Everything Erin

It always seems in the media that those who don't have any experience with blogging think that all it consists of is spending hours on your phone, getting free products and taking pretty photos. They seem to imagine that it's a piece of cake to do but honestly, they couldn't be more wrong!

We Aren't Just Writing A Blog

Blogging is a hobby for me, but it's a lot more time consuming than most hobbies. It's not just writing a post and pressing publish, it involves constantly using social media to engage with readers and fellow bloggers and promote your posts.  Maintaining a blog requires a lot of effort than you may expect and it really is constant! That's why it is so easy to quickly get overwhelmed with schedules when life gets a little busy.

We Don't All Own Fancy Cameras

All of the photos I take for my blog are with an iPhone 6S, it has been the same way for almost two years, and before that it was my Samsung phone! I have never used a professional camera for blog photos (apart from concert shots) and there are many bloggers like this. You don't need the fanciest equipment to blog, all you need is interest and a little bit of creativity.

We Can Literally Blog About Anything

There are blogs covering absolutely any topic that interests you, and nobody's niche is less valid than another. If you're blogging about beauty, that's okay. If someone else is out there writing about political subjects, that's okay - and guess what, it's okay to do both! Bloggers nowadays can write about absolutely anything; that's what is so good about it - the community is so diverse and open to anything.

We Don't All Know The Fancy Vocabulary

I'm constantly having to google all the blogging jargon everyone talks about on Twitter. What's DA? Do I have a good DA? Who knows! Yes, it's good to be clued up on blogging but it isn't something you magically know, it takes time to learn the technical side of blogging too. That's right, it includes a technical side! Some bloggers may be a whizz at HTML and some may not have a clue! As long as it works for you, it shouldn't matter whether you know all the fancy terms.

We Don't Get Free Products Sent To Review All The Time

It's definitely a common myth that bloggers are constantly receiving free products, and for the majority this isn't true. It takes hard work to get to that point and it varies for everyone - there's no magical number of followers or stats that unlocks for you the best products. Blogging isn't all about receiving products or doing sponsored posts, in fact that's hardly a priority for a lot of bloggers! A true blogger writes for the fun of it, not for the freebies.

There's no denying it, autumn is the season for darker lips. It's like because the evenings are getting darker, so does lipstick. Now this doesn't necessarily mean donning a berry or purple lip, I think brown can be just as autumnal, so here are five lip products ranging from the berry and brown spectrums that I know I'll be wearing throughout autumn.

On a few mornings of the week, I am so rushed for time to get a bus at half seven that I have about ten minutes to do my makeup (recently I managed to get it down to seven minutes and I was very proud). Therefore, it's important to know exactly what I am doing and be using easy products to ensure I don't end up taking all day.


The first thing I do usually is apply my L'Oreal BB cream all over my face. I have been using this because it's quicker than foundation and probably better for my skin on a daily basis. On rare occasions if I'm feeling like a good skin day I may skip this but it does provide really nice, light coverage.


Then I go for my L'Oreal Touche Magique concealer, which has definitely been featured in any makeup look I do, and cover up any blemishes with it because it's my absolute favourite concealer. I follow it with my Rimmel Stay Matte pressed powder.


I then spend a bit of time filling in my brows - I actually don't tend to use a proper brow product, I just take a Real Techniques brow brush in this super-old Technic matte eyeshadow, the lighter of the two shades for the front of the brow and then the darker one at the arch. I just like it to add definition and the shades match my brows perfectly.


After that I like to use the contour shade of the Rimmel sculpting palette around my cheekbones, I like this because I don't find it too harsh or pigmented, just right. I also use L'Oreal's true match liquid highlight; I feel like this is going to last me forever because it's such a big tube of it! I pop this on the top of my cheekbones because you gotta love that glow.

As you can see, all the base products I use on a daily basis are from the drugstore. I think for everyday use it's best to use more affordable products, esepcially because they are often just as good quality as high-end. However, moving onto eyeshadow, I always use high-end shadows because if I want them to last on my eyes all day they have to be good quality.


Before applying any eyeshadow I always prime them with my concealer from earlier. Unlike my base, I never do the exact same eyeshadow every single day, however to save time I tend to rotate a few looks.

Recently I have been using my new Urban Decay Naked Heat palette on a daily basis, and usually my look consists of: Sauced in the crease, then He Devil following it, then En Fuego, then Scorched on the outer half of the lid and Ounce on the inner half. I also usually like to put En Fuego on the lower lash line. It's probably my favourite shade of the whole palette because what can be better than a matte burgundy?


I then grab a mascara, right now I've been using the L'Oreal Miss Baby Roll mascara and I am loving it. Then all we have to do is finish up with a lip product! I'm opting for my Too Faced melted matte in Child Star because of it's staying power; because I am out at college all day I really want one that will last!

Over the past month I have been obsessed with so many new songs! I have no idea why, but I seem to have discovered a lot of great music this month, so what better time than to share my favourites in a monthly mixtape round up?

First up is of course Taylor Swift's comeback single, Look What You Made Me Do. I have been waiting for new music from Taylor for so long now and she definitely didn't disappoint with her first UK number one. Sure, not everyone has liked it and it has definitely grown on me since my first listen and now I love it. Similarly I have on my playlist ...Ready For It? which I possibly prefer over LWYMMD. I just love the chorus so much, the 'in the middle of the night' part is so dreamy. I am so excited for Reputation and you will definitely be hearing my thoughts about it when it's out!

Another song I have been listening to, perhaps more around August, is the song Brand New Moves by Hey Violet. It's the first song of theirs I have listened to but I think it came up on Spotify suggested or something and I really like it. In a way, they have a bit of a similar sound to Paramore, who's song Told You So I have also been listening to lately. You may remember I loved Hard Times, and now this song is out I really like it. Their songs are just so uplifting right now.

Miracles (Someone Special) by Coldplay is another uplifting song, more so because of the lyrics though. I am a huge fan of Coldplay, none of their releases ever disappoint me, and this new song really is something special.

When I went to see Olly Murs with Louisa Johnson as the support act, I was really impressed by her so lately I remembered to go and listen to her song Best Behavior. Since then I have also been listening to it a lot. It's so fun to dance to and I reckon when she brings out an album it will be really good.


It has been lovely to hear James Arthur's voice back on the music channels and radio with his new single with Rudimental called Sun Comes Up. He has such a distinctive voice and it actually really suits this new song which is more upbeat than his usual releases. What About Us by P!nk is a song in the charts I am loving right now, it's not particularly happy or upbeat but it's really chilled.

When I listened to The Man by The Killers for the first time I wasn't particuarly keen on their new sound, however now I have listened to it more and more I am actually really loving it. It's so catchy (not sure me going round singing 'you're looking at the man' looks quite normal though) and it's really fun. It's very different than their old stuff though.

My final song on the playlist is the song I am most obsessed with at the moment, the song Lonely Together by Avicii and Rita Ora. I have had it on repeat all week because I honestly can't get enough of it.