This October marks 10 years since I started Nubelease. 10 years sounds like a long time. But somehow, I also feel like I’m at year zero.
I’ve learned a lot about beauty, blogging and creating content over the last decade. But one of the biggest things I’ve learned, especially this year, is that I’m way too optimistic. I see potential in everything.
Give me one beauty product and I can think of a blog post, a YouTube video, five social media ideas and probably 10 Pinterest pins. Then while I’m planning those ideas, I’ll come up with three more. By the time I actually start creating, the original idea has turned into something completely different. I totally get lost in the art. And for a long time, I thought that was one of my strengths. But its been more of a weakness this year.
Years ago, I wrote an Editor’s Note around a phrase I kept saying to myself: “Be obsessed with your own potential.” I still believe that. That post even took on a life of its own on Pinterest, where the quote was saved and shared over and over again. But there’s another side to seeing the potential in everything.
Sometimes you see so many possibilities that you have a hard time choosing one. That has been my problem with Nubelease. I started this year thinking I was going to create more content than ever. And technically, I have created a lot. I’ve planned. I’ve tested products. I’ve filmed. I’ve written. I’ve spent more hours than I could possibly count working on this brand. But the amount of time I spend doesn’t match the amount of work I’ve actually published.
I can spend hours turning one idea into the exact vision I have in my head. Sometimes I work on something for so long that…the trend has passed by the time my content is ready. The product isn’t as relevant anymore. Or I have so much footage and so many ideas that finishing the thing becomes its own project. That’s the thing, creativity without output can be a waste of time and you don’t have time these days. You’ve got to be FAST when it comes to putting out content.
The beauty world back in 2016 was way slower than it is now. I started during an era when beauty blogging could be much more anonymous. An arm full of swatches would be enough. You didn’t necessarily have to put your face, your life or even your personality at the center of everything. It’s the exact opposite in 2026.
It took me a long time to show myself online (about 8 years from when I started Nubelease), By the time I started showing myself and sharing more, I felt behind. I tried to catch up by posting ALOT, then some of that pressure turned into overthinking and overproducing random content. Again, the exact opposite of what can help you grow these days.
I still want to be the person who sees possibility everywhere. I still want the ideas. I still want to care about how everything looks and feels. I just need some guardrails around that creative brain of mine.
Read the rest of this Editor’s Note in the Nubelease Fall Issue on nubelease.com
Pick the goal. Do the work. Finish it. Put it out. Then move on to the next thing. Because the content has to be published before I can learn from it and make it better.
So I’ve got 10 years of Nubelease behind me.
But, I’ve got another decade (hopefully more) to get even better at it.
And yes, I’m optimistic about it.
Of course I am!
— Hanya
