Everything Erin

On Friday 22nd April 2016 I went to see 5 Seconds Of Summer on their Sounds Live Feels Live tour at Manchester Arena. I had seen them support One Direction twice - in 2013 and 2014, so I was really excited to see them headline their own tour.

The support acts were alright - Jessarae and Don Broco - but I didn't enjoy them as much as The Vamps' support acts Hometown and Conor Maynard, who I saw the week before. They weren't terrible support acts, however they didn't get the crowd going like Conor Maynard did before The Vamps.

5 Seconds Of Summer came on about quarter to nine. Their setlist was quite long, yet the concert seemed to go very quick and they were finished by quarter past ten. It may have gone quick, but that didn't mean I didn't enjoy it - in fact I would have been very happy for it to go on for a lot longer!
Their setlist started with Carry On. Everything was silent (or as silent as thousands of people in an arena can be) as Luke sang the lyrics to only the accompaniment of Michael's piano. They then burst into the opening chords of Hey Everybody! and the crowd went crazy. Honestly, I think 5SOS fans are the loudest, most screamy fans I've ever heard (I've even been to 3 One Direction concerts), but that is in no way a bad thing.
My view was from Block 109 Row G, so for this concert I had a straight on view of the stage. I quite enjoyed this because I've been in the side blocks of Manchester Arena recently, however it was disapointing that they didn't have anything like a B-Stage or a runway. They did feel quite far away, and next time I get 5SOS tickets I'm definitely going to try and get closer ones.

A highlight of mine during the concert was them playing Vapor, Catch Fire and Disconnected one after - my 3 favourite songs of the setlist. Vapor is one of my favourite songs by 5 Seconds Of Summer, therefore it's no surprise it's also Luke's favourite to play live.
Another highlight was Outerspace - I expected that to be really incredible live and it definitely lived up to my expectations. I also found the 'Manchester song' they made up really funny - 5SOS make up a new song every night, and for my tour night they sang 'Manchester is the party capital of the world' in repeat.
The show came to a close with huge hits She's Kinda Hot and She Looks So Perfect. The music was amazing and the atmosphere was crazy. I left the arena with my ears ringing and my throat hurting - but also wishing I could do it all over again. I'm definitely getting tickets to 5 Seconds Of Summer's next tour and I recommend you do too, you will have the night of your life.
I would love to hear if you have seen 5 Seconds Of Summer live in the comments!

Maybelline has to be one of my favourite drugstore brands. Their makeup is fairly inexpensive, yet can also be very good quality. Here are my 5 favourite products from the brand.

Brow Drama: Their Brow Drama brow mascara has to be one of the makeup products 'I couldn't live without'. I use it on a daily basis to set my brows into place. I have both the transparent and dark brown shades and both do the job well.

The Nudes & Blushed Nudes Palettes: I have definitely raved about the Maybelline eye shadow palettes lots on my blog! For only £10, a palette including 12 wearable shades which come in a range of finishes, you can't go wrong! I am always using the gold shade in the Nudes Palette, and a range of the pink tones from the Blushed Nudes.

Lipstick - Tantalising Taupe: So far I have only tried one lipstick from Maybelline in the shade Tantalising Taupe. It is the perfect nude shade and it isn't drying at all so I would love to try some more shades one day!

Lash Sensational Mascara: The drugstore dupe of Benefit's Roller Lash, the lash sensational has been raved about my pretty much every blogger I read! Although I do prefer other mascaras (such as Roller Lash) Lash Sensational is still the best drugstore mascara I've tried, and does give your lashes great volume and curl. 

Baby Lips: Maybelline's Baby Lips lip balms are my all time favourite lip balm. They are incredibly moisturising and so easy to apply - I love that they are in a stick form and not in a tub! They also come in a really wide variety of shades. My favourites have to be the Dr Rescue collection, in particular Coral Crave and Too Cool.

What are your favourite Maybelline products?

On Saturday, 16th April 2016, I went to see The Vamps on the last night of their UK leg of the 2016 Wake Up tour at Manchester Arena.
I was lucky enough to have the VIP package, which included a signed lanyard, a meet and greet and photo experience with the boys, and the best seats at the concert.

At around half past 3 we were let into the arena and lead into a room down many flights of stairs to the meet and greet room. We were told the boys would be coming in an hour - the time went quite quick for me as I spent it with my friend Lily who was lovely to see again. At our meet and greet, there was double the amount of people as usual because the original Sunday night show had been cancelled, so the two nights were merged into one. I was worried this would mean we would get less time with the boys than the other nights of the tour - this probably was the case, but it wasn't too bad.
The boys entered the room and everyone screamed. It was quite different to last years meet and greet - there was a lot more people in the room watching you, but when I was meeting the boys I blocked everyone out and it felt like it was just me and them.
When it was my turn, I went up and hugged them all - James first, because he was on the left. I said to him; "Hi, I'm Erin" and he replied "Hi, I'm James", which made me laugh a lot afterwards. Next was Brad, who gives the best hugs ever. I then hugged Connor and Tristan who both said that it was nice to meet me.
Then, for my second photo I held hands with Brad and Connor. It went really quick but it was amazing. I've done the meet and greet twice now and I've loved it both times, but I'm not sure I'll do it again next time unless I got a lot more time with them.
We were back into the arena by quarter to 5 so I went to purchase my merch - I bought a programme and a t-shirt. We then waited around in the arena for an hour because although the VIP package included early entry, we couldn't go to our seats until the doors opened at 6 so it was a bit pointless really. When we finally got in, the view from my seat was incredible - I was sat in block 115 row B.
The first support act, Hometown came on at about quarter past 7. I had seen them before supporting McBusted and I was actually quite impressed by them. Next up was Conor Maynard who was really good and really got the crowd going. He performed cover medleys and four original songs; Can't Say No, Animal, Turn Around and R U Crazy. The final support act was The Tide, an American band signed to The Vamps label. I didn't really enjoy their performance very much, especially because Conor Maynard was so good before them.
The Vamps came on at around 9pm, and started their setlist with Rest Your Love. The crowd went crazy, of course! Their stage had a really long runway, which Brad loved running up and down to touch the hands of many lucky fans. The set continued with Cheater, one of my personal favourites.

Because it was the last night of the tour there was many pranks throughout the show, including The Vamps' mums and sisters surprising the boys on stage during Somebody To You, and all the support acts and Brad running on during Tristan's drum solo wearing many neon glowing items.
One of my highlights of the show had to be the song Volcano - Tristan's rapping was amazing! I also really enjoyed Windmills because that is my favourite song off the Wake Up album.

Wild Heart was another highlight of mine - Brad starts the song alone on his piano which was a really memorable moment. Can We Dance and the covers medley as always was really good too.
Before the penultimate song, Stolen Moments, Brad gave a lovely speech to thank everyone for getting them to where they are today. His family were right in front of me, and as I watched Brad give his speech, I could see his mums face; she was so proud and at the end she got a bit teary which made me start crying a bit too. I was so emotional during the performance of Stolen Moments, not only because it is quite an emotional, slow song, but I am so proud of what they have achieved.

They ended the concert Wake Up - the first single off their latest album. The concert was the best concert of The Vamps I've ever been to - I couldn't stop smiling all the way through! I can't wait to see them again for many more years to come.

Today I have put together a list of 25 post ideas for if you are struggling with bloggers block on a daily basis. This is something I suffer with often so I love reading posts like this - I hope you enjoy mine and find them useful!

• A haul of your latest purchases
• A wishlist
• Share your current playlist
• A review of a favourite product
• An outfit of the day
• A face of the day
• A Get Ready With Me
• Talk about a recent event you have been to eg. a concert
• Share your tips about blogging
• Do a fun tag post
• Your current favourite products
• Seasonal must haves
• Product empties
• Share some recent photos you have taken
• What's In My Bag
•  Best of "insert brand"
• Lipstick collection, or a collection of other makeup products
• Day In The Life
• A roundup of your latest instagram posts
• A gift guide
• Photography tips
• Top 10 under £10
•  Your favourite apps
• Share your favourite bloggers/YouTubers
• A blogpost ideas list!

I would love to hear some of your own ideas in the comments!

Today I've decided to review my favourite travel-friendly palette, the Naked 2 Basics palette by Urban Decay. I have been using this palette for a couple of months now and I love it, so I decided to share my thoughts about one of the mini-sized versions of the much-raved about Naked palettes for you all.

The palette contains 6 shades exclusive to the Naked 2 basics palette. First of all we have 'Skimp', the shade described as the highlighting demi-matte shade. The other five shades - Stark, Frisk, Cover, Primal and Undone - are matte shades, which I love because I don't have loads of matte eyeshadows and they are really easy to use. All the shades are neutral tones meaning I get use out of every single one.
Usually when I use this palette I like to use the shade 'Stark' all over the eye, 'Frisk', in the lid, 'Cover' in my crease and then 'primal' in the outer corner.
The shade 'Undone' is a bit dark for my everyday use, but it is a great shade for smoky looks. I don't  tend to use the highlighting shade 'Skimp' that often because I prefer a Benefit eyeshadow in the shade 'Milk It' for highlighting. I also like to sometimes pair the shadows in the Naked 2 Basics with some shimmery shades in the Maybelline Blushed Nudes Palette.


The palette costs £23.50, which for 6 shades is quite expensive - but what would you expect from a highend palette?! Fortunately when I purchased it I had some Debenhams vouchers so I got £10 off, but I still think the palette is worth the price because the pigmentation is amazing.

Have you tried any of the Naked palettes?

Recently Sharon of Rosie Loves Life tagged me to do the Liebster Award. Her questions sounded really fun to answer and I haven't done a Liebster Award in a while so I thought I'd give it a go!

1. When did you start blogging?
I started blogging in July 2014 but I started posting regularly and putting effort into it in January 2015.

I  have learnt so much about photography and photo editing! One of the main things I've learnt is how much good lighting can affect a photo.

3. What advice would you give to a brand new blogger? 
I would would first of all say it doesn't matter what kind of camera you have, my photos are all taken on my phone and that is fine! I would also say make sure you utilise social media such as Twitter, I am still working on this one but this helps your blog a lot!

4. Heels or flats? 
Flats, definitely! My favourite shoes are Converse.

5. If you could only buy one beauty product for the rest of the year, what would it be and why?
Such a hard question! Concealer because I couldn't live without it.
6. Vinyl, CD or download?
CDs! I love getting a physical CD copy of my favourite albums!

7. What's your favourite song? 
My all time favourite song is Star Girl by McFly. I have a few favourite songs at the moment but one of them has to be Lush Life by Zara Larsson or The Sound by The 1975.

8. If you could be a character from a film or TV show, who would you be and why?
I'd have to pick one of the girls off Pretty Little Liars... I think I'll go for Hanna Marin because she's hilarious. Some of her lines are my favourites off the show, she's so unintentionally funny. I love how she acts not very smart but she's actually quite intelligent.


9. If you could travel to one place in the world where would it be and why?
New York! I really want to visit one day.

10.  What 3 things do you hope to achieve by the end of 2016? 
I want to improve playing piano by the end of 2016, blog wise I hope to continue enjoying blogging and hopefully gain some more followers along the way. I also set myself a goal to be more confident by the end of 2016 and I feel like that's going well so far!

Thank you so much for tagging me to answer these questions Sharon! I would love to hear your answers to some of her questions in the comments.