Another Manchester Haul

Last weekend me and Sam went off to one of our favourite places, Manchester to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. I can't explain what it is that I love about Manchester but to me it's like a London version 2. It has every shop you need and a great place for live music, just the perfect place to live in my opinion.

We spent the whole Saturday at the Intu Trafford Centre, a shopping centre I've always wanted to visit which is voted 2nd in the UK's top shopping centre's I believe. I decided to treat myself a bit as I've worked a lot of extra hours this past month so my first place to visit was of course Selfridges. I wish I had one in my town because of all the luxury brands that I can go visit, so for trips like these I like to have in mind products I've been dying to try for instance this Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon in the shade Champagne Diamonds has been on my wishlist this autumn which you can read here.

I then went into Superdrug to actually get the new Sleek highlighting palette but to my expectations it was sold out as like many newly released Sleek products. I remembered these dupes for Charlotte Tilbury's Eye's To Memorise pots by Maybelline and as I'm after long lasting quick easy eyeshadows at the moment I thought this nice Colour Tattoo 24hr Cream Gel Eyeshadow pot in the shade 65 Pink Gold would be perfect for everyday wear, as this is a metallic colour which adds a soft sheen to the lids and not so in your face shimmery.

I needed to pick up a few CD's so I went over to HMV to buy Tom Chaplin's 'The Wave' an album which I have been waiting for, for like forever, I'm really enjoying it so far and would just like to put it out there that no, Keane has not split up! also, there was an offer on so I'd thought I'd pick up Tom Odel's 'Wrong Crowd' as he is always my A/W listen in the car when it starts getting cold - so I got my two Tom CDs.

I'm running low on my Garnier Micellar Water and planned that my next cleanser to try is The Body Shop Chamomile Sumptuous Cleanser, I liked the sound of a butter removing my makeup as it sounds more gentle and is suitable for sensitive skin. As there was a buy one get one-half price offer on that I couldn't refuse. I thought it was best to pick up something from the tea tree oil range as I've been having a few breakouts lately which could be from a sample Lush moisturiser I'm using or those damn hormones. I picked up this Tea Tree Night Lotion as it's best to let spots go down whilst you sleep and I could do with the extra help.

I also went to Hollister and bought a white zip-up hoodie lined with fur which I just live in now, you can see this here and another one to my collection, a light denim pinafore dress from New Look here because I also just live in dungarees/pinnys now.

After all that shopping we headed back to the room to get changed and head out for some dinner at Coast to Coast which Sam then kindly gifted me this Pandora Eternity ring which was so sweet of him. On Sunday we played mini adventure golf in the Trafford Centre which Sam won before heading home.

If you're interested in reading about my other Manchester beauty haul then you can find it here.

Manchester Beauty Haul

So if you read my post on thursday you will all be aware I went to Manchester last week, to find out what I got up to then have a read here. I saved up some money and some gift vouchers which I received for my birthday/christmas and went to shops/make up counters which I can't visit often as we don't have them in Nottingham.

First of all the new release of Sleek's Cream Contour Kits have just been released so I quickly headed to superdrug to buy one as they aren't in Boots yet and these were selling out fast. I will be doing a full review of this after a few weeks but from first impressions these are really creamy and easy to apply but I just need to get the hang of contouring as this is all very new to me.

I had some points spare on my Boots advantage card so I had a wander, eyeing up all the counters and thought I needed to change to a lighter base ready for the warmer months so I went to Estee Lauder as I love their double wear foundation and liked the look of this BB cream as it contains SPF 30 so I wanted to give this a try and I love it, so happy with my choice. One thing I did know that the Manchester Boots did have was a NYX stand and I couldn't wait to visit as I can order NYX from Boots online but I like to do swatches of products so I went straight to the Lips section which was the most crowded and did a bit of swatching and came out with these two soft creme matte liquid lipsticks in the shades 06 Instanbul & 05 Antwerp

I bought a few clothing items with my vouchers, from Topshop I finally got round to buying this yellow raincoat which you can get here. I think this would be great for festivals and our unpredicted weather as we are going through April showers so it's become very handy right now. From New Look I bought this beautiful pale blue chiffon pleated midi skirt which you can view here. I thought this would be nice to wear on my holidays and in the summer when we get a heatwave hopefully.

I also treated myself to a bit of jewellery with this beautiful rose gold Pandora ring here. I like to wear this on it's own but it can be worn with other rings as a stacker.

Next I went into Selfridges which I wish I could visit often as they have a Charlotte Tilbury stand, I would of bought something but I was running low on money at this point so I thought I'd finally bite the bullet and buy something from Nars. I didn't want another lip product but I would like to try the velvet matte lip pencils at some point but I wanted to buy a new concealer and the lady helped me match the shade to my skin tone 'light' and by first impression I fell in love, it's creamy, high coverage and blended nicely I was very happy with my purchase. This is going to become a favourite of mine I just know it.

I'll be heading back to Manchester in June so no doubt I'll be back into some of these shops again.

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.

Coldplay Live | Etihad Stadium Manchester

If any of you read my blog regularly then you'll know that I love to attend a gig or some kind of live music as I have a few post on these. This year though I've been really lucky and managed to tick off a few off my 'bands to see live before I die' list.

On June 4th I saw Coldplay at Manchester Etihad Stadium. Coldplay's music has always been in my life from a very young age and will always be a band that I love even if people want to tell me how s**t they are. I've always heard how good their tours are so I was expecting a big performance and they delivered.

They started the show with a bang and I mean literally, as fireworks and confetti cannons were going off whilst the first song 'A Head Full Of Dreams' was being played.

As we were quite far back I had a restricted view on seeing the whole stage but from what I could see this set up was huge. There was the main stage which had a giant screen in the middle for people like us to see the band up close, along with two other screens either side which Chris could run up to if he wanted and then there was a runway with a B stage and a C stage right at the back. I was really happy with the setlist because it must be hard when you have so many albums to then shorten them down to 24 songs. They managed to cover a good range of oldies and new ones such as the classics Yellow, The Scientist, Clocks, Fix You and so on.

My favourite thing about seeing Coldplay is the cool light up wristbands you receive at the start of the show as they are programed with there songs to play a light sequence which looked amazing at night along with the frequent fireworks, confetti & lasers. The crowd also was the best, I don't mean to nag but on every gig by far I always get a drunken idiot standing next to me just generally annoying me but not at Coldplay, everyone around me was so nice with no trouble which made the gig that little bit more enjoyable as I didn't have to deal with this. As all the songs were performed from a high energy to slow swaying melodies. I think my favourite performances were A Sky Full Of Stars, Adventure Of A Lifetime, The Scientist & Clocks, they even managed to add in a little tribute cover of David Bowie's Heroes.

I really enjoyed seeing Coldplay and I hope they carry on making music and touring as I would definitely be interested in seeing them again as they are so different to any band I have seen before.

For anyone interested here is the full setlist A Head Full Of Dreams, Yellow, Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall, The Scientist, Birds, Paradise, Everglow, Lovers In Japan, Magic, Clocks, Midnight, Charlie Brown, Hymn For The Weekend, Fix You, Heroes (Cover), Viva La Vida, Adventure Of A Lifetime, Trouble, See You Soon, Amazing Day, A Sky Full Of Stars, Up&Up.

Have you seen Coldplay live?