Cloud Nine's

Since I started my blog a couple of months ago I have really wanted to do a post on Cloud Nine's but I wanted to properly be able to test them out before reviewing them. I don't want a blog where I don't give a 100% a accurate and honest opinion. 

I don't know how much you all know about Cloud Nine's but a few months ago I found out from friends that they are literally the new GHDS. Basically they are created by the original creators of GHDS. When I found this out I was in a dilemma of whether to try Cloud Nine's or stick to GHDS? Thankfully I went for Cloud Nine's, put it this way my GHDS are long gone and I won't be converting back!

The Clouds I went for are the 'Touch' ones which I absolutely love. Basically all you have to do is plug the straighteners in, press the straighteners down once for high temperatures and press the straighteners twice for lower temperatures. If you wanted to reheat the straighteners up once you are on the cooler setting you literally need to press them together once again and they will instantly be hotter. 

One of the best features is it literally takes less then five seconds to heat the straighteners up to full heat so no waiting around for ages for them to heat up. Another bonus is the straighteners automatically turn themselves off in 30 seconds if they aren't being used. Which is really handy if your forgetful like me!

The best feature though is how well and quickly it straightens your hair. I have honestly the most thickest hair ever and the thin touch straighteners go all the way through my hair leaving it unbelievably straight. They also have a shine technology in the blades to leave your hair shiny and smooth.

If your looking for some new high end straighteners I highly recommend these over anything else! What do you think GHDS or Cloud Nine's? Let me Know!

Lots Of Love

Sophie

xo

Clinique Chubby Sticks

I have wanted to try the famous chubby sticks ever since they came out a few years ago. I've tried many replicas over the years but none compare. So in my honest opinion I would save your money until you can afford a Clinique chubby stick. I decided to buy a a gift set at Christmas with four different chubby sticks to try out. 


The colours I bought were 'Grandest Grape', 'Plushest Punch', 'Woppin Watermelon' and 'Pudgy Peony'. I have to say my favourite shade is Grandest Grape, it's a gorgeous dark purple colour, a very on trend colour at the moment. The chubby sticks moisturise your lips such a lot and leave them feeling smooth and soft. i was really shocked at how pigmented they were especially the baby pink colours. The sticks last a lot longer then most lipsticks even after eating and drinking. If you haven't had the chance to try one I really recommend you do! If you have anymore questions you want to know about the product let me know!

Lots of Love

Sophie

xo

Urban Decay ~ Naked Palette

So I am a bit behind times and i know the majority of people have already bought or tried the naked palettes but I wanted to test and review them to see what all the fuss was about. First of all I didn't know out of the three what one to pick, all three had gorgeous shades. Quickly enough I decided on the first set because A) well, it's the first collection, start from the bottom and all lol! B) I loved the velvet textured box (something a bit different) 

The shades of browns and dark blacks are perfect for the smoky eye look. There's a colour for everyone included in the compact to make the perfect looking eyes for a daytime or evening look. I recommend to use the lighter shades for a more natural daytime look and for night time try the darker browns and black and make the eyes more smokier. I will post a demonstration some point next week. 


A few years ago I used to love wearing bright blues and purples how embarrassing! It wasn't just the fact these were real vivid shades of the colour I literally would put far to much on. Now that I am a little bit older and hey sophisticated I prefer neutral browns so this is perfect.

The colours are really pigmented, you only have to use little amounts to have a full on eye look. Not only that they last a really long time even without 
primer. My favourite shades are Half-baked, Smog, Dark Horse and Toasted, together they create the perfect smoky eye.

I personally think that everyone needs to add a Naked palette to their collections as no collection is complete without one. I wish I had tried one earlier as I couldn't be without it now, I can't wait to try the other two! I love them so much! What one would you recommend next? What's your favourite palette? let me know in the comments below I would love to know.

Lots of Love

Sophie

xo

Clarins Bronzing Compact

I've been looking around for ages for a new bronzer that was strongly pigmented yet long long lasting and not orangey. I heard about Clarins Summer Bronzing Compact from Kimberley Walsh on This Morning and was desperate to try it.

Lucky enough for my birthday my mum treated me to the compact. I am so excited to try the product out, so keep posted as I will be writing a review soon. I would rather test the bronzer out a few times and tell a truthful review then just say oh its wonderful without trying it. The bronzer was £27.00 which for the size I didn't feel was to bad plus I got 10% off in Debenhams on their blue cross sale. The packaging is the simple red Clarins red. The compact is a brown shell looking colour and is pretty big. The packaging states some big claims for example 'lightweight', 'natural-looking' and 'sun kissed'. So I am pretty excited to see if this is the case.

I have really pale skin, I'm talking casper pale, so any strong bronzer really doesn't suit me I just look like a oompa loompa. I chose Clarins as it's four different shades to suit most skin tones from barely bronzed to full on. So keep posted and I'll let you know my review! If you have already tried it let me know what you think.

Lots of love

Sophie

xo

My Top Five High Street Nail Polishes

Hope your all okay! So here goes my first beauty related post and considering the suns shining I thought I would tell you about my top nail polish brands from the High Street. So here goes.....


5) Fashionista- The Saturdays £4.19

I absolutely love these polishes, they come in five metallic shades (Red, Silver, Blue, Violet and Green) They are long lasting and really shiny and pigmented. To use the polish to its full potential you use a magnet to create effects like stripes etc.


4) Fearne Cotton Polishes- Boots Exclusive

This is one of the best ever nail polishes I have ever used, they don't chip or smudge. Unfortunately they are only available at boots in box sets around Christmas time.


3) George- ASDA £1-£1.79

I was a bit put off by trying these as honestly i thought they would just chip and smudge but I was totally wrong. I rate this polish above some of Rimmels polishes even! It's so cheap yet it last ages, doesn't chip and goes on really smooth. Look out for special offers as once every few months they are reduced to £1 each.


2) Rimmel- Rita Ora Collection £2.99

I'll be honest till this range come out I was not Rimmels biggest nail polish fan. I didn't find them long lasting or very pigmented. When I saw Rita Ora's new range I wanted to try it and I was not disappointed. The colours are very summery and bright, long lasting and very pigmented. 


1) Barry M- Gelly Nail Paint £3.99

This is officially my number one all time favourite nail collection. The polish is thick and the most pigmented out of any I have ever used. They are very long lasting and can last for ages without chipping. They also sell a wide range of different colours from bright pinks to mustard yellows.

I hope you liked this post! Let me know what your favourite polish brands are, I love trying out new ones. Anyway until next time......

Lots of Love

Sophie

xo

Top 10 Pop Albums

I hope your all well and enjoying whats left of the sunshine! I've been off work all week which has been really nice and has given me a chance to catch up on my blog. So today I thought I would do a top 10 post. I didn't really know what to do it about at first but I've decided, considering my last two posts have been about Olly Murs to do it on pop music. Hope you enjoy!


10) Spice Girls- The Greatest Hits

Now I couldn't do a top 10 pop album list without including the Spice Girls. They were the soundtrack to my childhood. I remember having Spice girls trainers, dolls, deodorants you name it I had it!

Fave Song: Viva Forever
Skip Track: Voodoo

It was difficult to choose a favourite track, there is so many that I love and remember so well like '2 become 1', 'Wannabe' etc. I chose Viva Forever because I love the words in the song and I can still remember watching the video with the little spice fairies for the first time. I'd skip Voodoo simply because I don't really remember it and there was a lot better track on the album.


9) Rihanna- Loud

Now this has to be my favourite Rihanna album ever. Unlike her previous albums every single song I love and I find I don't skip every other track. It was simple the soundtrack to most of my college classes.

Fave Song: Complicated
Skip Track: Skin

It was so hard to choose a skip track as I love them all but it would have to be 'Skin' if i really had to.


8) One Direction- Four

I think this is One direction's best album to date and there are some massive hits included.

Fave Song: Night Changes
Skip Track: No Control

Night Changes is one of my all time favourite songs, Zayn's vocals are amazing throughout the whole song plus the video is incredible. 


7) Mcbusted- Mcbusted

I personally think Mcfly and Busted joining forces was the best idea ever. This album is superb and the best music Mcfly in my opinion have produced in a long time. Long live Mcbusted!

Fave Song: Get Over It
Skip Track: 23:59

This was so hard because I honestly love every single track there just such fun songs!


6) Cheryl- Only Human

Only Human is by far Cheryl's best solo album it is so listenable and some of the songs have very deep and personal meanings. I love the intro it actually gets you thinking 'What would you do if money wasn't a question?'.

Fave Song: Throwback
Skip Track: All in one night

Once again it was hard to choose a skip track because they are all amazingly perfect. I love Throwback it is such a classic Cheryl sound and very upbeat.


5) Girls Aloud- Tangled Up

This was without a doubt in my eyes Girls Aloud's best album ever. Every single song is amazing and even better live. This was one of the the first albums I bought and when i first become obsessed with music.

Fave Song: Fling
Skip track: Crocodile Tears

I love Fling its so upbeat and a real cheesy pop song but its just amazing, a real hairbrush song. 


4) Little Mix- DNA

It's really rare when you buy a album and all the songs are listenable but this is honestly the case with both Little Mix's albums. DNA is such a fun album and the best first album from a girl group.

Fave Song: Always be together
Skip Track: Red Planet

This album has four amazing top 10 singles 'DNA', 'Wings', 'Change Your Life' and 'How Ya Doin'' and all the rest of the album tracks are up to that standard. My favourite has to be 'Always Be Together' it's such a lovely ballad and quite easily could have been their fifth single.


3) Little Mix- Salute

Another amazing album from Little Mix this one actually being slightly better then the first. I literally can not choose a skip song no matter how hard I try, I literally can listen to them all on repeat. 

Fave Song: Little Me, Towers and Good Enough

I honestly can not choose between these three songs I love them so much and there three of my top songs ever. 


2) JLS- Goodbye the Greatest Hits

JLS by far are my favourite ever boyband. I loved all their singles so much that there top album had to be there Greatest Hits because they were all featured on it.

Fave Song: Love You More
Skip Track: Hottest Girl in the world

As much as I loved JLS I much prefer their earlier music to there latter.


1) Olly Murs- Never Been Better

I love all of Olly's albums and would have them all as my no1. He just keeps getting better and better. Never Been Better is just amazing it's so upbeat and the album puts you in such a happy mood and unlike other albums you can listen from start to finish without having to skip every other track.

Fave Song: UP

Up is just a amazing upbeat duet with Demi Lovato and I love the song so much it is easily one of my favourite ever Olly Songs. It was quite hard to choose a favourite from the album as there was so many to choose from and that was just from the singles. 

So there you have it my top ten favourite ever pop albums. What so think? Let me know what your top ten would be in the comments below I'd love to know!

Lots of Love

Sophie

xo

My Day in London

Welcome back everyone and hello if this is your first time visiting. Thank you so much for coming back if you have visited before, I really do appreciate it. What has everyone been up to recently? I can not believe its June already! Where is this year going? 

Bank Holiday Monday I decided to go to London Waterloo for the day to see 'The Paul O'Grady' show. It's been five years since I've spent the day in London so this was quite a big thing for me. I was actually okay though I had my moments but I was so proud of myself for actually going. That probably sounds stupid to you but if you suffer from panic attacks you'll know what I mean. 

My Mum and me got up early on Monday and parked up at the station before getting the 9:00 train to Stratford. I couldn't get over how far away the main train line was to the Jubilee, okay it probably wasn't that far but when your in a rush it feels miles away. The Jubilee train was so small that at first I felt really claustrophobic but I soon calmed down. Luckily it was only about a twenty minute journey before we reached Waterloo. It had been years since I have been in London let alone Waterloo and I didn't have a clue how to get to the ITV studios, luckily some people helped us.

When we got there the queue was already pretty big and that was without the priority queue. It was even worse than normal because Olly Murs was the special guest so I was pretty desperate to get in. I was getting more and more anxious we wouldn't get in. While my Mum stood and queued for a while i went to look for somewhere to buy some food, I was starving I hadn't eaten all day. Not far away was a little gap that led to the riverfront with all these little cafes it looked so lovely and the people were so friendly. Luckily we were taken backstage through the ITV studios because my Mum can't stand for long to get to a inside waiting space where we were guaranteed access. I couldn't believe my luck we were actually going to see Olly again! After about half an hour we were taken into the studios first and I couldn't get over how small the set was in real life. To top it off we were given front row seats!

The show started quite promptly at 12.30 and was a bit boring to be honest until Olly made his appearance. The interview was really good and i think the majority of the audience was there just to see Olly. The show lasted just over the hour before we were escorted out of the building. As we were leaving a crowd of people had gathered nearby around the car. It was Olly! I went over not thinking I had a chance to meet him again and the car kept edging to go, I thought I didn't stand a chance. After a little bit of nudging here and there which I hate doing but if you don't you have no chance of meeting him everyones out for themselves. After a few moments I actually got to the front and met Olly again and had another picture with him! he took my phone and we took a few selfies. I could not believe I got to meet Olly again and so quick since the first time! After getting over the excitement we made our way back to the station and it gave us the false illusion that the station had quietened down! But omg when our train arrived it was crazy busy and I mean crazy! I panicked at first and wouldn't get on but i did and you know what it wasn't that bad. 

All together I had such a lovely day and would completely do it again in a heartbeat. I had so much fun and it was such a confidence boost that I can actually go out and do things like this again. bring on next time! I hope you enjoyed reading this!

Lots of Love

Sophie

xo

Ain't no party like a S Club Party

Never a more accurate statement! Welcome back to my blog, thank you so much for coming back if you have visited before! On the 16th May I got to revisit my childhood for one night only at the O2 arena to see the amazing S Club! I have waited years to see S club again and it was well worth the wait. The arena was packed full of people wanting a good time, it was like being transported back to 2000. I never expected to see the arena so alive it was like they had never gone away.


At around 9:00pm one by one each member appeared from beneath the stage before they started with the smashing 'Bring The House Down'. The crowd omg were going so crazy and so loud it was unbelievable. I don't think one person in the entire arena had forgotten any of the words. I literally spent the whole night singing and screaming at the top of lungs! 

Their costumes were amazing and very late 90's early 00's. My favourite was the colourful costumes they wore in act three they were so bright and fun! they sang all their massive hits like 'S Club Party', 'Two In A Million', 'Reach' and 'Have You Ever'. Along with each member doing a solo number. Paul recreated Reach and sang it acoustically while sitting on the stage, his vocals were on top form. 



The encore was two of their biggest songs ever. The first being 'Never Had A Dream Come True' which was their massive children in need no1 single. I loved the videos flashing by as they sang it added so much meaning to the song and is a personal favourite of mine. They came out dressed all in white like back in the day before ending with 'Don't Stop Movin''. 

This was one amazing show and I loved every second of it. It was just one big party from start to finish. Every single person was literally having the best time ever. I didn't think in my wildest dreams 13 years on from their split I would be sitting in the arena waiting to see them live again. Did any of you see the show? What did you think?

Lots of love 

Sophie 

xo

Meeting Olly Murs

Two posts one day wow I really am going for it today! I am that far behind in the blogging world I really do need to catch up. May was a pretty fantastic month for me I got to do the most exciting things! On Tuesday 5th May I got the amazing opportunity to meet Olly Murs! Now I would like to say I was calm and collected when I received the news but that would be a big fat lie! I quite literally ran into Costa and screamed the whole place down while shaking and crying that my dream was becoming a reality....well one of them lol! This was all thanks to a amazing competition from 'Hodder and Stoughton' and I will never be able to thank them enough! Im usually completely unlucky and win nothing and as cliché as this sounds I didn't believe just normal people won these sort of amazing competitions! So seriously that next competition you see enter it, you never know it might be your lucky day!

After fighting our way through the London rush hour, literally! We got to the O2 at half five where we met up with other winners and waited for Jordan (Olly's Tour Assistant) to take us to the green room. We got to walk all around the backstage of the O2 which was pretty cool and as sad as it is I really have wanted to do that for years! It was so surreal and strange though walking into the actual arena and it was dead quiet and empty! The Green room is lovely it has sofas, photo frames of previous meet and greet stars and just has a really pleasant vibe to it. By this point though i felt physically sick with nerves and excitement!

We waited in the room for about 15 minutes before Olly walked in. I was literally shaking by this point and had lost the power to speak! Nice one Sophie! Finally I got to meet Olly and hand on my heart he was the most loveliest down to earth celebrity I have ever met. Literally he was so genuine it was like talking to a old friend, although it was a bit surreal talking about local nightclubs and Southend! I did have a blonde embarrassing moment though when I went to give Olly his birthday present it literally fell out the bag and flew across the room! I wanted to die! Olly was lovely enough to sign my book for me which i was ecstatic about I've wanted it signed for years! My mum was equally over the moon and was buzzing for ages afterwards (I think she still is) we got so many hugs and kisses, he was honestly the loveliest! 

All I can say is roll on Olly's book signings because I can not wait to meet him again! Has anyone else met Olly before I'd love to know your experiences? Let me know in the comments below! I hope your all well and enjoyed reading this!

Lots of love

Sophie

xo

Dear Darlin'......

Hey everyone! It's me again, back at last! I really am terrible at being able to post all the time. I've been wanting to write this post for the past month now and I'm finally getting around to doing it. I've been crazy busy in April and May seeing the fantastic Olly Murs on his 'Never Been Better' tour which was out of this world, so this post is basically going to be about that.

I have wanted to see Olly live in concert for a number of years but there has always been a reason why I couldn't go so I was thrilled to be finally seeing him live. I went to his London and Newcastle dates, four altogether! I literally loved every second and would go again in a heartbeat. I just think he is so down to earth and a genuinely a lovely guy and clearly a born entertainer. I've seen many acts over the years on tour and none are quite like Olly he is in a class of his own nor have I ever seen anybody love the attention as much as he does lol! 

As I have previously mentioned I travelled all the way up to Newcastle from little Rayleigh just to see Olly's tour, that's how desperate I wanted to see him live. I literally can not stand at concerts, I feel far to claustrophobic, plus my panic attacks literally won't let me, but I love to be right at the front and all the London dates were standing, see my dilemma? So Newcastle seated was my solution. If you would like to read part one of my Newcastle adventure then click here.

So Saturday 18th had finally arrived and we were all ready to go and see Mr Murs. We had dinner at the hotel first which was pretty nice, although i think they knew most people would be eating there before the show and stuck their prices up! I had this really strange pizza like all the toppings were actually underneath the cheese, a tad annoying when you don't like tomatoes and have to lift the cheese up to dig them out lol! Finally at around 8:00pm we started to make our way to the Metro Arena which was literally across the road from where we were staying. People always talk about first impressions being so important well I think that's true and for me my first impression was I didn't like it. The entrance to the venue was dirty and smelly and to be honest the venue itself looked like my locally dirty nightclub! I have wanted to see a show at the Metro for years so I couldn't help feeling a tad what disappointed. Perhaps I was expecting to much? 

As we entered the arena after climbing what seemed like a million stairs we had to go and check in at a desk for our V.I.P package which was basically a signed programme, mug and Lanyard. I'm the sort of person who likes to get a feel for where I am, I either love or hate a place and I just felt really uncomfortable as I entered the actual arena it felt so strange but that could be something to do with being used to the size of the O2. I was so amazed by our seats though we were third row and at the end of the row literally by the catwalk. That was one of the nice things about the Metro you were so close to the stage and it felt like such a intimate show, you could not have got any closer and for that reason alone I would visit again. Being the mature people Sian and myself are we thought it would be funny to create a banner, just a quick simple one to let Olly know we had travelled all the way from Essex. Which he did actually see but me being me I was holding it upside down I dread to think what Olly must have thought it said! It was a good idea at the time I promise, looking back on it makes me want to crawl up in a ball!




Now let's move on to the actual show, I hate the waiting being a show starts you literally sit there for ages getting more and more excited. Before Olly's show started each time Taylor Swifts 'Shake it' and Pharrells 'Happy' would echo through the arenas thats when you knew it was about to happen. The stage comes to light all of the sudden for a amazing entrance of music and Olly's band although you wait so long for Olly to appear I missed it each and everytime and I would turn around and he would already be on stage! Olly started the show with 'Did you miss me?' which was so lively and energetic it really got the crowds going, especially with the amount of twerking going on. Still like two months later that entrance is stuck in my head! Each and every song his quirkiness and cheeky personality came across making the show that little bit more amazing. 




Olly had the setlist down to a tee, although he tried to fool us all by saying he had scraped his biggest hits the little lier! He literally had such a good mixture of old and new songs. At one point a piano appears from beneath the stage and a whole new twist of his classics 'Please don't let me go', 'Thinking of me' and 'Busy' is sang with his four backing singers which really showed just how amazing Olly's voice really is. A highlight of each and every show I went to has to be his duet with the very talented Ella Eyre. They sing 'Up' it honestly didn't matter how many times I saw it I loved it more and more each time, there vocals were unbelievably amazing and the choreographer was incredible I just loved the chemistry. Before I saw the show all I kept saying was omg how amazing would it be it Demi Lovato (who sings on the actual track with Olly) was to appear and sing it with him but by the end of the shows i whole heartily prefer Ella! 

As it gets to the halfway point on the show the walkway to the B-stage appears and Olly dances his way over singing 'Dance With Me Tonight' which really gets you dancing and singing before he calms it down to sing 'Let Me In' and my all time favourite ' Dear Darlin''. I've never been to a show where the artist interacts with the crowd so much like literally at one point I think Olly talked more then he sang talking about anything from his family to the Spice Girls. Which was quite amusing seeing Olly blurt out and start singing to their song and completely got the crowd going. The show ended with Olly's no1 hit 'Wrapped Up' which was incredible and even after a 2hr show he was still going and by the time Olly had disappeared under the stage you just wanted to go and see him again! I have never been to such a good show! 

Coming out of the Metro was even worse you literally couldn't move everything was at a standstill it was seriously badly organised! A five minute walk turned into a twenty minute push and shove! I've never been to anything quite like it! Like don't get me wrong there has been times when the O2 have been unbearably busy but there has always been some kind of organisation, there was just literally no one in site to help with traffic or anything. It was that bad you couldn't even cross the roads!

The O2 shows were out of this world I went Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night and each time was equally as amazing. Although Monday night the atmosphere was electric. The highlight of Thursdays show was seeing Robbie Williams and Olly sing 'Troublemaker' together! I'll be honest I went pretty crazy and was so glad I got last minute tickets to go and see the show! Together they were incredible everybody was just going absolutely mental!

I had the time of my life going to see Olly on his tour! If you ever get the chance to see him live then go for it! You will far from regret it! Roll on next album and tour Im all ready and waiting....although my bank balance isn't! Has anyone else seen Olly on tour? I would love to know! Leave me a message in the comments below!

Lots of Love

Sophie

xo