All Things Lush

Hey everyone! 

Okay so,  my names Shannon and I am a Lushaholic....this is your cue to say Hiiiiiiiiii Shannon. 

I'm obsessed, every week on my day off I will stroll in there and get some new items and the staff seem to recognise me now which I don't know if that it is lovely or tragic on my part. But I'm embracing it, bring me in to your family! 

This 'All Things Lush' post is going to be regular, every time I go into Lush I shall do a little haul and talk about my favourite. Each week I'll talk about my current favourite item, the stuff I purchased and maybe some stuff I am looking forward to and also some opinions on stuff I've used in the past. Sound like something you would enjoy?! I hope so! This first post could be a big one...I've had a lot of stuff lately and used a lot, so I'm only going to talk about the stuff I currently have in my little basket. 

Okay firstly I'm going to touch on skincare and stuff I've been using and enjoying and not so much! I've had a complete breakout lately, I think it's all the stress I've been under or the increase in my food intake so there's a combination of possible reasons. But one thing is for sure, my skin is dreadful right now! I look like I've returned to year 9 and in the prime time of puberty, no, nope, I am almost 22 this should not be happening. I've gone into Lush multiple times to ask for advice on this. They've recommend pretty much every face mask (I loved Catastrophe Cosmetic the most but Cosmetic Warrior  made me want to die, I HATE GARLIC). 

So anyway, they've been recommending a lot for me. I was using Herbalism for a while, it was doing okay but just was not doing the job at all. As nice as it was it just wasn't a harsh enough cleanser for me and I think I needed something more, after I'd just purchased a new pot of this I'm going to start using this as a body cleanser! 

Herbalism £7.25 100g 

I've now after using a sample of both Dark Angels Cleanser and Ultrabland have decided to keep these two up (as well as some medicine from my GP) but it seems to be working! I love the absolute grittyness of Dark Angels, it really makes your face feel clean. Although you do have to make sure you scrub it all off at the end of your cleanse to make sure no left overs are in your pores, then you really will look like a giant walking black head. Black sugar and charcoal are absolute winners in getting your skin fresh! Then Ultrabland makes you feel very fresh at the end of the day, full of such beautiful refreshing ingredients such as rosewater and almond oil it's so nice to remove any dirt or make up at the end of the day. I love it. I'll sometimes just use it randomly in the day if I'm feeling a bit grubby! 

Dark Angels £7.25 100g Ultrabland £7.95 45g

Okay, something I really wasn't feeling or maybe I just didn't give it much of a chance was Grease Lightening - I read stuff about this online and a lot of people recommended it. But in the absolute prime of my skin having a mare I needed products desperately! I bought this, tried this and saw no difference...maybe I didn't try it for long enough. You just need to plop a little bit on your finger and then dab it on your face, easy you know, but nothing for me... You read a lot about Witch Hazel being good for lots of things and this has Witch Hazel Extract in it so it really should work. I'll try it again, has anyone else tried this and what do you think/recommend? 

Grease Lightening £6.50 45g 

Okay now onto the goodies that I have recently purchased and I will be doing separate reviews on these as and when I use them! But here's what I have left from my recent purchases, we have some Lush Exclusives, Mother's Day range and the Easter Range. 

• Metamorphosis £4.25
• Which Came First?  £6.95
• Buy One, Set One Free £3.95
• Bunch of Carrots £6.50
• Baa Bar £3.95

So keep an eye out for the next blog post where I'll probably be speaking about a couple of these! 

There you have it, my first All Things Lush post, there will be plenty more to come. Lushies, speak to me share with me your recommendations and your favourite products. What would you recommend for fresh skin? Or for a nice relaxing bath?! I'd love to hear! 

Until next time my loves, xo 

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Current Mixed Favourites...

Hiii! Something a little different today but as I have literally nothing to do with my life right now I'm getting blog posts popping out of my mind left, right and centre.

Here are my current mixed favourite things!

Favourite Album:

Madness - Sleeping with Sirens.

This album is the ultimate tits, you know when you listen to an album so much you just get sick of it…well with this I haven't yet. Almost every song is sweet as and I especially love Go Go Go, The Strays and Gold. It's such a good listen!

Favourite Book: 

Billy and Me - Giovanna Fletcher.

I'm such a fussy person that it takes a lot for me to read which is really annoying, when I was little I loved to read but unfortunately I just grew out of it. But now, as I've already said I've finished university for now and I have so much spare time there is no excuse. So I finally have time to read Giovanna's collection of books and of course started with 'Billy and Me'. It's so cute, a story about a normal girl and her famo boyf,

Favourite Clothing Item:

MY TOPSHOP PINAFORE. (I searched for it on Topshop and it no longer exists) 

I'm in LOVE with it, if I could wear it everyday I probably would but I'd definitely look smelly if I did that. It goes with everything, looks cute as balls and it's just lush. I love it! My favourite purchase of the past 19 (almost 20) years and that's me being over the top but that's fine because I'm in love with this item. I might marry it, who knows.

Favourite Shop:

Topshop obvz lol. 

My favourite shop always and forever, we are made for each other. Me n you 4evz Topshop.

In all seriousness, I go there almost every week just to try new stuff on because I have a sad life. But Topshop on Oxford Street is the tits and I can't help myself, I've tried some absolutely banging clothes on lately. They've honestly got such a cute collection in right now! (I may do a wish list post but that would take a million years because I'm greedy and want everything)

Well, I hope you enjoyed this it's a bit different. Slightly inspired by my pal Georgia! 

Bye-ya x x x

The Book Of Everyone Review

Hiiiiiii everyone!

The lovely people over at The Book Of Everyone sent me a really cool product as it is Mothers Day coming up.

The book is customisable where you put the name of the person you want to give the gift to and their date of birth, it then generates really cool facts about their birth year and facts about their lives depending on how old (or young) they are! It's actually super interesting and I can't wait to give it to my mum this mothers day.

There is parts of the book where you add your own little touch to make it even more personal when making it which is really nice! 

I think this gift is really cute and unique! And in my opinion beats a bunch of flowers, this is a gift that someone can keep forever and find out fun facts about themselves. 

If you'd like to get one you can go over to the The Book Of Everyone website, it's the perfect present for any birthday/occasion! 

(p.s. Sorry mum here's your prezzie for this year… SURPRISE) 

The Vamps Headline London!

Last night my friend Libby and I got last minute tickets to go and see one of our favourite bands, The Vamps in London! The seats were right up in the circle and we were next to two very drunk and merry adults, so that was quite fun.

You see, I've loved The Vamps for a super long time, since they were on YouTube and had no original songs…that was a long time ago in my eyes. I even made a blog post about their first single coming out way back when, you can read that here!

They put on an amazing show, it was electric the whole time and Brad…well I can't even talk about Brad because he is the biggest dream boat on Earth even from afar. Nope, can't talk about him.

They all had their own little moment, Tristan had an epic drum solo - IT WAS INSANE I FELT LIKE I WAS IN A TRANCE. James sung a little solo of Move My Way, Connor done a cover of All Time Low's 'Dear Maria' and Brad, although he is the obvious front man he had a little sing-song on his own when he sung Shout About It. It was all very cute.

But then Brad changes it up from the cuteness and goes mental on stage like the true front man he is but still manages to sound like a husky angel, how does he do it?! I don't know, get away.

It really was a special night for me to watch such a show like that, it was awesome and to know I've watched them grow from YouTube to this was something else and I left the venue feeling quite emotional but in a good way because they are four boys who really deserve what they have. They've stayed super grounded, haven't sold themselves out to America and given in to all of the financial side of the music business. I think they really do what they do for their fans and to simply enjoy it and that's obvious when you watch them on stage. There is nothing fake about them, they're totally real and I feel like they'll stay that way throughout what I assume will be a very long career.

They're going on tour next year too so you can get tickets this weekend if you want, you probably should though this isn't even a suggestion I'm literally going to force you to buy tickets because YOU MUST.

get tickets here!

The Fault In Our Stars…(my tears on the cinema floor drowning everyone)

Last night I finally saw The Fault In Our Stars. Now, I read the book a few months ago and it was the first book I had read in a very long time but I was drawn to it because everyone had hyped it up so much. I didn't want to like it just because everyone else did, I didn't go into it with that mindset, I went into it thinking it would be okay (okay? hahahhaha okay bye). I highly underestimated it because throughout I found myself being moved in ways I never had been before simply by beautiful words written on a page. The story and imagination put across by John Green was just something else. Then this film was coming out and you could hear the hearts of thousands shattering across the world - hugely anticipated!

Please, when they say you need a lot of tissues they are not wrong. The book, of course, made me cry but this was another level of crying, I left with a cry headache, puffy eyes and a nose like Rudolph…all the things most attractive in a girl.

This movie had to be the most beautiful and moving thing I have ever seen. Crying from the first 'Okay'. It is EXACTLY like the book, great justice had been achieved and I think 99% of fans of the book would agree with that. The love shown between Hazel and Augustus is radiating - one of the most epic love stories that a generation will treasure forever. Hats off to all of the actors in the film but I feel a lot of people were expecting Gus to be portrayed just perfectly and in my opinion Ansel Elgort did it just right. I fell in love with Gus in a book form and now in a physical form and my heart hurts.

It seemed to hit me, it made me want to go home and forget about the things that trouble me daily. Even though this novel is fictional, there ARE people who are suffering from terminal illnesses and try to get on with life and appreciate it as the characters in this story do. We all have demons, I sure do. Daily demons that never seem to frick off, pulling me in and not letting me go but this movie has made me want to pull myself away and see the beautiful world around me again. Embrace life for what it is because the characters do that so well. Find love, appreciate that just like they do. Live the life you've been given because it can be snatched away in a heart beat. Hazel and Gus don't dwell on their cancer, they live and love and isn't that a beautiful message?

I feel like this movie might have this kind of affect on many people, to push them to appreciate what they have even though sometimes you can't control the nasty thoughts in your head you can choose to get help to sort it out and love your life once again!

Thank you John Green for creating such a beautiful, inspiring novel which will live on for a long, long time.

'It's a good life.'

Where We Are Tour 2014!

Hiiiii! So this weekend my friend Libby and I travelled all the way up to Manchester to see One Direction and 5 Seconds Of Summer on the Where We Are Tour and it was very, very fun!

It's been a while since I've seen One Direction, the last time was April last year and since then I've changed my views on them a lot and stopped spending my time and effort on them so I wasn't really excited to see them, I was mostly looking forward to watching my favourite Aussie foursome rock out on that huge stage (which was very weird as I'm used to seeing them in small venues). Anyway, One Direction really did seem to gain a little bit of my love back.

Last week wasn't the best for One Direction with the whole weed smoking drama so I think some people were a bit wary of the tour from that moment onwards, but even with me and my friend Libby hurling weed related jokes at them the whole time - not in a malicious way, but just in a 'we are drunk what are we even saying' way - on our first night of the tour (31st May) I think a lot of people had brushed it to the side.

5 Seconds Of Summer opened the show and smashed it, we were the only ones around us going absolutely mental, showing our love for the boys and I think they won over the crowd so I'm very proud of them for that because I've seen them play a show to 200 people and then they're now playing shows to 60,000+ - pretty mad! But they were awesome and got the crowd going. They managed to do that both nights I went and I'm so proud of them, their 10 song set list was great and included songs that a lot of the crowd seemed to know like their number 1 single She Looks So Perfect, their cover of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream and their new single Don't Stop. This is a big platform for the boys again as was the Take Me Home tour last year!

One Direction then hit the stage starting off with Midnight Memories and the show went from there, upbeat songs from all 3 albums and they were accompanied by fireworks all night which made me jump multiple times the second night when I was sober and was aware of everything going on, oh my god. There were floods of screaming girls everywhere, even right next to us on the second night this one little girl did not stop screaming the whole time, I don't think any other words fell out of her mouth - just a long scream for 2 hours… delightful. During Little Things on the second night there were 2 little girls behind me who just looked like they were loving life and didn't have a care in the world about anything else and with that and simply just the atmosphere in the Etihad Stadium, I started to well up because it reminded me of what I was like when I was probably their age watching McFly and Busted, it just made me emotional and looking back it's hilarious but at the time I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry hahaha. Niall looked so happy at some points, well they all did but Niall seemed to stick out for me (he also looked VERY nice on the Sunday night with his ripped jeans, god damn) and Liam too, he seemed very appreciative of what they were doing. This weekend was technically a set of homecoming shows for Harry and they made that clear when they sung 'Don't Forget Where You Belong'. 

All in all it was an amazing night I must admit, I had a great weekend and I'll be doing my last tour date on the 8th June at Wembley Stadium in London which will be something else. One Direction do put on a good show despite all the things I've said the last year, they are good artists regardless and the Where We Are Tour is pretty special. 

Watch Out For 5 Seconds Of Summer!

YES, it's official, it is only a few more days until my favourite band '5 Seconds Of Summer' release their debut UK single 'She Looks So Perfect'. So you all need to watch out for this band, okay?!

They've been together almost 3 years, and in that time they have blossomed into this awesome, little, Aussie band. I say little, but they're not little at all. They did their own thing on YouTube for a while, toured Australia with Hot Chelle Rae, released their first EP in Aus (Somewhere New), toured the world with One Direction and have done many shows over here in the UK, Australia and are due to go on tour in a couple of weeks in America on their first headline tour over there! They aren't doing too badly for a band that hasn't even got an album out yet!

I know I'm being totally and utterly biased when I say how good they are but I'm nothing but honest… they're great. I can't wait to see how the single does in the charts next week, so you need to go and pre-order it now on iTunes (or simply just buy it on Sunday 23rd March).

If you haven't heard the single yet you can watch the video below! 

Quirky song lyrics and a weird (but good) video, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?!

you can get the single/EP here!

Help get these boys the success and recognition they deserve, because you won't find any 4 teenage boys that work as hard as they do! So if you want to see good music re-enter the charts then you must back these lads. 

Happy 10th Birthday, McFly!

10 years of my life have been spent on one band consisting of 4 boys - now men. How strange? 10 years ago I put on Top of The Pops and there they were, singing 5 Colours In Her Hair live on television for the first time and I knew they were about to have some sort of impact on my life. That continued when they supported Busted on their tours and at a show in my home town, 3 times I saw them and their career hadn't even kicked off properly yet but I was there about to watch them grow into the people they are today.

When Busted split up I continued to support McFly, did they replace the love I had for Busted? Perhaps (BUT I STILL LOVE BUSTED TO THIS DAY.) As I was only young my mum took me to their shows, mainly in my home town and then I started to grow up and that's when I took the whole thing to a new level...waiting outside of venues for hours on end just to get a wave from McFly was so exciting and from doing so I made friends which I still have today!

It took 7 years for me to finally meet them, 2010 was the year for me and it was an emotional time because these 4 boys had given me a reason to go out and have fun, they were my childhood and they were growing up as I was too.

This year they are celebrating 10 years of being in McFly, to mark the occasion they took to The Royal Albert Hall for 4 evenings with a set list full of classic McFly songs, a new song and well...a Busted/McFly collaboration. MCBUSTED WERE BORN! But I'll get onto that later.

They started the set with 'Saturday Night' from their first album, perfect to get people ready for the night that was ahead. It was my 14th time seeing them and I can honestly say this was the most amazing, most electric time. Also, the night was blessed with videos from the boys' past, from the Wonderland album days, and even earlier than that which filled me with nostalgia.

McBusted, how can I possibly put into words how amazing that was?! Danny, Tom, Dougie and Harry were joined by James Bourne and Matt Willis to sing Year 3000, Air Hostess and Shine A Light and it looked so crazy on stage, so much energy from all of the guys and the only thing I want in life right now is a McBusted album!

Danny later on went on to sing 'Walk In The Sun' by himself, the only things on stage being him and his guitar and it all felt very intimate, Tom also had a go on stage by himself as he let out his love for musical theatre in a song he'd put together called 'Mcfly: The Musical' - full of lines to make us laugh and perhaps a dig at a certain bushy eyebrowed ex-Busted member.

The set was finished off with 'The Heart Never Lies', a song that gets to every McFly fans heart as the line "it's not always easy, but McFly's here forever" sticks in your mind every single time because they just mean THAT much to some people - I might have felt a bit emotional at this point.

All in all it was a great night to end 4 great nights at a crazy venue for a period of time which has made many, many people happy. Here's to many more years! Like Tom said last night, these shows should be made an annual thing! I'm very proud to have supported this band since the start, I've watched them grow into men as I've grown from a child to a young adult, that's a bit mental.

I'm going to be making a YouTube video later today or tomorrow with snippets of the night in, so keep an eye out!

GALAXY DEFENDERS, STAY FOREVER.

One Direction - This Is Us

So, today I went to the cinema to see One Directions 3D movie 'This Is Us'. It was a film for fans of One Direction and a film for those who are not, but by the end of it you definitely would have a different perception of the boys.

The movie was part concert 3D footage and part documentary, both very enjoyable to watch. I laughed, smiled and cried my way through it (yes, there are emotional parts - when parents cry, I cry).

Now I thought I knew exactly what Harry, Louis, Liam, Niall and Zayn were like, I thought I knew everything about their personalities but even this made me learn even more about who they were, what they were like behind everything, the real them. We all see what the media shows us, the majority of fans see that in more depth, but this goes somewhat deeper. There was a part which showed Harry saying that he doesn't like the term 'famous' and for me that emphasised how normal this boy is, how he  hasn't changed at all because of what he's been thrown into. Then another thing about the film that made me really smile was how they all get along like brothers, they love each other and it's so nice to see and I never even doubted that before the film anyway but a lot of bands just get on with the job and don't bond but not these guys, they are each others rocks and they would be nothing without each other.

If you want to laugh, enjoy the music and just see a nice documentary of 5 lovely boys then go and watch it even if you detest everything they're about. 100% worth it.

Take Me Home Tour

Well, the night finally came (after a year of waiting), it was the day I would be seeing One Direction on their world wide tour. It felt even more special because I was attending the first day of the tour and I just felt like this was the start of something massive and I was there to experience it. I was sat in block B2, row B and as I walked down the stairs to my seats I was hyperventilating because not only was I fairly close to the front stage, I was about 5 rows away from the second stage - HOW EXCITING. 

They had two support acts, one 13 year old girl (I thought she was about 26, not going to lie) who is American and called Camryn. As she is only 13 there is no doubt that she can sing but my oh my, she was boring. No one was standing up so I did feel very sorry for her but I don't think she was really what 20,000 people were looking for. The second support act was 5 Seconds of Summer, amazing. They were so good and I'm glad I'd begun listening to them before they were announced as the support act because they really are so talented, all so cute too oh my god.

 Ok, the time had come for the boys to come on stage and they played videos on the screens of them at a house party which sent everyone mad (I swear, I didn't cry). They came on and the first song they sung was 'Up All Night', the ultimate party song because you can just go mad...I definitely went mad. They had a 20 song set list and it was just amazing. All wore such nice outfits, they looked very spiffing. The stage was set out with massive screens, at one point they had put a view of London over the screens obviously enthusing their Britishness. At one point they came across the crowd on a floating platform singing 'Change My Mind' off the Take Me Home album and okay, this was very exciting. They came right over us and Zayn and Liam waved at me and my friends and I WAS DYING. I was literally almost falling to the floor and I am pretty sure Liam saw me, that's a bit tragic isn't it? After that they went onto the second stage and sung their Red Nose Day single but changed it a bit and sung more of Teenage Kicks. They all looking banging up close and oh my god, I could not handle it. The night went on, they went back and continued to put on an amazing show.

During costume changes they played videos on the screen that they had made and one of the videos was of the boys dressing up as other people - Louis dressed up as a large man asking for free hugs in the street, at the end of his clips he hugged a young girl and revealed his true identity and I may have cried a little bit because it was very cute. Liam and Harry dressed up as an old couple, doing old couple sort of things and then being mischievous and running about. Then we had Zayn and Niall dressing up as...I don't even know, they looked old and hippy-like, quite ugly actually but it was very funny.

The show was so amazing and they made it amazing for the whole crowd, when they sung 'Little Things' they expressed how amazing it was to watch the crowd with all their lights out. It was amazing to be there so I can only imagine how they felt.

As ever, it was such an incredible night and I loved it more than anything (oh, look at me) and they will continue to put on amazing shows throughout the tour. They really are something else.

(Of course I had to take selfies because I was so close) 

Loving Mcfly Is Easy

My love for McFly has been around since the very start, I was only a small girl myself when my life started to revolve around them. Although they have already had a greatest hits album a few years ago (a little too early in my opinion) they have another coming out soon. On this album is their new single 'Love Is Easy'. It is the cutest song around at the moment, I can't really put into words how cute it is! To add onto that, the video is just as cute. We see the boys all grown up and giving us snippets of their past - them posing in front of large canvases which are painted like their past album covers. It all makes fans of theirs think about how far they have truly come and at the end of the video their is a sign saying "for the fans" and this for sure will mean a lot to the fans.

From Room On The Third Floor to this new album we've seen them change a lot. They are grown up now but they're still the boys that their long lasting fans love.

"it's not always easy, but mcfly's here for ever"