I've Got The Receipts...

So this is the kind of career milestone that’s not based on someone’s opinion, someone liking you, a PR choosing you because you’re already in their friend circle, or because you turn up at every event. It’s based on data and honestly, that’s why this one means so much to me!

A few days ago my name showed up in Launchmetrics data as one of the voices shaping the Gulf beauty category, across a report looking at 23 brands in the GCC and Lebanon with $322.8 million in Media Impact Value. I know that’s a very specific sentence and probably sounds like something from a business report…and that’s because it is. It was a huge moment for me because Launchmetrics is one of the platforms used in the fashion and beauty industry to measure media performance, brand impact and the value of visibility across press, social and digital platforms.

Christine, who’s the Middle East rep for Launchmetrics, replied to my email thanking her and explained that Media Impact Value, or MIV, is their proprietary metric that assigns a monetary value to each media placement or social post. It doesn’t just look at reach or engagement. It looks at a mix of things like potential reach, engagement, the quality and authority of the source, the type of content, and other factors that help determine the overall impact of a placement.

That’s why this was so important to me. In an industry where so much can sometimes feel subjective, data like this cuts through a lot of the noise. It’s not about who someone personally likes, who they already know, who gets invited into certain rooms, or who is friends with who, or who everyone else seems to like. The numbers are the numbers! And for my work to show up there, in that context, was a very proud moment.

The Voice Profile she sent looked at my activity between January 1 and June 30, 2026, across the five brands where I appeared as a top Voice: Charlotte Tilbury, Dior Beauty, Estée Lauder, Benefit Cosmetics and Patrick Ta Beauty. Across those placements, my content generated $2.12 million in MIV across 117 placements, with an average of $18.2K MIV per placement. Dior Beauty came out highest at $719K, followed by Charlotte Tilbury at $579K, Benefit Cosmetics at $417K, Patrick Ta Beauty at $277K and Estée Lauder at $131K. My top single placement was a YouTube post for Dior that generated $35.1K in MIV, and my YouTube average engagement was 4.69% with potential reach of 718K. If you’re a nerdy creator like me then you’ll understand how important these numbers are.

I had to sit with those numbers for a minute because when you work for yourself, you’re so back to back that you don’t always see the bigger picture. Bobby and I work together and we’re a lean team. He deals with the numbers and I deal with the creative side…he’s way more nerdy than me, I’m a pretty basic nerd! We’re literally thinking about the next video, the next edit, the next deadline, the next newsletter, the next brand response, the next round of filming. We know we’re working hard, but we don’t always get that outside confirmation that the work is actually landing in a bigger way.

And I think that’s why this meant so much to me. It wasn’t just “oh, that’s nice, your post did well” It felt like proof that the work has been building and making a difference. Years of showing up, creating content, educating, reviewing, filming, editing, sharing, testing, explaining and trying to do things properly. It was all sitting there in black and white!

It also felt super meaningful because sometimes I’ve felt like the regional beauty industry doesn’t always fully recognize what I do in the way I would expect it to. I’m just being honest. When you create from here, have a global audience, work across different platforms and have a strong community in places like the US, UK and the Middle East, it can sometimes feel like people don’t know exactly where to place you. But seeing my name in Launchmetrics data as one of the voices shaping Gulf beauty made me feel like, okay, the work is being seen, even if it hasn’t always been acknowledged in the way I hoped.

I genuinely think this matters…because beauty can be a very relationship based industry. There are always opinions, preferences, familiar names, people who are already in certain circles and people who get chosen because they’re already visible in the right rooms. But data has a way of making things very clear. It shows impact, value, that content is not just content when it’s influencing conversations, searches, purchases and brand visibility. When I think of the word influencer…this is what it means. Not what the world has turned it into.

Being on that list alongside names like Karen Wazen also put it into perspective. It reminded me that the work I’ve been doing is part of a bigger beauty conversation in the region. I’ve spent so many years building trust with my audience, and I think that’s what makes this feel even more personal. It’s not only about reach, it’s about the fact that people watch, listen, trust, engage, come back and actually care about what I have to say.

As women, we can be very quick to downplay things. We’ll say “it’s not a big deal” or “I don’t want to sound like I’m showing off” or “I’ll just mention it quickly and move on”…I am super guilty of this. I nearly didn’t post about this and right before posting my reel about it on Instagram I was cringing myself out. But sometimes you have to let yourself acknowledge these things properly. You have to be able to say, I worked hard for this, and I’m proud of it, so that’s what I’m doing.

It makes me want to be even more focused and it reminded me that the content I create has real value, not just because it performs well, but because it connects with people. It reminded me that YouTube, Instagram, Substack and everything else I do isn’t just a random collection of posts…it’s a body of work, and sometimes you need someone else’s data to show you what you’ve been building while you were too busy building it.

So yes, this was a super proud moment. Not because I need external validation to know my work matters, but because sometimes external validation gives you a different kind of clarity. It lets you see your work from the outside.

It also made me feel more certain about the direction I’m going in. I want to keep building in beauty, education, community and in spaces where women feel like they’re getting advice from someone who actually understands products, skin, makeup, aging, trends and real life. I want to keep creating the kind of content that people come back to because it helps them make better choices, feel more confident and understand beauty in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

After seeing these numbers, I feel even more motivated, in a grounded way. Like a reminder that the work is working, the audience is there, the impact is real, and sometimes the numbers really do speak for themselves.

Thank you for trusting in me :)