give me more time. At the moment, I do weekends. With my limited time, sponsored content takes priority.
I declare in the first line when something is sponsored. I am always very clear when I have sponsored posts, and profits made will go back into the blog maintenance. I don’t do that many, to be fair. I buy most of my products, because I love them so much.
I am more high-end when it comes to beauty; I have always worked in luxury retail. It would be misleading to my readers if I got paid to promote a lipstick for €3.50, and then went back to using my Yves Saint Laurent. It always has to be a good fit.
My readership is about 26,000 a month, but once I put more time into it, I’m hoping that will grow. I had people who messaged me while the Bloggers Unveiled [account] was going on, saying that they appreciate me and I am a breath of fresh air. I don’t flaunt designer bags; I’m more relatable and real.
With the help of creators.ie, I am going to build my blog up a bit more. I will always have either a part-time or full-time job on the side, for financial stability.