Or the reality of burnout in a super-saturated industry.

I stopped keeping up with the latest-and-greatest releases in makeup. Even skincare. I’m tired and I just don’t care anymore.

Edit # 2: After some tinkering, here is the GIF that should have been here in the first place:

One (if not THE NUMBER ONE) unspoken rule about being a beauty blogger is that you must keep up with the latest releases if you want those views or clicks or you’ll be left in the dust!

Did I mention the cookie-cutter (for lack of a better term, but let’s face it: reviews are a cookie-cutter format, no matter how it’s stylized) blog / vlog posts on almost every makeup product in existence nowadays? Unless it was a brand or makeup that got released before the beauty blog / vlog boom or it was just released with no PR or hype, just type in any brand that comes to mind or you’ve come across and I can almost guarantee there’s going to be at least 3 reviews done on them.

And it may seem like I just broke that with what I’ve said above, but it’s the blunt truth. Brands have been dropping products left and right like Candy Crush or Bejeweled gone berserk that I’ve checked out of the Makeup Rat Race a long time ago and started going at my own pace. I got tired of watching my bank account dwindle from my old-new-old job trying to keep up with the “new and improved,” “newly pressed,” “different formulation,” “more pigmented,” etc.

It may be a bit biased for me to say this, but I’m finding that no matter what buzz word gets thrown around whenever a new item gets released, I find that it’s hardly any different than what’s already sitting in my drawers. New formulation? Yeah, ok. Sure, Jan. New colors? I can tell you that I have palettes that would make the standard Morphe 35 turn all possible shades of green in envy.

New format (liquid eyeshadow comes to mind), you say? You do realize that Brand Y has been doing that for some time but never got the full hype that Brand X is getting for releasing the same damn type of product.

On second thought, the bias that comes to mind is personal preference. I’m a stickler with my preference(s) and makeup is no exception. Rather than outright saying shaming some of the releases that have been made by brands, I’ll be polite in saying it’s simply not my cup of tea, but more power to those who do find it to be theirs. Have fun!

There’s a reason why none of my jobs have a deep concentration in mathematics. I’m not a pro when it comes to the number-crunching side of beauty blogging, otherwise I would have burned out much sooner and BBA would have been on indefinite hiatus. I may envy the glamorous popularity and perks that have been endowed on the mainstream beauty bloggers / vloggers, but not enough that I wholly want it, warts and all.

So I guess the one question that’s begging to be asked: is it possible to reach the level of a mainstream beauty blogger / vlogger WITHOUT keeping up with the new releases?

Up next: I never thought I’d say this, but HG ain’t forever for me. Some makeup I thought I’d love forever and ever turned out to be… well, not forever and ever.