The Beauty Issue

In 2016, becoming a fashion influencer meant Instagram first — but a real web presence was the next step. My client had built an audience of 200,000 followers and needed somewhere to publish proper editorial content: longer posts, curated product roundups, and affiliate links that could actually convert. **A platform built around affiliate content** The core product feature was the affiliate link system. When writing about a Zara jacket or a Douglas beauty product, she could attach product links directly to a post — with or without an affiliate referral attached. Those links surface on both the blog overview and the individual post page, keeping them visible without getting in the way of the editorial content. It's a simple idea, but getting it to feel natural in the reading experience took careful design work. **Fully custom theme with Web Components and TypeScript** The entire theme was built from scratch — no parent theme, no page builder. In 2016, using Web Components and TypeScript on a WordPress project was well ahead of the mainstream. Web Components gave us genuinely reusable UI elements across the theme without pulling in a JavaScript framework, and TypeScript kept the codebase maintainable for a long-running project. **Still running ten years later** This wasn't a one-off build. I host the site and have maintained the relationship ever since — making updates and changes as the site evolves. The fact that the original design still feels current a decade on is something I'm proud of. Good design decisions in 2016 shouldn't need to be undone in 2026.