Meet Oana Paduraru | A Beauty and Lifestyle Blogger from Romania

Kindly tell us about yourself

Hi, my name is Oana and I’ve created my blog City Femme as a hobby over three years ago, inspired and encouraged by my sister. I’m from Romania, I work in Communications for a large corporation and I’m currently in maternity leave, expecting my first child, a baby boy.

What made you decide to start the blog? Was it a thoughtful choice?

I’ve always loved writing and I’ve actually majored in Journalism and Communications. So blogging was something that came naturally, and I tried it out even from college, with a different blog. But 2016 was the year when I actually decided to invest more time & energy in creating and growing my blog, together with my sister, because we wanted a project that would help us spend more time together. Since then, the blog was grown, and so have the social media profiles – so I would say yes, it was a thoughtful choice.

Good, so how was the starting response?

I got a good reaction from friends and acquaintances even from the start and as time went by readers actually started to reach out to me and say they love my articles – so it was a great and encouraging feedback that kept me going.

So, now how many hours do you give to your work and what do you enjoy most?

I dedicate time to my blog every single day – not only for writing blogs, but for the social media interaction part as well, which is becoming more and more important. So, I would say I dedicate at least one hour daily, on average. I enjoy the most when I find partners and I can organize giveaways for my readers, as a way of thanking them for being part of the CityFemme community.

Is there any beauty or hair care product you use regularly?

If you’re asking if I’m dedicated to a single brand – my answer is “no”. I love testing out new things, new products, I also receive a lot of products that are tempting – so it would be difficult staying faithful to a single brand.

But if you’re asking what are the products I use in general – then I would say for beauty – for make-up I always use mascara, lipstick, eye crayons or eye shadow, for my skin I use a good make-up removal (lately I’ve been using micellar water) and good day and night face creams. For my hair – I have a few types of shampoo that I usually mix, a hair conditioner that doesn’t leave the hair feeling greasy and a hair mask that I use once every two weeks.

What do you do if you don’t like a product that’s been sent to you for review?

That’s always a tricky and difficult question. There are very few products that I didn’t like at all – and that was probably because I wasn’t in the target audience. The most important thing to consider when receiving a product is that you are not forced to write extensive blog reviews – sometimes an Instagram story or Instagram / Facebook post is enough. I never say about products that they are the greatest products in the world or that I’ve been using it for ages if it’s not the case, but I usually avoid saying that I hate a certain product. I talk about its benefits and I include that the product is not compatible for me.

Do you have any inspiration in this field?

I think my major inspiration source is Instagram. I follow a few famous influencers (Romanian and foreigners) & some hashtags that help me get new ideas all the time.

You do have a good number of fans following, what kind of thing they ask most about?

To be honest, they don’t really ask for topics in advance – maybe I should try testing that out and see what they would like to read more about. But they do interact in a positive way with the content I usually create, so I’m happy about that.

Any message to the fans?

I think I just want to thank them for they the time they spend following me & interacting with my content – they are the reason why I keep doing what I do. 

Thank you for this opportunity to talk more about blogging and why I’m so passionate about it!