She's an award-winning blogger who has been named one of the Top 25 personalities moving natural beauty forward in the UK. When it comes to natural and organic beauty blogging - 's Ailish Lucas is going places. Literally. Originally based in the UK, Lucas has this year shifted locations to New Zealand.
Here, BD has a chat to Lucas to find out all about the blog, her career, and joining the New Zealand blogging industry.
Can you tell me a bit about The Glow Getter?
The Glow Getter is a blog focused on natural and organic beauty, with a bit of health and wellness thrown in because products can only do so much, it’s your lifestyle that also has an impact on how you look, feel, think and do.
Why did you start it? Has it stayed true to these original aims?
I started it because I wanted to share the amazing work that green beauty brands are doing to help educate and empower women to make an informed choice but in a fun and friendly way. I’d like to say it has stayed true to these aims and my love for the area has only grown more and more.
What have been your major achievements on the blog?
I have some really proud moments which include holding an online Google Hangout on green beauty trends with the UK’s beauty industry manager at Google. I was voted one of the Top 25 personalities moving natural beauty forward in the UK. [From this I was] invited to a roundtable with some of the UK’s most respected natural beauty brands such as The Soil Association, Natural Beauty News and Occado to discuss issues within natural and organic beauty. Another proud moment was hosting a successful blogger and brand event where 10 natural and organic brands came together along with 30 bloggers to learn, network and grow. It was such a fun event where some really exciting collaborations happened as a result. This year I hosted an online Glow Getter Summit which included eight amazing worldwide influencers in green beauty sharing their tips and tricks on how to ‘get the glow’ naturally, and it was free. The final achievement was winning [The Beauty Lounge's] Beauty Blogger of the Year in January.
What did this award mean for the blog?
It meant that the huge amount of work I’d done in the first year of focusing on the blog was recognised within the beauty industry, gave me the confidence to know I was on the right track and also helped to raise the green beauty world up a little, to show it doesn’t all have to be about mainstream beauty. Natural and organic is here and here to stay.
You’ve been named one of the Top 25 personalities moving natural beauty forward in 2015. Was this an important award for you and the blog?
Absolutely. It was such an honour to be ranked 13th out of 25 incredible brands and personalities who are paving the way to help make green beauty mainstream. I felt incredibly proud and excited to be among such great company.
Have these awards helped your blog’s audience grow?
The awards have helped me be recognised as a more credible blog and have grown the audience slightly, but I would say that other activities such as creating a free e-book and hosting free online events has been the main contributor to my blog’s growth. That and social media.
Will you be continuing your blog in new Zealand?
Absolutely, New Zealand has some incredible natural and organic brands that I am in love with. I’m also looking forward to giving the blog a more international focus in the future, so anyone that finds the blog can find something useful, wherever they live.
Are you looking forward to working with New Zealand brands?
Definitely. I’ve been here nearly nine months and some of the brands have blown me away with their incredible products, I’m excited to work with more of them.
Do you think a change of country will affect the blog in any way?
Online, I don’t think it will, it just changes the focus from being a UK blog to a more international one, and this will be reflected when I change the blog from .co.uk to .co. Offline, there are definitely less events happening in New Zealand, which is why I set up The Well Network in Wellington in collaboration with Seize and Yoga With Me NZ. The aim is to get health and wellbeing businesses and blogs together on a quarterly basis to network, collaborate and help each other grow. We had the first event three months ago, and it was a huge success with some amazing collaborations coming out of it. The next one will be announced soon.
What are you most excited about with working within the New Zealand industry?
Meeting new brands, discovering new products and collaborating with amazing companies to help raise the profile of green beauty in general. New Zealand has some of the most sought after ingredients in the world to help give your skin the glow, I can’t wait to learn more.
