studio (un)scripted: 5 questions with emily foley.
EMILY FOLEY, Beauty & Style Expert Extraordinaire (and cutest mom on the planet)
To me, the studio is my happy place. Where is yours?
It’s actually a new-to-me place: My screened-in porch looking over my backyard. I waited years (and went through multiple contractors who ghosted us and stole from us!) for it, and to be able to sit outside without the heat and bugs (I’m not an outdoor girl!) is absolute heaven.
When did you know beauty would be your personal and professional passion?
It really happened naturally. They say ‘write what you know’, and I love makeup and skincare, so it came easily and naturally to start writing about it. When I was a junior editor, I started asking for the beauty pages in the magazine I worked for, and then built my resume up that way until it became my main beat.
How have you made your name so successful as a freelance journalist?
Blood, sweat, tears and integrity! I am passionate about my job and the hardest worker you’ll meet. I seriously have a ‘relaxing’ problem, so I’m always busy, always working, and that really helps when you’re starting out building a business or brand. Then, as I began to get my foot in doors, I always said ‘yes’ to jobs, even if I wasn’t sure how to tackle them (“Say yes and figure it out later!” is a good way to live as a freelancer!), always met deadlines and was always honest and never talked badly about people.
What does it take to make you trust a brand emphatically?
As a journalist, a brand is only as good as its PR/communications team to me. I can adore everything about a product, but if the PR team makes it impossible for me to do my job, I can’t give the brand the press that I want to. In order to trust a brand explicitly, I need to be given the information, the images, the product, the interview—whatever I’m asking for—in a timely and organized fashion. If a publicist repeatedly gets me what I need with no drama or delay, then I know that any brand that publicist ever works with, is going to be a brand I trust, because I trust their publicist.
If you could ask me anything, what would it be?
Who is a direct peer you admire most? I love hearing what people admire about peer-level counterparts, because it says a lot about them as a person.
Add some sunshine to your online feed by following @emilylfoley everywhere the internet allows.