dream a little dream.

Fell in love with this gorgeous editorial featuring Georgia May Jagger in the October issue of British Vogue, frolicking in an quintessentially English meadow dotted with white daisies and roses. Running free in the countryside with the autumn breeze and going horse riding is something I've never done before as a city girl, so Georgia doing exactly that while wearing a Valentino silk-chiffon dress and a dotted tulle Chloé blouse in this ethereal shoot made me dream about it even more. And what's an idyllic editorial without soft pastels and vintage florals? Dressed in a feminine collection of coats and frocks : think an Emporio Armani coat with dusk pink florals, a romantic Lanvin organza blouse, sophisticated silk pieces from Rochas, Paul & Joe and Louis Vuitton, an ornate lace Dolce & Gabbana dress and a cocoon-like Céline coat in a whimsical feather print, these photos felt like a hazy sartorial dream come true. Perfect for my fall-and-school's-out mood to dream a little dream with this whimsical editorial.

A Weekend In Manchester / Muse Live!

Hello you beautiful people! as you can see I'm quite chirpy this evening and this is all down to having a fabulous, amazing time up in Manchester. So for my birthday back in January you can see everything what I got here. I was treated to a pair of Muse tickets from Sam and a stay at the Crowne Plaza for one night from his parents I am aware I'm a very lucky girl. Muse have been a favourite long loved band of mine for many years and I was very lucky to get tickets to their sold out Drones tour. This was also my first day I've booked off work since Christmas and it was much needed.

So the plan was to get up nice and early like a typical friday morning that I'm used to for work and get the 9:45am train, I like getting the train as it gives me a chance to catch up on some reading. I'm currently reading 'The Art of Being Normal' which is part of the Girl Gang Book Club #GGbookclub go check this out over on Sarah's twitter @sarahs_chapter. We arrive in Manchester at around 12:30pm and head to the hotel to check in, the room was stunning and we was also left with a nice little sample of the one and only This Works Sleep Spray on the bed which I got all excited about. I have the full size version of this at home and I love it, works wonders to help you drift off. We freshen up and head out to explore Manchester which mainly involves me dragging Sam around shopping.

For my birthday/christmas I saved my money and vouchers especially for this trip to make it cheaper for me but also there are shops/make up counters which I can't go to here in Nottingham. So I went to the famous Arndale shopping centre as we aren't a far walk from there and did a bit of shopping which I will do a separate haul post about so look out for that in the next few days. We had some lunch before we started shopping as we got hungry from all the traveling and we was still full so we decided to skip dinner but if I was hungry I would of eaten at the Hard Rock Cafe, as I love these and like to visit them all seeing as the one in Nottingham shut down years ago. What's everyone's favourite hard rock cafe?.

Before heading back to the room we went into the Cafe North for a quick refreshment, I had this yummy smoothie as I just needed something to keep me going and then we then headed back to the room to freshen up and head down to the Manchester Arena, which was again only a short walk to the arena and that's when my excitement kicked in that I'm finally going to be seeing Muse! ahhh

The show kicks off with the support act Nothing But Thieves appear on stage, if you've never heard this band before I highly recommend them if you're into rock music as they are similar to Muse/Catfish and the bottlemen. I am very familiar with this band and I have there album so I was looking forward to seeing them live and oh my god what a perform, Conor the lead singer has an amazing voice almost up there next to Matt Bellamy. They played 7 songs from their album Nothing But Thieves here is the setlist Itch, Painkiller, Wake Up Call, Excuse Me, If I Get High, Trip Switch, Ban All The Music.

As you can see from the pictures this isn't just your standard square stage against the wall set up, Muse have decided to put the stage in the centre of the room with two runways either side for Matt and Chris to strut around and give the audience a closer look at them playing.

After an amazing performance from Nothing But Thieves and I still can't get over how great they were live and Conor's voice is incredible, Muse finally appear on stage and kick things off with a bang and play their single 'Psycho' which then had everyone going crazy and moshing, this is a heavy rock song with a great bassline riff. Next they performed their latest single 'Reapers' which has a great solo intro which I was thrilled about seeing it played live as I appreciate this as a guitar player myself.

I won't go into massive detail and talk you through every song that got played that night because I think this post is long enough don't you? so I'm going to talk about the highlights of this night and the first place to start, which is of course to talk about the drones. Drones is the name of this tour and Muse's new album so it would be silly not to have drones flying around which was pretty impressive, they also had a giant plane flying around which reminded me very much of Pink Floyd The Wall.

Now this is the most impressive thing that stuck to me the most as I was blown away by this, before the show started we got told we are allowed to take pictures and record videos but we must turn off the flash as this would spoil the effects from the projectors, so silk like material rolled down hanging above the runways and around the circular stage which then acted as tv's so we could see motion graphics and close ups of the band playing but when Muse performed their song 'The Handler' Matt and Chris were stood on either sides of the runway whilst a giant robotic hand was shown on the projector with strings coming down to make it look like Matt and Chris were puppets and the strings followed them as they walked, I thought this was very cool. Another cool moment was when Matt and Chris became a hologram on the projectors it was all very futuristic.

The centre stage spun round very slowly so everyone got a chance to see the whole band and during 'Starlight' giant balloons filled with stars got bounced around which was a nice touch. According to the guinness book of world records Matt Bellamy is famously known for breaking a guitar or two whilst performing live and I actually got to witness this, another thing I noticed which makes them different to other bands is they perform a show and don't interact with the audience by telling you stories or thank yous after songs, they really get into the performance.

Muse have now easily become my all time favourite band I've seen live due to the commitment they really put into giving the audience a show, I enjoyed every minute of it and was full of surprises with the amount of visual effects that was constantly being shown. For those that are interested here is the setlist, Drones, Psycho, Reapers, Bliss, Dead Inside, The 2nd Law: Isolated Systems, The Handler, Supermassive Black Hole, Prelude, Starlight, Feeling Good, Munich Jam, Madness, Map of the Problematique, JFK, Interlude, Hysteria, Time Is Running Out, Uprising, The Globalist, Drones, Take a Bow, Mercy, Knights of Cydonia.

We then headed back to our room and I had never wanted a shower and bed so much as all my energy had completely drained and the hotel bed was so comfy. In the morning we packed all our things and headed out for breakfast, we found this american diner called 'Infamous Diner' and ordered two five stack of pancakes with a banana milkshake, they were delicious and very filling as I couldn't finish it but felt bad because they tasted so good. Before we headed to the train station I wanted to have a quick stop around Selfridges as I still had some birthday money left over, I only had £25 so I went to the Nars stand and bought my first Nars product which you can see in my haul post which is coming soon.

I will be going back up to Manchester in June so if there are any places/shops that you would recommend please leave them in the comments below.

A Colourpop Haul

If you're a beauty blogger and haven't heard of Colourpop by now then where have you been!? Let me introduce to you this amazing US brand which sadly doesn't ship to the UK (but you can still get your hands on it, read on) they are very affordable and are very popular with their lip products & pigmentation. They are always releasing new shades/products which sell out very quickly and are very on trend with releases too, such as the new Metallic Liquid Lipsticks.

In July Colourpop did an international shipping day, of course, I jumped on board with this straight away as I've always wanted to give this brand a try, plus I already had a wish list going on in my head.

After a long wait 2-3 weeks later my order finally got delivered, but unfortunately, I got a customs charge which I later found out you can avoid this by using a mailing service such as Shippo. There're loads of different companies if you Google them but how these work are you ship them to a US address and this then gets sent to your UK address.

I got this gorgeous deep brown shade called Limbo from the Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick range because I thought of the fall when I saw this, I can't wait to be wearing dark colours on my lips and this shade is very daring for me. I always feel so confident when I'm wearing a strong bold lip. I'm sure this will pop up in a favourite for A/W themed posts in the future.

I haven't heard much raving about these highlighters but this shade is called Lunch Money which is a natural pearly golden shade suitable for every day which is what I wanted. You could probably get away with wearing this as an eyeshadow as it's buildable.

 Another shade from the Ultra Matte Lip Range is the shade First Class, it's a bright orangey red and it looks stunning, perfect for summer. I wore this on a night out and the staying power is incredible. This wasn't too drying on the lips and I found this very comfortable but I will need to test these more before I give you my thoughts.

I was watching some YT videos on Colourpop products, mainly for swatches and a girl recommended buying the lip pencil with the Lippie Stix's so you get a precise shape and I picked up the shade Button. When you apply this you will notice it's slightly a darker shade than the Lippie Stix which looks nice to wear on its own actually.

 The eyeshadows are also something I've always wanted to try too. They come in individual little white pots so I made sure I picked a shade I will wear to death and that was this beautiful rose gold/copper colour in the shade La La because I love to wear shimmery coppers on my lids. This is gonna be another favourite in the fall season I reckon too.

Lastly we have the Lippie Stix in the shade Button which is a pinky nude colour perfect for everyday wear with a satin finish, I wasn't sure If I was going to like these so that's why I only played it safe and picked up a natural colour, but If I was going to order again I would definitely pick up some more shades.

The eyeshadow shade in Hanky Panky which is a cool toned taupe colour, again another colour I can't get enough of. I thought this would work well on its own or paired with La La as a nice transition shade.

L to R: Lunch Money, La La, Hanky Panky, Button Pencil, Button Lippie Stix, First Class & Limbo

That's it for my Colourpop haul, if you have any other shades or products that you recommend from this brand then please do tell me about them in the comments as I will be making another order in the future.

What's your favourite Colourpop products? Have you tried this brand before?

A Nyx Haul

FINALLY!! we have a NYX stand in my local boots!! Yes I got so excited when this happened as I used to order NYX stuff online so now I'm happy I can roam freely to actually browse and swatch before I buy. So I picked up a little basket and went crazy basically dragging Sam around going'Oh bloggers say this is good!' as I already had a 'to try' list in my head. As mentioned this isn't the first time I've tried NYX as I used to order stuff from Boots online so I've tried and would recommend the Lip Cremes and HD Eyeshadow Primer this stuff is amazing and only £3. 

By the time this post was being written I have actually tried some of these products so I can give a bit of a review from first impression but If all goes well I'll be writing a detailed review on products mentioned.

For the face there are so many items I do want to try like highlighters, powders etc, but I needed a new drugstore concealer and I've heard good things about this HD concealer, this can be used under the eyes but it does cling to dry patches and lately I've been getting dry eyes so it didn't look great but it does have high coverage for blemishes and covers redness I would even go as far as saying it's as good as the collection one.

For the lips, I picked up quite a few lip products as they are the best. A soft matte lip creme in the shade Morocco which is a gorgeous orangey red shade perfect for summer time, a lingerie liquid lipstick in the shade Ruffle Trim which is a browny pinkish colour, a liquid suede cream in the shade Tea & Cookies, a slide on lip pencil in the shade Red Tape as I seem to have lost my red lip pencil.

For the eyes, I've always wanted to give there brow products a go as brow products are really popular right now so I picked up this tame & frame tinted brow pomade in the shade 02 Chocolate and the micro brow pencil in the shade 03 Auburn which comes with a spoolie on one end and a really fine pencil on the other, this is used for precise shaping giving that natural look but unfortunately I knew I should've followed my gut instinct and got this in shade 2 as this just comes out way to orange which my brows aren't but with light enough strokes and a brow gel I can make this work, I think I'll still pick this up in a different shade though. I've always wanted to try out the vivid brights eyeliner in the shade petal which is a purple colour, I think this will be my summer eye look with these eyeliners.

I'll be reporting back with posts about how I get on with these so look out for these.

What's your favourite NYX picks? I'd love to try more from this brand

A Beach Day Must Haves

So it's been just over two weeks since I've returned from my holiday which can I just say seems like a lifetime ago. I had serious holiday blues and the only thing that was getting me through them was the holiday I have booked in September with my family, which I'm so looking forward too as these holidays are always so fun when you have a big villa with everyone.

I'm here to talk about my beach day/poolside must haves so I'm going to make a start with the obvious and that is a swimsuit, for so long I've been on the hunt for a lilac bikini because I'm picky and have the perfect colour in my head. I was just about to give up hope when I was shopping in River Island with my sister and just wandered over to the holiday section for a browse and there they was, two styles of lilac coloured bikinis. I went and tried them both and on and went for this style which is a bit like the Triangl bikinis and was very reasonable priced Top £12 Bottoms £10. River Island have some gorgeous bikinis in the sale right now too.

Another thing I can't live without whilst chilling on the beach is a sunhat and this was a bargain from Primark costing only £3. As a ginger haired girl I do actually burn my scalp so I have to keep it covered because I can't put suncream on. I wear glasses so for me to wear sunglasses I have to get them prescribed so I can see. Sunglasses are a must to help protect your eye area from UV damage and it's nice to not squint whilst your in the sun. Again I think this is pretty obvious but it's also good to take a towel with you and I got this one from Primark.

For me this is a must, it might not be for everyone but going to the beach is a perfect time to catch up on your reading. I have a Kindle so I can store loads of books on there instead of packing a load, I actually read two books on holiday and could of happily finished a third but I gave it a rest.

Now on to the beauty bits, let's start with the most important and that is the La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Ultra Light Fluid SPF 50+ suncream for the face. Suncream is by far a must have on any summer's day as it's very important to protect your skin from the UV Rays. I've been using this one for my face which has done an excellent job as I didn't burn, It's great for sensitive skin like myself, it didn't break me out in spots & it's fast absorbing with it being ultra light. 

I got this last summer which I used a lot Kiko Kiss Balm SPF 15 in the shade Apricot, It comes in 7 different shades which leave a tint of colour, they glide on smoothly leaving a gloss shine as most balms do with the added lip benefit ingredients to help moisturise the lips whilst sun protecting them. 

If you can't stand the heat then this one will be perfect for you, a cooling down spray can really help either day or night to feel refreshed. There are so many different brands that do these now but our hotel stocked Avene Thermal Water Spray 300ml I was going to buy this before I went away but decided not to but I will definitely always carry a cooling spray whenever I go on holiday now as they really help at night when it's all stuffy and you can't sleep, even with air con or if you're just baking in the sun. It gives you that instant relief when you spray a fine mist of water all over you. It only contains two ingredients which is water & nitrogen so there is no skin benefits but it can be used on sensitive skin and even eczema prone skin. It's great for soothing sunburn too!

I recently learned of Adore Me's swimsuits and their #BeachDayMusts on Instagram. What's your beach day/poolside must haves?