{"id":50190,"date":"2013-12-02T14:06:15","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T13:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=50190"},"modified":"2013-12-02T14:06:15","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T14:06:15","slug":"journalist-spotlight-fiona-klonarides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/journalist-spotlight-fiona-klonarides\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Spotlight: Fiona Klonarides"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fiona Klonarides<\/a> is the author of<\/span> The Beauty Shortlist<\/a>, recently ranked second in Cision\u2019s<\/span><\/span> Top 10 UK Beauty Blogs<\/a>. Fiona spoke to Cision about the 2014 Beauty Shortlist Awards, self-tanners and PRs being her source of new and beautiful.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"FionaHow did The Beauty Shortlist first start?<\/span>
<\/b>The Beauty Shortlist is four and a half years old now; I remember the night I wrote the very first post. I\u2019m a big fan of what I call the \u2018modern organics\u2019, cutting edge products which harness the power of flowers, herbs and plants. It\u2019s a fascinating industry to work in and it\u2019s brilliant to work alongside so many pioneering female entrepreneurs \u2013 as well as the men whose home is beauty too!<\/p>\n

What are the<\/span> 2014 Beauty Shortlist Awards<\/a>?<\/span><\/b>
They\u2019re our \u2018best of\u2019 edit of the year. Our way of giving an annual shout out to the brands and products we feel deserve special recognition. The Awards are open to big, small, established and new brands and they\u2019re open for entries right now<\/a>. Anything the judges feel is outstanding gets shortlisted for an Award and all will be revealed next March!<\/p>\n

Who do you aim your content at?<\/b><\/span>
Good question, because I\u2019ve never aimed the content at anyone in particular \u2013 I know that\u2019s working back to front in a sense and probably not the best approach but The Beauty Shortlist has grown organically \u2013 and quite fast \u2013 without any particular strategy. I\u2019ve always just focused on the content. It\u2019s the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of products which I 100% hand-on-heart would say are worth buying\/trying. Maybe that\u2019s why we seem to appeal to a wide age spectrum. We do love a good niche brand, though, and support the boutique brands big time, so anyone who loves discovering a new or more niche brand \u2013 especially skincare and anti-aging \u2013 is likely to be a Beauty Shortlist fan.\u00a0 If you love ethical natural\/organic \u2018luxe\u2019 products, you\u2019ll find plenty on the blog!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite social network?<\/span>
<\/b>Twitter because of its immediacy and the amazing opportunities to connect with people, brands, organisations, etc. As someone who writes long sentences it\u2019s a good daily exercise for me to communicate in 140 words or less (thank goodness for \u2018&\u2019 instead of \u2018and\u2019.) But you cannot underestimate the power of Facebook, despite its critics. YouTube for bloggers is huge. I may need to get myself in front of a camera soon (but don\u2019t hold your breath).<\/p>\n

What will be big in beauty in 2014?\u00a0<\/span>
<\/b>Really big? Self-tanners. We\u2019re somewhat sun-deprived in the UK and the brands that nail the perfect tan, and some are very close, will do well. Skin cancer rates are escalating and sun damage is incredibly ageing \u2013 I\u2019m guilty of forgetting the SPF (when I was younger).<\/p>\n

What else? New alternatives to Botox. And aromatherapy. The comfort factor we all seek is huge \u2013 look at brands like Aromatherapy Associates and NEOM Organics, we\u2019re emotionally addicted to those (ditto fragrance). I also think health supplements will be an area to watch.\u00a0 Life is so much better when you feel really well.<\/p>\n

How do you work with brands?<\/span>
<\/b>It\u2019s pretty simple, I work with the ones I believe in 100%. I find 99% of PR agencies and in-house PRs great to work with, you need a lot of (positive!) energy to work in PR as it\u2019s one of those jobs where you\u2019re always \u2018on\u2019, so I have huge respect for them.<\/p>\n

What do PRs do that\u2019s good?<\/span>
<\/b>PRs are my source of \u2018new and beautiful\u2019. And anything that makes a journalist\u2019s job life easier is good. A punchy, clearly written press release is good and so are good images \u2013 I can\u2019t be bothered faffing around requesting decent images, and a brand that doesn\u2019t have those sorted out just comes across as na\u00efve and unprepared. I love an original pitch \u2013 we\u2019re always up for doing something different on The Beauty Shortlist.<\/p>\n

What do PRs do that\u2019s bad?<\/span>
<\/b>This is a personal gripe but if we\u2019ve said in response to an email \u2018Thanks, but that\u2019s not really for us\u2019, I could do without two more emails telling me why we should feature the aforementioned product.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t happen often. Also I\u2019m not a pushy person and I don\u2019t relate to pushy PRs \u2013 it\u2019s a personality thing. There\u2019s a fine line between being assertive and following up and being a bit too pushy \u2013 you have to hit that sweet spot.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Take Five<\/b><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite beauty brand?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>
Oof! I have a personal favourites \u2018stable\u2019 of about 10 but I\u2019m not telling!\u00a0 I do love Asian-inspired British newcomer 001 Skincare<\/a> a lot though, and Michelle Roques-O\u2019Neil\u2019s Therapie collection<\/a> has been a stress-less saviour for me this winter. For candles, Timothy Dunn London, Ancienne Ambiance, Diptyque and NEOM Organics (just for starters) and for fragrance \u2013 hands down \u2013 Jo Malone\u2019s personal brand Jo Loves. I\u2019m totally addicted to Pomelo, the first Jo Loves launch, and I think Jo has created one of the best British brands ever. Pomelo is like a summer in the Med during a winter in Britain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is your style icon?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>
Yasmin Le Bon. Genuine, effortless and I love how she channels her inner rock chic so timelessly (it\u2019s hard to believe she\u2019s been modelling for thirty years).<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your life motto?<\/b><\/span>
Look for the positives. If life throws lemons at you, make a lemon sorbet.<\/span><\/p>\n

What super power would you have?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>
The ability to heal other people\u2019s hurt, sadness or illnesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>Who would play you in a film? <\/b>\u00a0
<\/span>Not a clue! I know who I\u2019d love to play opposite \u2018me\u2019 though \u2013 Richard Gere, Jim Sturgess or Jake Gyllenhaal and I really admire the work of Judy Davis, Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Editorial information on Fiona Klonarides, The Beauty Shortlist and thousands of other media contacts and outlets, can be found in the<\/span> CisionPoint<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Media Database<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fiona Klonarides is the author of The Beauty Shortlist, recently ranked second in Cision\u2019s Top 10 UK Beauty Blogs. Fiona spoke to Cision about the 2014 Beauty Shortlist Awards, self-tanners and PRs being her source …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":50405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,7272,3532,4038,5159,5336,5741],"tags":[104,5458,5459,5460,5461,5462],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}