All posts in: Dry Bar

10 Jan 2016

Yow Yow’s Yearly Recap

We didn’t intend to be as late on this post as we actually are, but unfortunately, we’ve just been a little bit under the weather. Also, if I’m being honest, I was actually dreading writing this post for the longest time because I knew how these stats would look and I wasn’t particularly excited about them. In 2015, these are the most dismal numbers we’ve ever seen. But instead of throwing ourselves a pity party, we’re going to share the numbers and then we’re going to move forward because I paid for another year on this domain and we’re not going to let it go to waste. I’m still really excited about Yow Yow! I went through each month in 2015 and quickly scanned through all of the posts that I wrote – some that I laughed at and some that I had forgotten I had even written this year. Writing in 2015 was hard and it’s often times difficult to juggle this and a full-time job that I really care about, but if we can do this for six years, we can do a 7th.

Stats from 2014 will be on the left and italicized while stats from 2015 will be right and bold:

1,400,602 total visits to Yow Yow! – – – – – – – – – – – 1,471,487 total visit to Yow Yow!

In just 2015 alone, we had 70,885 visits to Yow Yow!

10,113 Posts 2,878 Comments  – – – – – – – – – – – 11,003 Posts 2,989 comments (cumulative)

Top Post of 2015 – “Meet: Cathy Nguyen” 1,988 views (written back in 2009)

Top Post written in 2015 – “I Like Your Style…Kiernan Shipka” 303 views

Busiest month in terms of views – January 2014 (11,072 views)  – – – – – March 2015 (6,923 views)

Most popular day: Wednesday (probably due to Wedding Wednesdays!)

Most popular hour: 9:00 AM (5% of traffic)

Total WordPress.com followers: 1,476

Total daily subscribers: 2,027

Credits + References

Worked with

  • Sugar Brand Cosmetics

In 2015, we were reached out by a few brands and companies, but due to my work schedule and other time commitments, I was unable to fulfill certain requests and posts. We’ll try again in 2016!

Top Referring Sites in 2015 Were:

  • Facebook.com
  • Pinterest.com
  • Twitter.com
  • Quora.com
  • Bloglovin.com

Most of My Visitors Came From:

  • The United States
  • Canada
  • The United Kingdom
  • Germany
  • France
  • Australia

(same order as last year)

Other:

*In 2015, my friend Mandi got engaged and we gave her “Wedding Wednesdays” as a column to share her journey as she gets closer to walking down the aisle.

*We tied our Instagram account a little bit more closely to Yow Yow! And this was HUGE for us!

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*We had one of our photos used on Moorea Seal’s Instagram account.

*Things that we tried for the first time and wrote about: SoulCycle, Dry Bar, being a +1 at someone else’s wedding (also first holiday wedding on Halloween!), dyeing our hair, and attending our first Golden State Warriors game.

*Concerts we reviewed: Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.

*We tried two places in LA that we had once blogged about on Yow Yow! previously: Eggslut + Milk Jar Cookies.

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*We showed love to Smilebooth and Canyon Child.

*We got in front of the camera again to do our OOTD fashion posts – the first time since 2013.

 

14 Dec 2015

What We Wore: Holiday Party

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Now that my company’s holiday party has actually happened, we can finally write this post! It was about a month ago that I was facing my holiday party dress dilemma having no idea what I would wear this year and it was just a few weeks ago that I wrote our Holiday Party Dress Guide for 2015. When I wrote that, I had just found my dream dress (this one above!) When you know, you know. The minute I put it on, I not only knew it was the perfect dress, but I felt it. Oh gosh – imagine what I’m going to say when I write about how I find THE dress someday. When you have found the dress and you’re excited about it, you’ll try it on every few days…and that’s exactly what I did. Out of the three holiday parties that I’ve celebrated with my company, this is by far, my favorite look.

Mandi and I had separate holiday parties to attend that night, but we figured, why not get ready together? She told me that for holiday parties she usually likes to pamper herself and go all out. I hadn’t done that in the past two years, but I thought why not? My makeup and hair should match exactly how I feel about my dress. Our first stop? Dry Bar for our very first visit!

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Our visit was to the Dry Bar in downtown SF. $45 gets your hair blown out and a shampoo wash as well. I had taken a look at the menu beforehand because I’m such a planner, but the style that I wanted wasn’t exactly what I had seen so naturally, I came prepared with a photo. I told my girl that I wanted very loose waves and all of my hair to one side to match the look I was trying to go for with the dress. I felt like I was done in about 15 minutes! Honestly though, she did such a great job and I feel like this rarely happens, but I got exactly what I had asked for. The shop is super cute; it actually looks like a little bar with the set-up and while I would totally go back for another special event, I don’t think I can justify going every day before work like some people actually do. Isn’t that a little bit much?! I thought so too. Mandi and I were in shock after we found out that this is a daily thing for some people especially because shampooing and blow drying your hair is something that I learned at like age 5.

From there, her and I headed over to Bare Minerals where we had our makeup done! I have to admit, this was the one part of the day that made me really nervous especially because I used to get my makeup done for formal dances in high school at various counters. Back then, I always felt like everything was a bit overdone. The MAC counter will do that to you. However, at Bare Minerals, I felt like I was leaving looking exactly like myself, but a little bit better 😉 Bare Minerals has always been a pretty natural looking brand though so I was very impressed with them and ended up purchasing two products that I’ll most likely feature on a future “Beauty for Breakfast.”

Some last thoughts:

The back of this dress is really what sold me. Make sure you click the link for the extra details. I kept telling Mandi that I couldn’t wait to wear this dress and to get ready with someone else so that they could help me button up the last three buttons that I couldn’t reach when trying it on. I also am not big on accessories so I didn’t have a lot that would match with this dress and I knew it too. After I had secured the dress at the store, I did that thing that I do when I’m shopping and get too comfortable by roaming around and asking everyone working there to help me find the perfect necklace. I love this choker. I haven’t worn chokers in a very long time, but it’s a trend that has made its way back this year and it was so so pretty, but also didn’t take away from the lace detail on the dress which made it perfect.