One of my biggest accomplishments this year was being invited to host ten private ateliers internally with the biggest fragrance brands on the planet, this involved talking about LGBT inclusivty and digital beauty.

My success in product development is totally in keeping with my style as an artist, I put things together from life experience and I wanted to do a workshop that involved talking through the experiences that have shaped me from a child, to how I’ve created my identity in beauty today. I was really shocked at how lovely everyone was and of course there are NDA’s, but the outline of what I covered was very much about my role as a transgender person, my experience learning from brands who have grown on social media to capitalise on our strengths but not necessarily hold much respect for LGBT inclusivity, and the differences between repurchase value and bartering of internet space.

I was very much excited to talk about this to industry experts, I loved giving this type of talk to L’Oreal and I really wanted to do it with other corporations, so this was a real honor for me.

So my second round of ateliers was fabulous and I had the chance to hang out with the wonderful ladies behind Beauty Papers. They hosted the keynote speech at the start of the day and I was really excited to have worked alongside some of the most respected OG’s in beauty and fashion.

Some of the other people I had the chance to meet were digital tech guys who do fab things in fashion, some startups across the EU + some other makeup artists. I was really intimidated to host my own class but it was really something that I got into the swing of. I’m not a massively shy person but the idea of little old me giving a workshop on how to build shit in beauty to the top of the industry was surreal and a real stamp of approval on what I’ve accomplished.

I adore Barcelona and have a specific travel blog talking about the locations we stayed in and a little about the history of the building, but I really took from the whole experience how much passion we have as an industry to keep progressive. I was very much confused as to how I would create something that would be engaging when the content that I had the most response from were videos under two Ikea lamps when I was a teenager, but sometimes magic comes in many forms and the response to some of my boy to girl tutorials and how that inspired a legitimate success story in my product with Jecca, is definitely a testament.

I was very excited to combine not only my experience in digital as a creator, with my development in beauty - but my knowledge of branding is always something that I think I should have capitalized on earlier. I worked with a lot of cosmetic companies at the genesis of there launches and to show examples of great inclusivity campaigns was really powerful. I felt that this is really the start of a new wave of my work where I can actually hold some weight in these discussions. There is one thing sending a tweet with your opinion out there and getting people who are in the midst of social media to respond, there’s another going to the heart of these companies and saying it. So I’m very grateful to everyone involved and I have so much more coming this year in Asia.

I really want to work now on animal rights within beauty, as a way of combining not only my love of quality cosmetics and health, with a conversation on unnecessary cruelty and I hope to do so soon.