20 Questions with Jana

Pictured wearing Nūdus Survivor.

You may already know this Slovenian-based beauty blogger from Small Bits of Loveliness, but if you don’t, you are in for a treat. I had the chance to interview her about her love for honey and the amazing green beauty community.

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1. If you had to choose one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

Hmm, I’m always dreading this kind of questions, it’s hard just to pick one but I would say friendly.

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2. How would you define the word ‘perfect’?

I think the word perfect is so harsh and this need to be perfect is not good for us. If you are a bit of a perfectionist, like I sometimes feel I am, then it means that everything goes to a plan, my plan.

But let’s be real, we can’t control everything and not everything goes to a plan and because you want something to be perfect you can be even more disappointed in the end.

I always had in mind what my life would be when I reached certain age, but it’s not. And yes, at times that can be super annoying and stressful and also sad, but that’s just life and it can’t always be perfect and I don’t even want it to be perfect because then it would be boring. I think, I wowrotet know for sure. 🙂 I don’t want to ramble on but I just have to say one last thing, the word perfect is overrated.

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3. What is your biggest beauty tip?

Find the right shade of foundation and blenb, blend, blend.

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4. What made you decide to go green?

I started dipping my toes into the green beauty world quite a long time ago, about 7 years ago. I remember reading and hearing about harmful ingredients and how they penetrate your skin and stuff like that and I just didn’t want to use those products.

Another reason was that most natural brands are also cruelty free and that influenced my decision to go green. Now I’m super happy I did, and it’s super exciting to be a part of green beauty community, which is just the best. The best!<3

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5.What has been the hardest part about making the switch?

Checking ingredients was super annoying and I still don’t really like doing it, I always seem to miss something. That’s why I like products with few ingredients. But at the same time, reading ingredients is necessary and it’s such a wonderful feeling when you know all of the ingredients of a certain product!

Oh and the fact that I just couldn’t go to a drugstore and buy whatever I would like was also quite a bummer. Online shopping to the rescue!

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6. What have you learned through the process?

I learned that you don’t have to stress out about every ingredient and that natural products can be a great inspiration for making your own DIY projects. I just look differently at products.

I used to always read what the product would do like make my skin flawless, and I couldn’t care less about ingredients, but know it’s the opposite and ingredient list is the first thing I look at.

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7. What are some of your favorite green beauty finds?

Oils. Oils for my face, body and hair. I can’t imagine living without them! For my face I love Gaia Creams Oat & Amaranth Soothing and Calming Serum and Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil. And for my hair, the winner is definitely good old coconut oil. Organic, extra virgin of course.

The next one is honey. If you follow my blog, then you’re so sick of this, but I always seem to find a way to include honey in a blog post. It’s just that good, okay! 🙂

I’ve also been loving rose water, the Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation and I’ll include dry body brushing in here as well because it made a huge difference in my skin. There’re so many products I love but we could be here all day if I wrote every single one. 🙂

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8. What was the hardest product to replace?

Deodorant, obviously. I always wanted a natural deodorant, it was like one of the first products I wanted to change but oh my, some natural deodorants are bad. Like super bad! I’m also more of a sweaty betty, oh joy, so I was always insecure about that part of my body and not even every conventional deodorant did the job for me.

So as much as I wanted a natural deodorant I kinda knew it won’t be easy, my standards were high. Some natural deodorants just disappeared and the stink was real. I’m talking to you Desert Essence Tea Tree deodorant, ugh! But then came along Schmidt’s Ylang Ylang + Calendula deodorant and I was hooked! I absolutely love it and you can’t even imagine how happy I’m that I’m not allergic to soda!

But nevertheless, I’m still eyeing the new-ish Meow Meow Tweet baking soda-free deo. And I also really wish and hope Schmidt’s comes up with new scents, I would love a nice floral scent. 🙂 Second product I struggled with was mascara.

My lashes aren’t that long or anything special so a nice mascara was always a must for me. For a long time I just used conventional, cruelty-free mascaras because natural ones just weren’t good. But in the last year or so, we saw so many new and improved natural mascaras and I couldn’t be happier. I haven’t tried loads, but my fave has to be the one from Lily Lolo.

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9. How has this journey changed your overall health?

I haven’t really seen any major changes in my health just because of the products I’ve been using. Well, my hair and skin are looking so much healthier than they used to, but the main change in this journey was that I also made some changes in terms of what I eat, and exercise is now a part of my everyday life.

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10. How you would recommend getting started to non-toxic newbies?

I would say green beauty blogs are the way to go. I learned and I’m still learning so much from my fellow green beauty bloggers/friends.

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11. What is your favorite ingredient?

Honey.

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12. What is a quote you live by?

I don’t have a particular quote but I like to think of karma and then decide what should I do. I often times say: Karma is a b*tch! So be nice and think positive.

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13. If you could only leave the house with one product, what would it be?

Deodorant. Mascara or concealer on bad skin days, if we’re talking makeup. 🙂

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14. Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

I see myself and my family happy and healthy. I see a nice house with my boyfriend and kids, and a dog. I hope to have a great job or maybe even my own skincare line. I’ve always been dreaming of that. Haha sounds wonderful, right?! All I really want it so be happy.

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15. What is one piece of advice you’d tell your 13-year old self?

Let’s change that to a 15 or 16-year old self, shall we? Black isn’t the only colour!

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16. If you were able to read minds, would you? Why or why not?

My first answer is yes! But when I really think about it I’d say no. I have enough on my mind as it is and I really don’t need any more thoughts in my head. I would rather be able to understand animals, I was literally dreaming about that when I was a kid.

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17. What is the last thing you Googled?

Haha okay this is so lame, but I was checking if I spelled literally correctly. Before that I googled Gomorra series, to check out a new Italian series my boyfriend talked about.

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18. What is the most difficult part about blogging?

Taking and editing photos. It’s really the easiest part, you just have to take a photo and add a few changes, like make it brighter or warmer or whatever, but I’m so annoyed with them when I have to capture a real shade of lipstick for example. Ugh!

My computer screen isn’t really the best for that, it doesn’t show the real colours and when I think of colours and shades everyone else see on their screens…I just don’t want to think about that. 🙂 I’m making my life complicated here I know but I just want my photos to look nice. 🙂

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19. What is your favorite part about it?

Interacting with fellow bloggers and readers. I absolutely love that! Every comment and like makes my day and I’m super happy to have such wonderful support.

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20. How do you stay positive?

I would say I’m a positive person, but I do have my downs and the best thing to do is not to overthink things, which is sometimes easier said than one. But staying in a bubble isn’t all that good, talking really helps and after a good talk, problems don’t seem so big anymore. But most of the time I see something good in everything and that’s just the way I’m, not much more to say about that. 🙂