Hello everyone apart from the people who ignore the 'What app is that?' and 'Where's the top from hun?' questions in the comment section. First and foremost content creation should be fun, we should all be able to rely on our creative juices, share apps and produce amazing content. Whether you are on social media for fun or to promote your blog or business, this post will let you know all of the cool apps I am using to spruce up my social media.
I'm happy to share because I'm not a regular blogger, I'm a cool blogger.
So let's address my second most frequent asked question about blogging and that is the apps and filters I am using. The written content and visuals come hand in hand these days, people don't just want to read engaging content they want to be visually stimulated too. They want your posts and social media account to tell a visually pleasing story and these are the apps that help me do that
Apps are such an important part of this blogging process, I need to achieve a cohesive Instagram look, to pre plan my Insta feed and to remove spots from my selfies (which I always always forget to/can't be bothered to do but hey). As a lifestyle blogger I am always trying to find ways to make my content reflect my personality, my blog and my vibe. Although I always want my content to be unique, we can all use the same apps and get inspiration from others without duplicating what we see.
Filters
Ok so let's get into these grainy, vintage and 'cool' aesthetics that are floating around on the gram.
Huiji
It seems like Kim Kardashian and basically everyone on Instagram has gone Huiji mad at some point, The app adds an orangey filter to images, while slightly distorting them and adding a film like date at the bottom of the image. I've used Huiji a few times but the snaps haven't made it to Instagram as the orangey-tone doesn't fit my brown VSCO filter. While it doesn't work for me, this app instantly adds a cool vibe to your images. I wanted an app that gave a similar vintage look without the orange hue and so I discovered Kamon Classic. To upload your own images to Huij it costs 99p but you can easily take pictures in the app for free.
Kamon Classic
Kamon Classic is a very basic app to use., images can be taken in app or uploaded straight from your camera roll. This app allows you to add colour filters, light marks, a time stamp and grit to your images. I enjoy playing around with this app occasionally as it has a variety of colours and tones. Some of the filters have an unrealistic look to them which I am not a fan of and this takes me to my next app.
Mextures
Mextures is probably the one I use the most for grit, grain and light leaks. Mextures costs a very reasonable £1.99 on the app store and like Kamon Classic it adds filters and light leaks with a more subtle and realistic look to them. One of the reasons for the more genuine look is it gives you the option to turn the filters up and down. Mextures has a lot of other in house features that I am yet to get acquainted with.
VSCO
VSCO cam has been my holy grail for about 6 years. I whole heartedly adore nearly every single filter on the App and struggle between what one I want to use because I love the colour grading of so many of them. There is a filter for every mood and every Instagram feed on VSCO. As well as a filter VSCO also allows you to edit factors such as the brightness, grain, saturation and more which can be amazing for those dark light photos. VSCO cam is free and comes with a set of free filters, there are a wide range of packages available for purchase too.
I only use VSCO for my Instagram pictures as my blog photograhy needs to be at the highest quality possible. I created a lightroom preset similar to my favourite VSCO filters so that all of my blog images and Instagram images are the same colour making my feed look consistent.
Before
After
Plann
This app is an Instagram feed life saver. Plann shows me a template of what my Instagram looks like and I am able to add to it, move images around and see what looks good where before posting to Instagram. The bottom two rows were already uploaded to my Instagram feed and the top two and the ones I was playing around with. It's a great App for anyone aiming to have an aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed.
Unfold
This app is very popular right now for bloggers and micro influencers. If you're wondering how I create some of my fun Instagram stories, this is it. Unfold is a cooler version of PicStitch or your favourite photo collage app. You can add text, vintage filters, videos and more. There are in app charges for a wider range of story templates but I've stuck to the free version of unfold for now.
I prefer to use the app for images and videos only and then to add GIFs, hashtags, locations and captions in Instagram story itself. To keep my content consistent, I edit all images via VSCO first and then input them into Unfold. Here is one of my most used templates.
Facetune
I know this one has a bit of a bad rep but I am not heavily in to Facetune, mainly because I can't be bothered with it but when I have 5 minutes, I do like to use the 'detail' feature to enhance my eye makeup and eyebrows. I also occasionally remove the odd spot from my face with the spot removal tool, again not often because I can never ever be bothered. Another great feature is the 'whiten' and 'blur' features that allow you to whiten your background (perfect for flatlays) or blur the background behind you. Small tweaks are best with Facetune, I think we've all seen enough overly white eyes, changes in lip colour, and a completely smoothed and blurred out face, keep it simple.
I hope you enjoyed post #2 of my blog series, you can catch up on post #1 and 'How to start a blog' here. Any apps you want to share or love? Let us know in the comments below.
Love, Shay.
