Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another interview. You may notice that it’s on a Thursday (and on the 6th) rather than the 1st – like I said in the first interview, the dates might change depending on my schedule. Also I’d like to take a quick moment to say that I will be rebranding this segment in the new year so keep an eye out for it!
Today I’ll be interviewing Stella from @ohmy_stellar I really like her feed and her stories, not to mention that she’s also a nice person haha.
So can you tell me a bit about yourself
I’m Stella from Sydney, Australia, just turned 27 in September. I run a blog called Oh My Stellar, as well as the linking Instagram and Youtube channels – though the latter is much less active.
Day-to-day, I work as a Designer for a university and I also do fashion photography. I was previously trained as a musician as well. I have been singing and songwriting since I was 11 and have two degrees – in entertainment (music), as well as visual communications. As a fashion photographer, I am self taught and started around 6 years ago.
Aside from working, my hobbies are actually quite limited. I’m a bit of a workaholic, but I love beauty – especially with creative make up artistry. I also love watching procedural and dark, twisted TV shows (i.e. Criminal Minds, Good Doctor, Riverdale), and I also have an obsession with corgi puppies. That being said, I am very allergic to puppy fluff and it’s quite sad.
I love Riverdale as well, this season is definitely something else and I can’t wait to see how it’ll all unfold.
When did you start your IG account?
I think that it’s been around a year and a half to two years now – so not as long as a lot of other people. I couldn’t get the exact date because I’ve since archived a lot of my older posts and I also re-used my account (which used to be full of selfies and my embarrassing attempt to be an ulzzang). I started it at the same time as my blog as I needed a platform to ‘market’ myself. I really do approach my beauty blogging as part hobby and part business.
I’ve been really liking your feed lately; do you have any photography tips for us?
Thank you! Actually, I had been having difficulty with my feed for quite a while as I felt that my content wasn’t engaging enough – which was strange because, as a designer, I kind of work every day to create this sort of thing. Lately, I’ve been actively trying to focus on how posts look as an individual image rather than sitting within my theme (though I still do that), and I have been trying to create images that are eye-catching and well composed, rather than just trying to show an entire product.
As for photography tips, I admit that I do have an advantage because I come from a photography background. I would recommend for people to look at a lot of different content and imagery that they like and try to replicate the style – staggering the positioning of your flat lay or re-framing the shot can do a lot. I also use two phone apps to edit my photos – usually just for lighting or fixing the colour: ColorStory and Snapseed.
Set up wise, I just use a desk lamp, my phone and a big piece of white cardboard so it really isn’t necessary to get a big set up. Just experiment.
Besides beauty products, what other things have you been loving lately?
With nothing in common whatsoever: the Chinese adaptation of Meteor Garden, big heart shaped earrings, the movie series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them (in particular, I love Nifflers) and also the musical Dear Evan Hansen. My interests tend to change a lot, especially in regards to entertainment.
I finished Meteor Garden a while back too and that was such a wild ride.
If you could swap lives with anyone in the world, who would you want to be for a day?
Kim Taeyeon (from SNSD).
As a massive fan of hers I know that her life is far from great, but I have also related to her a lot. I feel like she is the type of person I would have been if my childhood dream of being a singer had come true (I wanted to go to Korea and be BoA) so spending a day in her life would be like experiencing one of my life’s ‘what-ifs’.
Where are your top 5 favourite places to shop for your beauty products?
When it comes to Western Beauty, I will generally go to Sephora or Mecca, because I like to be able to swatch and try products before I buy. If I am buying online though, I go to Cult Beauty, Beautylish or Black Swallow.
For K-beauty, I will generally buy off StyleKorean, Althea Korea or BB Cosmetics, depending on the product availability and how much I am buying (for shipping costs). There are other stores that I usually recommend to people too, which you can find listed on my blog, but they are the most common for me.
I’m curious – why don’t you shop at Australian K-Beauty retailers, rather than buying it internationally?
Since I usually buy quite a lot, I don’t have much of a problem with hitting the min. spend for free shipping. With a lot of Australian online stores (not necessarily just kbeauty) there’s quite a big mark up and the min. spend for shipping is often even higher – much in thanks to Australia’s costly postage service and taxes.
In the end, I think it works out very similarly either way so I just buy from who ever I find reliable, has what I need and has a fair price.
I do want to add that I am in no way discrediting Australian retailers and I would absolutely buy from them (and do) if they are my best option – such as with Black Swallow. Unfortunately though, there’s a lot of costs for running a business in Australia and that puts many of our local businesses at a disadvantage.
You have such a large makeup collection, what eyeshadow palette are you always going back to?
This is really hard! I like to do a different makeup look every day so I don’t really have a single palette that I go back to more than the others. I guess I would have to say Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Soft Glam – I didn’t think that I would like it much because it is so neutral but the formula is really beautiful and easy to work with. It is the sort of palette I would reach for if I wanted something simple or if I didn’t know what to do.
What’s your skin type and what’s a product that has really changed your skin?
In the past year or so, I have had combination skin, which can be normal to oily. However, my skin is naturally dry so… I guess I need to keep working on normalising that. I also have a genetic disposition towards pigmentation, so whitening is one of my main skin concerns.
As for products, I feel like the one product that has really changed things for me is the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask. I have dry lips often and I’ve never been able to fix it until I starting using that. I also love my SKII Genoptics Aura (for brightening complexion) and the Laneige Water Sleeping Mask (for keeping skin hydrated through the night without being too thick or heavy).
Do you do anything for hair and nail maintenance?
I love getting gel nails done but truthfully don’t take care of it as much as I should – I’m just really lazy and I find that frequent salon trips (every 2 weeks for my nail growth) would also be quite expensive. I’m wanting to get back into doing my own gel nails though, just something simple, so I think I will soon.
Hair wise, I go to a salon maybe 2-3 times a year, which is very infrequent. I just get my hair bleached again, keeping the roots darker (like a balayage) so that I don’t need to do it often. Instead, I just add colour to my hair at home. I do it every week or two using a mixture of Brite Organix hair colour – usually Purple and Pink. Sometimes I will experiment with different shades or having multi-coloured hair, but I will generally keep it as one colour so it’s easier to maintain.
Yes, I’m really lazy.
Where can we find you on social media?
I have four instagram accounts: @ohmy_stellar (which is my main blogging one), @stellamirandaa (my personal one), @stella.thai (my photography account) and @stellar.beauty (my make up artistry account). Of course, the latter three aren’t that active.
I hope you all enjoyed learning more about Stella today, please do check our her accounts that I’ve linked above. As it’s the last month of the year, the interviews will be back next year and as I mentioned above, there will be a rebrand. So keep an eye out next year for a new interview!
Thanks for reading as always, I have four more posts this month and I hope you enjoy them as well.
with love,
Irene
VQP. usu BEAUTY