A New Year, A Reintroduction, and Blog Changes Ahead

Hey everyone! 

So recently I was reading a blog post by Krystal (a fellow blogger) where she was taking the time to explain her journey as a blogger and her transition to blogging on her own terms. After reading her post, I felt inspired to take the time to reintroduce myself, give some background into the blog, and explain the vision/trajectory that I have for the blog in the upcoming year and future.

My name is Mai Thy, though I generally go by Mai. I've been blogging about beauty on and off since 2010. Virtually since the beginning of the blog, I was a full college student until I finally graduated with my Master's degree and started a full time job in July 2016. 

Though the blog had gone through many changes in the six years since I started (initially I was more into nail polish, then makeup looks, then reviews, and indie makeup), things really changed when I started my full time job and I had difficulty balancing work, home, and blogging. At the same time, I was also dealing with blogging starting to feel like a numbers and money-making game; I felt stagnated and compelled to blog for the sake of blogging and I think my posts began to reflect a change in my enthusiasm and posts tapered off by the end of last year.

For many people, they were happy to see 2016 go. 2016 ended up being an extremely memorable and life-altering year for me. I graduated, got a big girl job, and moved in with my then-boyfriend, now fiancé because we also got engaged. However I know that good change may not be in store in 2017. 

However, I am taking this year by the reins, especially when it comes to blogging. I'd like to transition to a new blog name/brand (which has been in the works for a while) and I'd like to return back to blogging when I had more fun and was much less focused on the numbers/popularity. I started getting into planners and planner stickers, especially the ones by Laura/MyNewestAddiction and it's been serving as an inspiration to get both my life and blog in order. I hope to do more makeup looks, reviews, tutorials, and possibly get back into doing Youtube videos. 

This week I'm going to IMATS LA and I hope to reinvigorate my love of makeup and beauty brands while at the show. I'll be doing my best to take photos of the makeup that I try (and probably buy) while at the show. Let me know if you're going to be going, I'll be going on Sunday!

Thank you if you managed to get even through part of this post. If you've been reading my blog for a while or recently discovered it, I want to say that I hope that you like the direction that it's going to go in and I hope you stay for my journey. This year will be a year of survival for many less privileged than I and I hope to be able to do what I can to have this blog be a source of positivity and frivolity for those who may need it.