GOODBYE

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It's hard to know where to start. I've written and rewritten this post dozens of times. I've delayed it, I've almost changed my mind, but I know this is the right choice. So, here it goes; I'm closing this chapter and moving on from Jasmine Talks Beauty...

It's been a long process for me to come to terms with this not being for me any more. I was ok with not being the standard super-popular beauty creator for a long while because I had a decent number of people that enjoyed and appreciated my style of content. I didn’t want to bow to making ‘viral’ content or just yelling at everyone that they need a new product, but the truth is: from 2022 onwards I’ve seen a steep and dramatic drop in interest in my content that’s never recovered. I'd had Instagram dips before, but things had always picked back up within a couple of months, but this was different. And I think it’s been a self-perpetuating thing; knowing everything I post will tank on social media, that people rarely engage directly with blogs (though I still get a lot of Google traffic) and then falling a little out of love with what I’m doing. I’d try to create content that’s helpful and interesting but it just stopped hitting at some point. In fact, posting seemed to lose me followers more often than not, which is obviously so disheartening! I’ve probably disseminated as much general skincare knowledge as I can and the rest is new products, which most of us don’t need and they're rarely bringing something truly new to the market. I’ve felt like I’ve either had to be quite repetitive or feed the overconsumption machine. 

I also haven't felt like the community, feedback and interaction have been there like they were back when I first started sharing beauty content in the 2010s. This has been an incredible experience and I have amazing memories from it with some wonderful people, but I think it’s time to let this platform go and stop feeling like I’m not good enough for no longer being able to find success with this. I’m also actually looking forward to not receiving random unsolicited ‘stuff’ any more and just focusing on the products that I truly love. If you like me and you want to see what I’m up to, I will still be sharing on my other account which is primarily recipes, with a little bit of travel and personal stuff. I also just want more time to put into other pursuits like writing. Sure, I could try to pivot this platform to be more fashion, lifestyle and personality-driven, but that's not me. I enjoy sharing information that's helpful and my honest thoughts and advice; not being the centre of attention!

Another thing I think this will help me with is fixing my own relationship with consumption, I don’t think I can do that whilst still being part of the beauty community. Also, I think the world over the past year and a half has left me a little jaded and disengaged. And as though I want to disconnect from consumerism, improve my financial skills and focus on what is going to enrich my life. I don’t want to support large conglomerates; many of them seem to be complicit in some of the horrible things we've witnessed. Then, more generally, I just think of the money I've spent on stuff over the past decade and wish I'd done things differently and not handed these companies quite so much of my money. I’ve considered only creating content on independent brands, but it's hard with the M&A activity that goes on in the beauty world and, honestly, I think people would be even less interested in that. At the same time, I do also just want to reconnect with my passion for writing and get back to the novel I've shamefully been neglecting in recent years. I want to read more and get into a flow state with hobbies that aren't as linked to platforms that shorten my attention span.

Whilst my engagement has actually picked up quite a bit in 2025; it’s just too little, too late and there are too many other factors in play for this to really change my mind. I also feel like my natural drift is away from the trends that the Gen Z audience are gravitating towards; namely, very long routines (repackaged as the ‘morning shed’) and excessive beauty collections (shelves of matching Drunk Elephant products are back)! I feel like we've been there and done this all before; it's not 2017 and I'm over it... My content has focused on trying to help people find the skincare products and ingredients that are going to give the best results for their individual needs. I review products and try to cut through the noise to help people create realistic skincare routines that work. I just don't think that's what people want from beauty content here in 2025 and I guess I don't have the will to keep creating something that only appeals to a small minority. I accept defeat, but I also accept that I can no longer live in this world of fluffy escapism where I can be 'just a girl' who likes skincare. 

Thank you to anyone who's reading this; if you made it this far, I'm sure you're in that minority who have really stuck with me. I'm incredibly grateful for the support and the opportunities its afforded me. I never could have imagined when I was taking my unedited, blurry pictures of what I got in a Superdrug 2-for-1 that I'd be paid by brands to create content or get a photoshoot and feature in Cosmo. It's been amazing and I look back so fondly on a lot of the phases of my life as a beauty creator, but most of the people I swapped blog comments with and chatted to on Twitter hashtags back in the day have moved on to some extent. And I guess it's my time now; it's a new beauty world out there and I'm ok with not being part of it. It's just a little sad to officially close the door and say this publicly. Heavy, yet somehow freeing, let's say!

 Obviously, I will still be online at @jasmine_butfirstfood, however I appreciate that won't be everyone's thing! So, thank you for everything, and signing off one last time...

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