Taking the Plunge

Model, musician, blogger, you’ve travelled a lot of different roads, what are you up to these days Emilie?

I’ve always been too ambitious for my own good – it’s like my soul can’t sit still. This year I took the plunge to go self-employed. It was scary to say goodbye to my monthly salary and rely on my ‘hobbies’ to pay my rent and food bills, but three months in it’s definitely the best decision I’ve made.

I am constantly working on something, to find the end result of satisfaction but for some reason I never find it.

When your life is divided by a pool of different passions, It’s hard to find a balance, and dedicate the right amount of time to each area. For along time I have always felt like I’m still not where I ‘should be’ and one of those guilty of avoiding sleep as I feel like I could be doing something more beneficial with my time, haha I guess we have all been there. Some times working on something you are so passionate about seems a lot more appealing than heading to dream land for a few hours! and for someone like me that wants to do everything sleep is out of the question.

This year I took the plunge to go self employed! It was pretty scary to say goodbye to my monthly salary and simple rely on my ‘hobbies’ to pay my rent and food but, 3 months in and it’s defiantly the best decision i’ve made!

Currently I’m working full-time on my Lovaine Store and am in the process of getting ready to launch my Lovaine S/S 15 collection and first swimsuit and clothing range. I’m still finding my feet. And I’m not going to lie, getting yourself motivated to manage your time properly when you’re self employed is a work in progress.

What inspired you to set up Lovaine?

It’s funny – I dug out the issue of SurfGirl when you interviewed me around three years ago, and in there you asked me what my dream job would be. I answered: “To have my own store/brand.” It’s nice to look back and think, ‘yes I did it!’

Also, I got a tax rebate last year, so I decided I would buy some materials and make a few pieces of jewellery, and it literally started from there. I never thought it would take off as well as it did. It’s amazing when I see people on instagram tagging @lovaine_store in pictures of them wearing my t-shirts and jewellery! There’s even girls like Alana Blanchard, Dimity Stoyle, Rosie Hodge, Laura Enever and Sage Erickson wearing my jewellery. It’s definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment!

Apart from Lovaine ,what else are you up to?

Going self-employed has also allowed me to be able to focus on my blog, and pay it some much-needed attention! Blogging and YouTube have been a big part of my life since 2008 and I use them to showcase my photography and music.

Over the last few years fitness and food has also become a big part of my life, so you can see elements of these popping up over my social media channels. I’m currently studying nutrition part-time, and since I turned vegan I’ve used Instagram and YouTube to document what I’m up to, with food recipes and workouts. I’ve been lucky enough to be getting involved with Nike and the NTC training classes, so it’s been fun taking my GoPro along to show everyone what we get up to at the secret events.

I am also in the process of launching NectarBoxes, which will be a monthly subscription box of clean/vegan food, recipes and kitchen tools. I’m pretty excited about this!

My favourite things – Pinterest! I’m not going to lie, I am pretty addicted to this platform, its an amazing source of inspiration and I pretty much use it for all area’s of my life! follow me on www.pinterest.com/lovaineblog

My fave quote – I have a few but the main one for me is

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” – I have suffered with a condition call endometriosis for around 7 years! it effects around 2 million women in the UK! and it has had a really negative effect on my everyday life and health, at one point my doctors had me on 11 tablets per day! not only were this tablets not helping my condition but they had pretty terrible side effects, I was in hospital pretty much every month and they had burt a hole through my stomach! So I made the decision to go off all medications and go Vegan to see if it helped my condition. The results were pretty amazing, and I now have now symptoms for the first time in 7 years without any medication! So this quote speaks a lot to me

By day I’m – I always try to be up around 7am and always start my day with a workout or run! Trust me, its so much easier to fit your exercise in at the start of the day than after work. I then answer emails, then pack orders before heading to the post office, and then maybe treat myself to a Netflix episode. Afterwards I do more emails and work on some blog posts.

By night I’m – cooking some amazing food for jon and I! I always like to end my day with some yoga, a quick session on the guitar and then always end the day on pinterest.

Star sign – Cancer

Fave hangouts – I have recently fallen in love with 1REBEL in London, it is the most incredible gym ever! I got invited to a secret NIKE training club session there last week and even though it was the hardest workout I’ve done, it was insane! and not to mention it has its own juice bar, gym clothing store inside, and pre chilled towels after a session.. I feel I may not be doing it the justice it deserves but I recently did a #vlog on it! check it out on www.youtube.com/u/emilielaylaloviane

Fave surf spots – I recently went to Morocco for a surf trip, my partner and I loved Panoramas! and I can’t not include Chuns Reef on the North Shore of Hawaii but my heart always belongs to Wales. So many good memories in Rest Bay! but Nash Point and Llantwit Major (if you get past the locals) are hidden gems to!