Vogue's 5 Days of Beauty

Vogue 5 Days of Beauty - A Day in London

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting Vogue House for one of their sessions during the 5 Days of Beauty. This event is directed at Vogue Beauty fans and in collaboration with a variety of beauty brands, participating in panel talks and experiences. This year, the event included brands such as Beauty Pie, Garnier, Dyson and more.

If you know me, you know that I am a lover of Vogue magazine and would love to work there one day; it is also an unspoken truth that I am a lover of beauty too. Therefore, when I found out about the event I knew that it was an opportunity I could not pass up, not only for the experience itself but also for the fact that it would provide me with more valuable information that may help in the future.

 The specific talk that I attended was a talk between Vogue Beauty Editor, Laura Murdoch-Smith, and the founder of Beauty Pie (along with other brands including Soap and Glory), Marcia Kilgore. The talk focused on how to build your own beauty brand but the skills and mentality that she spoke about was applicable to so many other aspects of life and, as someone who is less focused on a beauty brand and more focused on the journalistic and media aspect of brands, I found this highly insightful.

SO, WHAT DID I LEARN?

Some of the concepts that Marcia touched on are not explicitly linked to Beauty Brands and included the importance of authenticity within engagement and that one should always operate within the truth. She explained how this leads to trust within customers/consumers and consequently loyalty.

She also spoke of the ability to self-criticise ideas you come up with, the ability to ask others is useful but if you are able to externalise and analyse your own ideas and productions, you will increase your own productivity.

Another insightful point was that as an individual you need to develop strength and grit in order to evolve. However, this does not mean doing everything by yourself, it takes a certain strength to recognise that you need to ask for help or advice and to do so, whether that be from an individual directly, a paid advisor, or a book brought from Amazon. 

The final two points I wanted to touch on were to be less defensive and that there are NO shortcuts. These are concepts that I particularly need to remember going forward.

At the end of the talk, those who attended were also given the opportunity to talk and ask questions to both Marcia herself, and those working within the Vogue team. This was an opportunity that a few years ago would have made me nervous, but yesterday I took it and ask questions that have allowed me to have more direction for my future. 

The entire experience has inspired me and also made me realise that I am brave enough to do things independently.

That being said, I couldn't be more grateful to my mom for taking me down to London and spending two hours in an Italian on her own.

Love always, Annabelle

xox