I only went and won a Blog award didn’t I!

August 3, 2016

My Blog, yep, little ole me, Back To You Beauty won Highly Commended in the Community Star Category of the  We are Thirty Plus blog awards in association with The Body Shop.




WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!. I am so thrilled and happy and shocked, amazed, overwhelmed and proud! We are Thirty plus is an incredibly talented Collective of Bloggers over the age of 30. The collective was put together by Hayley Carr of London Beauty Queen fame and features hundreds and hundreds of incredibly successful, well known, famous and upcoming bloggers that actually have a lot of experience and a lot to say. This can be anything from Beauty, Food, Parenthood, Lifestyle, travel, in fact any category. For more information on Thirty Plus please look HERE.



Thirty Plus Blogger Awards

Anyway, a few weeks ago  I received notification that my blog had been shortlisted for a Community Star Award. Wow! I was absolutely overjoyed! In each of the 7 categories, 600 bloggers had been put forward and the shortlist came down to 5 of us!! I was blown away that me and my blog had been put forward for such an amazing award. What an achievement. We asked out readers to vote for us, if they felt like it and then the final decision was down to the incredibly talented and well known judges, and we would find out the results  at a glittering award ceremony.

 The judges were:-

Hayley Carr, founder of THIRTY PLUS and blogger at londonbeautyqueen.com
Zoe Cook, Head of PR at The Body Shop UK
Jane Cunningham, writer and beauty expert from britishbeautyblogger.com
Thom Watson, blogger at manface.com and the developer of the THIRTY PLUS website
Ateh Jewel, video production expert, presenter and blogger at jeweltonesbeauty.com
Nikki Taylor, beauty expert and consultant nikkitaylor.me
Simon Glazin, fashion writer and blogger from theverysimong.com
Amber McNaught, social media queen and blogger from  foreveramber.co.uk
JJ Miller, food lover, mum and London obsessive who blogs at love-london.co.uk
Catherine Summers, fashionista and champion of 40+ bloggers from notdressedaslamb.com



Thirty Plus Awards in association with The Body Shop

The day of award ceremony (28th July) was as far removed from glamorous for me as you could imagine. I had been very unwell for 5 weeks, it was the school holidays ( so I was an incredibly busy mum) and I had a nerve wracking 5 hour hospital appointment. My eyes were swollen and red and I had not slept in days. Feeling stressed and a little overwhelmed, and with pupil enlarging eye drops in from the hospital, i rushed home, did my hair and make up (Below) put on my beautiful Dress from Simply Be for which I received so many compliments (Thank You), and headed to the Charlotte Street Hotel London.


Before & After – Thank goodness for make up!

I have to say I wasn’t feeling at all nervous, I just didn’t believe that I would win anything, which is not be being pessimistic, but my category was so strong and the other contenders have such amazing blogs and personalities, I just hadn’t envisioned me winning anything. When we arrived we were greeted by a beautiful Champagne reception courtesy of The Body Shop, and were able to network and meet and greet our friends, fellow bloggers and judges. It was a lovely relaxed hour. We were then ushered into the cinema room for the exciting award ceremony. It was such a great, happy, fun atmosphere, sitting with friendly, like minded people all routing for each other. It really is the most supportive Collective of people I have ever been around, and I am honoured to be part of it.


Champagne & Canapes Reception

 Hayley Carr began her speech by talking a bit about the collective and The Body Shop who are celebrating their 40th Birthday this year – which is amazing, and the awards began.

Judges Jane Cunningham (British Beauty Blogger) & Hayler Carr (London Beauty Queen)

 In each category there was a winner and a Highly Commended. You cannot Imagine my surprise and delight when Ateh Jewel announced my name – Back To You Beauty – for Highly Commended For the Community Star award!!! I was shocked, and thrilled to hear all these cheers and claps were for me and I couldn’t get to the stage fast enough to receive my beautiful certificate which I will treasure forever. The winner was Rosalilium, who is absolutely fantastic and very well deserving of her award.

Me & Rosalilium Collecting our awards Photo Credit : Thirty Plus Blogs

We then had more celebratory drinks and were gifted the most amazing collection of products by The Body Shop which I will feature soon on my blog.

As I was on my way home, I had such a sense of pride. I couldn’t believe that all my hard work, effort and determination over the past 18 months had led to this moment. I know I have haters and doubters and get trolled, but negativity towards what I do, only increases my creativity and positivity. I have a huge, Huge readership, I receive hundreds of emails and private message of thanks from readers, telling me  I have  lifted their spirits through my blog, helped them find their perfect product or have inspired someone to go out and do what makes them happy.

My blog has been a lifesaver for me too, at times, and I am so happy to have such wonderful relationships with amazing Companies and PR Teams. This enables me to keep my integrity intact, be honest, helpful and true to you and bring you the best content, amazing product’s, new launches, advice and opinions that I possibly can. Most importantly, I would like to say a huge, bigger than huge, MASSIVE, thank you, to you, my readers! Thank you for believing in me, for enjoying what I write, for inspiring me, for trusting me, for always asking for more content, more products, even when I am knackered hahaha!! Without you, this would not be possible. Just remember, if ever you are having a bad day, feel like you are not worth it, or want to give up on your dreams.. be like Dory and ‘Just keep Swimming’……

Back To You Beauty Community Star – Highly Commended

Please forgive Photograph quality, as you can imagine this was an incredibly exciting evening and most were taken on an IPhone hahaha!

One response to “I only went and won a Blog award didn’t I!”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Hi, I have just found your blog and am truly inspired by your story. Although it's a while ago, congratulations on the award and ignore those nasty trollers – they are very sad people who have nothing better to do.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Vlogs