June was a very busy month and one of my favourites since moving to London.
May ended by sending issue 13 of Blogosphere magazine, staring the lovely Louise Pentland, off to press. This was by far one of my favourite issues to work on and I'm super proud of how it turned out. There's SO MUCH content in this one! It features an interview with Louise Pentland, Caroline Hirons, Laura Jane Williams, Chanel Ambrose, Downs Side Up and Grey Fox Blog as well plenty of other features and an 'in conversation with' featuring Liv Purvis and Joe Galvin. SO MUCH CONTENT!! I also discuss the Instagram shadowban saga and how to get around it if your account has been affected... controversial!
#BlogosphereCoverReveal
A week later, on June 8th, we invited magazine contributors and platinum subscribers to join us for the #BlogosphereCoverReveal in the Belgravia room at The Lanesborough (@TheLanesborough) to celebrate the launch of the latest issue. I still can't get over how beautiful the room was with big windows overlooking Hyde Park, sparkling chandeliers and a fabulous hand-painted ceiling!
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The Benefit ladies getting hand massages from Burts Bees |
Benefit and Burts Bees joined us at the event. Benefit offered makeup touchups and brow services (the brow products are so good!) while Burts Bees provided our guests with relaxing hand massages.
Halfway through the evening, Alice Audley (Editor-in-Chief) welcomed our guests and spoke about issue 13. The cover star, Louise Pentland, said a few words too. It was then time for the moment that everybody was waiting for! We were finally able to reveal the Louise Pentland cover after months of hard work, hand out issue 13 and start sharing it online. Of course, lots of people snapped photos standing in front of the massive cover we had just revealed!

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Alice Audley, Sophie Fletcher (Sophie Kathleen), Elaine Malone (XOmisse) and Albertine Brandon (DippyWrites) |
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Albertine Brandon (DippyWrites), Sophie Fletcher (Sophie Kathleen) and Elaine Malone (XOmisse) |
Guests were then given a goody bag which was packed full of products from Burts Bees (@BurtsBeesUK), Benefit (@BenefitUK), Blistex (@BlistexUK), Neutrogena (@Neutrogena), Next (@nextofficial), Shea Moisture (@sheamoistureuk), White Rabbit Skincare (@WhiteRabbitSC) and a copy of issue 13!

#Blogtacular

On Saturday, June 10th, I attended the Blogtacular conference. This was my third year and I'm so delighted that I got invited back to be on the Creative Genius Bar giving one-on-one advice about blogging, blog design, SEO and WordPress. I'll have a full post about the day over on my main blog, XOmisse, but as always it was an inspiring day that left me feeling very creative, motivated and buzzing to put some plans into action.
#BlogosphereBlogAwards


On Thursday, June 22nd, we held our inaugural #BlogosphereBlogAwards ceremony in IRIS Studios, Kensington. We opened the nominations at the beginning of March with 12 categories and over 6,000 nominations altogether. We narrowed that down to 5 shortlisted bloggers per category which was then put to a public and panel vote. The public vote made up 40% and panel made up the remaining 60% of the vote.

It was an amazing night celebrating! There was a red carpet with flambeaux, a beautiful flower wall, canapes from Social Pantry and a bar serving Willem Barentsz gin, Fentimans soft drinks and Stassen Cider. We had a Blogger lounge which showcased the sponsors of the night including Miss Sporty, Tangle Teezer, Philips, London Tea, Next, Desenio, So...? Fragrance, Splat Oral Care, Ice Lolly Holiday, Moskito Guard and Willem Barentsz gin.

Alice started the ceremony, welcoming guests and one by one announced the first six winners. We took a short break to enjoy music by Andrea Di Giovanni (@andreadigiovanni) who was incredible and top up our drinks before announcing the final six winners. The last being the Blogosphere Blogger Of The Year who will be our next cover star - so exciting! The winners were:
- Fashion Blogger of the Year: Sophie Milner - Fashion Slave
- Beauty Blogger of the Year: The Sunday Girl
- Lifestyle Blogger of the Year: Hannah Rainey - Little Thoughts Blog
- Fitness Blogger of the Year: Cat Meffan - Imperfect Matter
- Arts and Crafts Blogger of the Year: Geneva - A Pair and a Spare DIY
- Book Bloggerof the Year: Rhianne - Little Novelist
- Photographer Blogger of the Year: Kyle Galvin
- Food Blogger of the Year: Holly - Little Blog of Vegan
- Travel Blogger of the Year: Claire and Laura - Twins that Travel
- Community Blogger of the Year: Nadiene - Just Nadiene
- Blogosphere Blogger Of The Year 2017 and Issue 14 Cover Star: Hannah Gale

Despite it being a lot of work for the team, I'm already looking forward to next year. The evening went by way too quick, I've been re-living it through blog posts, vlogs, tweets and Instagrams. I want to say a huge congratulations to all the winners above and everyone who was nominated. An incredible amount of talent and creativity in this industry and it was amazing to celebrate that!
To end this hectic month I'm flying home from London to Dublin for a quick visit and I'm so excited about it. I didn't think I'd get home again until at least September so this is a nice little surprise. A couple of friends are planning to visit in September too so that will be something to look forward to. I'm hoping the nice weather continues!
How to get issue 13 with Louise Pentland
This is such a frequently asked question so thought I'd pop the information in here for you. If you're not already subscribed, you can purchase a subscription here - there are four packages to choose from starting at £25/year with free UK shipping. The benefit of being a subscriber? You'll be one of the first to get the latest issue (they are sent straight after the #BlogosphereCoverReveal) and each issue will be delivered straight to your door before it's even hit the shelves in stores!Issue 13 is also available to purchase for £6 in UK newsagents, they usually go into stores 1-2 weeks after the #BlogosphereCoverReveal and after subscribers get their copy. You can see a list of the current stockists here.
This issue is definitely one of my favourites, I'm honestly so proud of it so I really hope you enjoy. If you do pick up a copy remember to tag us (@Blogosphere_Magazine) in your photos of the magazine on Instagram, we'll be featuring them in issue 14. Happy reading!
