2015 New Years Resolutions Round Up

At the end of 2014, I decided to set myself quite a few New Years Resolutions, hoping that if they were on my blog and visible for all of my readers, then I'd be more likely to accomplish them. This definitely happened with some of them, but others I failed miserably at and only managed to upkeep for a few weeks. In this post, I'll be sharing all of these and saying how I did with them for a final time, before I set my new resolutions in my next blog post.

1. Stick to a skincare routine
I love having clean skin that is well looked after, but I'm often incredibly lazy and don't stick to this as much as I should. Sometimes, I'll just use face wipes or micellar water when I really should make the effort to use a proper cleanser on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I didn't do very well with this resolution, but hopefully, I'll be able to try again this year and I'm determined to stick to an effective skincare routine.

2. Try out bold lipsticks
At the start of the year, I was very much scared of bold lipsticks and never wore them, but I've become more comfortable with them over the course of the year. Although I don't wear more daring lipsticks as often as I'd like, I've definitely improved with this and quite often find myself reaching for a berry lip colour, in particular the Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick in Raplumzel. I actually wrote a post about my favourite bold lipsticks, which you can find here.

3. Experiment with eyeliner
I'm ashamed to say that at the start of the year I could barely do eyeliner and really struggled with it. Throughout the year, I've definitely improved this skill and I'm much more confident with applying it now. I don't wear eyeliner incredibly often, but I've definitely tried harder to make the effort. For me, pencil eyeliners are definitely the way forward, and surprisingly a £1 brown eyeliner from MUA is my favourite to use.

4. Vary my eye makeup
My problem with eye makeup, particularly eyeshadow, was that I never strayed from my comfort zone and instead only worn neutral looks. I'll admit that I haven't improved a fair deal with this, as I will still quite often wear a bronze or champagne eyeshadow. However, I have experimented with some more pink-toned eyeshadows, particularly those from the Naked 3 Palette by Urban Decay, so some progress has been made.

5. Make my blog more user-friendly
I feel as though I've definitely taken a step towards achieving this resolution, as I've been working hard to improve the experience that my readers have when visiting my blog. The most noticeable change has been my template, which went from being a boring, unoriginal template that I was unhappy with to something that looks more professional and easier to navigate. I'm always looking for ways to improve the experience that users have on my blog, but I feel as though entirely changing the appearance and layout was a step in the right direction.

6. Use social media more often
2015 was the year where I fully introduced my blog to social media, broadening its horizons on the Internet. I created a Twitter account, which has really helped with promoting my blog, and I've also become an avid Pinterest user. I made a Facebook page, which I'm still working on improving, and more recently I've started an Instagram. Although a few of these are in the early days, I feel as though I've accomplished this goal.

7. Film a video to accompany my blog
This goal wasn't attempted, simply because I still don't feel ready to start a YouTube or film videos. This is definitely something I want to do in the future, but for now, I'm comfortable with just blogging and find that I'm not yet ready to explore this new form of media. However, there's definitely a possibility for the future, which I may think about soon.

8. Work on my photography
With my addiction to Pinterest has come a newfound inspiration to improve my photography. Although I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be with my photos, I feel as though I've really progressed over the year. I've definitely paid more attention to details, ensured that the lighting was good and used editing in an effective way to make my images much better, so I'd class this as a success.

9. Have a blogging schedule
I'm proud to say that I managed to stick to my blogging schedule throughout the year, producing two posts ever week that I was proud of. One of the problems that I had in 2014 was that I often took breaks and missed posts when I didn't feel like blogging, but in 2015, I managed to overcome this and prepare in advance so that I'd always have a post to upload.

10. Interact with other bloggers
This year, I've made many new blogging friends and started talking to a lot of other creators, which I'm really pleased with. I've gained loyal readers and also found many new blogs that I've fallen in love with. However, I think there's always room for improvement, and I'd love to be able to talk to even more bloggers in the future.

I'd love to know what your resolutions from last year were and whether you achieved them or not, so make you let me know down in the comments! Thanks for reading and I'll see you on Wednesday, where I'll be setting my new resolutions for 2016.

Love from Daisy x