Essie - TLC collection

TREAT LOVE & COLOUR RANGE

Introducing gorgeous new shades for essie’s first advanced one-step care and colour collection. Following the successful launch of essie’s TLC range in January 2017. 

Treat: restore strength to dry, brittle nails in just one week.

Love: pamper your nails with a formula that locks in moisture. 

Colour: enhance nails instantly with visually brightening pigments for a healthy glow. The collection is being extended to include four stunning new shades. 

The range is the perfect solution for women who want to continue to add colour to their manicure whilst caring for their nails. By fusing the benefits of active ingredients with a range of pigmented sheers, the collection offers mani-lovers an even wider range of gorgeous colours that deliver immediate relief to dry, brittle nails. 

The advanced-care formula contains collagen, msm*, camellia extract and visually brightening pigments which all work to guarantee 60% less peeling and 35% less breakage after just one week.  

Better still, the extended range heroes a beautiful collection of beige tones for those who prefer neutral shades to pinkier hues. Essie's TLC works to turn stressed out nails into knockouts with seven heavy hitting sheers:

Tonal taupe: catch the light with hints of gold in this beige taupe

See the light: for just a touch of colour opt for a beautiful and reflective ivory beige

Treat me bright: be bright in white with a sheer, powder hue

Existing shades available:

Tinted love: if you want a delicate, romantic look, the soft peach glow is just the thing

Sheer to you: for a gorgeous ‘better than natural’ look, the pink will blend seamlessly with your nail tone

To add beauty back to your nails, celebrity manicurist and Essie Global Lead Educator, Rita Remark gives her tips:

1. Moisturise with a rich cuticle oil to keep them in tip top shape, perfectly framing your nails for colour

2. You would never moisturise without cleansing first so treat your nails the same way you treat your skin. Cleanse thoroughly with polish remover before applying any treatment or colour.

3. Never use a base coat  – it should be applied directly on the nail to provide optimal benefits.

4. Apply in long, straight brush strokes, place the brush near the cuticle and pull to the tip, then fill in with a stroke each side. The brush makes application a breeze.

5. TREAT LOVE & COLOUR is a one-step formula, so there’s no need for a top coat. Enjoy your instantly perfected nails.

This formula from Essie is universal to any look you may want to achieve. Using as a base coat if you so wish with the lighter shades to protect and strengthen the nail. I had very weak nails very prone to "side catching" then loosing any nail I had grown  as Id have to file them to save any progress. Its why I often used acrylic nails which are not the best for already weak nails. Having used the palest shaded  polish for over 2 weeks, my nails have hardened and grown and they continue to be at the length they are at with no side catching incidents. 

I love that some shades have a glittery tinge, so that the light catches correctly and it gives an impression of length. You still have the option with giving your nails healthy growth, yet also jazz up your daily look. These shades are fantastic and my nails have never been this strong. 

Essie - Wild nudes collection

Essie’s NEW Wild Nudes Collection are nature inspired and perfectly neutral. Become one with the outdoors with the wild nudes collection. These four rich crème colour shades are a permanent addition to the essie core range to add to the popularity and demand for essie nudes. These edgy shades are a modern take on a neutral palette.

Bare all with these scantily clad shades: 

Bare with me: You’ve got nothing to lose but your inhibitions in this apricot tone with grey cast

Exposed : Show your true colours to the world in this shade of mossy green with a slight white overcast

Clothing optional (hero shade): This sumptuous shade of lighter sienna brown covers all the essentials

Winning streak: it’s no sin to win. This shade of dark purple with a greyish tone loves to get your streak on

Choose neutral shades with a distinctive point of view with the essie wild nudes collection.

I have to say the packaging of this collection was so beautiful, then it made me excited to see what the shades would be like. I was not disappointed at all with these lovely wild nude colours. They are pigmented even with one coat, apply flawlessly and dry with a beautiful true to shade colour finish. They are versatile shades that can be mixed with other shades from Essie, to brighten or have a neutral look depending on the event your attending. 

As the sun was shining I decided to do some nail art, taping off half the nail then using each shade having the glitter tip to really pop the colour. I love the effect and was impressed by the longevity of this collection with no chips or need to touch up the polish. Fantastic collection and this is the first part of my Essie series. I will have a review and more nail art with the vibrant new Gel Couture shades plus highlight four of the treatment polishes for brittle nails with tips on great nail health. 

Essie : 1000th Shade launch feat Rio Olympic 2016 Collection

I love Essie nail polish for the simple fact that it's quality is second to none. I really loved the sping collection and now with the Rio 2016 Olympic games fast approaching, it was no surprise to see the 1000th shade was influenced by this event. It also is accompanied by other vibrant, celebratory and carnival inspired colour's. 

About Essie's 1000th shade : 

Demand the party’s attention this summer with Essie's hotly anticipated 1000th shade;

Aim to misbehave.  A scandalous yellow perfect for the summertime, this vibrant shade is also the hero of the limited edition Rio Collection. Inspired by the bold colours of the Rio Carnivals and in time for the 2016 Rio Olympics, this is a party of colours you really can’t miss.

· Aim to Misbehave; a scandalous yellow that will have your nails misbehaving.

· Sunday Funday; turn everyday into a ridiculously good time with this beautiful, coral crush.

· Aruba Blue; escape to paradise with this frosty sapphire.

· Bahama Mama; anytime is the right time for this tropical beauty.

· Pure Pearlification; this over-the-top top coat instantly creates a lacquered shine to rival the real thing.

· Jazzy Jubilant; this hyperkinetic chromatic glitter top coat is part jazz-age shimmer, part space-age glamour.

· Naughty Nautical; sail the sexy seas and chart a course for adventure in this shimmering, brilliant blue-green, naughty never looked so nice.

Aim to misbehave & Naughty nautical 

I kindly was sent both these shade's from Essie, I must convey my appreciation to them as the colour's are stunning. The vibrancy of "Aim to misbehave" is true to the shade, then "Naughty nautical" is again just as beautiful with its shimmers.

They are both opaque and with only 1 coat had a great colour set down. Aim to misbehave I'd recommend doing 2 coats, to get the intense vibrancy this shade truly offer's. 

These are such summery bright, colourful and uplifting shades. Your instantly drawn to "Aim to misbehave" as its micro shimmers give an extra dimension also. Im going to purchase more of shades from this collection as they are stunning. I will be doing Olympic inspired nail art via my Instagram using Essie polish. 

Colour portrait Studio - Essie Spring 2016 Collection

Essie are throwing the most fantastic competition alongside the famous photographer Rankin, via a Colour portrait Studio. Join in and see if your nail art can secure you a place at this amazing event on May 17th in London. 

Colour Portrait studio 

This Spring, nail salon expert Essie and photographer Rankin are partnering to celebrate beautifully painted nails. Designed to bring confidence to women every day, the incredible nail colour range  is at the heart of the Colour Portrait Studio, opening for one day only on Tuesday 17th May at a secret Central London location. Attendees will be treated like VIPs from start to finish, nails polished by essie manicurists and their hair plus make-up professionally done. 

Competition 

Essie is offering everyone the chance to secure a place and be polished and snapped like a star. This unique opportunity will be open until the 28th April. Attendees will leave with their very own colour portrait by Rankin starring their beautiful essie nails. 

To enter the competition, simply follow essie on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and upload your best nail selfie using #essiexrankin and @essieuk for your chance to win. 

Ahead of the once-in-a-lifetime photo shoot with Rankin. Rankin comments; “Colour plays an important role in my photography, as does making the subject feel confident in front of the camera. The Colour Portrait Studio with essie is the ultimate expression of both of these. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone on the day; we’re going to have a lot of fun.”

Essie : Spring Collection 2016

Perfectly timed as we say goodbye to  winter, Essie has released their limited edition Spring 2016 Collection. Featuring six light and bright beautiful shades, that will play a starring role at the Colour Portrait Studio, each one is a little ray of sunshine in a bottle. 

Colour's available: 

- High class affair : Described as an amorous blush nude

- Lounge lover : Pretty pink peach 

- Sunshine state of mind : Blazing coral 

- Off tropic : Lush grove Green

- Pool side service : Cerulean blue

- Shade's On : Mysterious deep Violet 

I must admit the colour "High class affair" I was not expecting much, as it is such a pale colour. However it was amazingly opaque on the first layer and by the second, was ready for the top coat. Im glad I finally have a nude colour that I can rely on, it gives me a lovely base to set against more paler colours. The colour "Off tropic" is a deep green, in paradise it would be equivalent too banana leaf's. I love green polish and all shade's available, so this is the perfect base to some spring glints of glitter. I do so love "Shade's On" with its deep purple tone's, yet almost pastel but not quite. I find this such a beautiful all round colour not only for spring but seasonally universal.  

They are beautiful not only to apply, yet opaque and stunning in person. This formula is amazing and whilst ive never had a bad experience with Essie polish, these colour's certainly are of the highest standard. These 6 limited edition shade's are described as a "Sunshine escape and a slice of colourful paradise". I can't disagree with the statement, im excited to purchase the other 3 in this collection. 

- Essie Spring 2016 Collection

RRP £7.99 *Price is set at retailer's discretion. They will be available in Superdrug, Boots, and online  from 13th April – 30th May 2016

Entry to the Colour Portrait Studio closes on the 28th April, for full terms and conditions visit essie.co.uk

My flower box : April edition

My little box UK

So its that part of the month where "My little box" arrives. I get very excited and always wonder what french influenced goodies will be inside. Its called My flower box, so the obvious influence of Spring and waving goodbye to winter for another year. 

About : My Little Box is a hand-picked and beautifully designed box of fashion, beauty and lifestyle surprises. With accessories, products and other goodies created exclusively for you and based around a different theme every month, each box promises to delight the lucky recipient.

Content's : 

- My beauty bag : L'occtaine : Cherry Blossom shower gel, Nail's Inc: Kensington Caviar base, Rosee du matin: Masque detoxifiant

- Flower magazine 

- Pop up garden

- Travel bag for lingerie 

My beauty bag 

L'occtaine: Cherry Blossom Shower gel

Our Cherry Blossom collection celebrates the poetic beauty of the cherry blossom, its delicate feminine flowers during the first days of spring. This shower gel gently cleanses the skin, leaving it delicately perfumed.

Nail's Inc: Kensington Caviar base 

Enriched with caviar extract to help nourish nails and provide a longer lasting manicure.

How to apply: Apply one coat of Base Coat of Kensington Caviar to clean dry nails. Apply 2 coats of your chosen nail polish shade. Finish with one coat of Top Coat with Kensington Caviar

(Top Tip : If you suffer from weak or peeling nails, the caviar extract will help provide nourishment.) 

Rosee du matin: Masque detoxifiant

Each Box includes a brand new product by My Little Beauty. Our in-house beauty range. In creating our collection of products, we've used the best formulas, 

the most sought-after scents and the most brilliant colours.

- Pop up garden

This little box contains a surprise and be it a lovely presentation, i think this would be more suited for mothers with children to do. 

As it open's up into a miniature setting with a spongey material and packet of cress seed's. The end look will be the cress looks like grass and the lady will be riding her bike through. I think il gift this to a mini my little box lover.

- Travel bag for lingerie 

This is beautiful and just scream's french chic. Travelling or going anywhere you need to keep clean away from dirty or delicate's, then this soft well made bag is just the item you need. I was using plastic bags for this when i went into hospital, so it will be nice to have this little added luxury to keep my clean away from my dirty item's. 

- Flower issue magazine 

As always the feature magazine from my little box. This has the spring theme for the flower edition. 

I have to say the packaging for this month is beautiful and unique to any beauty box ive seen. Its a flip open book and inside are your item's. It seem's such a shame to have such beautiful packaging and then be so disappointed with the content's.

Firstly the mini flip up book garden to grow cress, which maybe great for all those green fingered ladies. However its not something id use and i was very disappointed this was one of the item's. The lingerie bag is beautiful and I know I will get so much use out of this when im in hospital. Also at home it can be kept to keep my silk dressing gown in to protect from damage. So this is a great item I really love.

The beauty bag was good in one way that l'occtaine cherry blossom shower gel is my favourite product. I love to try new item's and brand's, yet its a quality brand so I shouldn't complain much. The  Nail's inc. polish a base coat that help's nourish. It's not a product I would use as i have a base and top coat already. The last item is from my little beauty's own brand of products. It is a facial exfoliating mask, something we seem to be getting alot of. The beauty bags seem to be following the same pattern, it would be nice to see more french brands plus makeup. Im not sure if its because ive been subscribed from the begining that I expect more, as Ive seen my little box at its best. Other then the boxes exterior, this month was not very wow for me. 

Essence products

Essence Website

So since Essence has become widely available in the UK, it has hit the ground running and become a hot set of products to have. So which Essence products should you be on the hunt for ? If your new to the brand then have a look at this affordable brand. 

They say :

Since its launch in 2002, essence stands for trendy and high quality cosmetics at a sensational low price. This principle applies to the selection of our production steps from the very beginning until the completion of our final products. 

Quattro eyeshadow – Different textures ranging from silky shimmering to intensive shine ensure unlimited creativity with your eye make-up. perfectly aligned shades, excellent color-dispersion and long-lasting results make the quattro eyeshadow an absolute favourite.

So the Quattro eyeshadow quad is the only set of shadows I've yet to try from essence. I do think this set of shadows is very handy for travel and does give some good pigment. They are quite shimmery for a daily look, I found using the pink and cream shade mixed on the lid with the brown for the definition within the crease and V. Then all blended it makes for a beautiful eye with a multi dimensional shimmer but not overwhelming. The pearl shade is a beautiful highlight for your face, as i found its quite shimmery for the brow. This set is really handy and for the price is worth having, to have some good travel shadows.

Longlasting lipstick - is longlasting love, you simply have to fall in love with the longlasting lipsticks by essence. the lipsticks provide your lips with intensive color for several hours without drying them out. You're sure to find whatever you’re looking for from bright pink, intensive red, chilled-out berry to subtle nude shades. The essence logo on the texture and the matt, black packaging with a ring of color to match the actual color of the lipstick are true eye-catchers.

The essence lipstick's are really impressive for pigment and quality. This colour is natural beauty and it really is a stunning colour. It looks so pale in the bullet yet it is the most intense pink colour when applied. I was quite taken aback by this colour. Also the packaging is simple but chic, with a black casing and the imprint of the essence "e" on the lipstick. Im going to be checking out some more colours as these again are fabulous for anyone on a budget or wanting to experiment with brighter shades. 

Colour & go Nail polish : colour explosion, the huge colour & go range has the beloved gel-shine finish with a highly intensive shine and an extremely short drying time for perfectly polished nails in a flash! the patented quick & easy brush is particularly flat for an even easier application. The bottle has a cool essence design – with the usual colour-coded cap in the corresponding nail polish colour.

Nail polish I admit is not my favourite area of beauty as I have not done them any favours with my using of acrylics. However when i do try nail colours, I do want to spend affordably and get good quality. This polish shade is so rich and the curved angle of the flatter brush, made it easier to get a good coat on without needing to repeat and possibly streak the finish. The red colour is a rich pigment and lasted well without chipping then removed just as easily with a polish remover. It didn't leave any trace or stain. I really love this colour and i will invest in a few of my favourite colours from this range when the time comes. 

So again another set of beautiful products from essence that can be relied on and used in any environment. Lovely affordable brand that has some real star products and the ones above are testament to the quality available. 

W7 - Nail polishes

W7 Website

 Autumn slowly approaching and the beautiful darker colours appear. I have two beautiful green shades of polish. These were kindly sent to me, so many thanks to W7.

W7 background : 

 The inspiration of two entrepreneurial men from West London created in 2002. Their aim – that every woman should have access to an extensive range of high quality cosmetics at an affordable price – is now well on the way to becoming a reality.

W7 Nail polish: Space dust 

This polish is beautiful. It looks dark within the bottle, when applied you get this lovely marine green colour. You only need 2 coats for amazing coverage. It has an almost aquamarine/teal mix. It would be a perfect ombré mix colour.

The polish will fit well in the coming autumn,winter season. Mixed with nail art   and ombré nails for this season's trend. It's encouraging us to experiment more and get creative, think outside the box. This fantastic colour will stand out from the crowd. 

It applies well and dries relatively quick. The second coat makes the colour vibrant. As you can see in my above colour swatches, this shade will be well loved in the coming seasons. 

W7 glitter polish: Cosmic green

All I can say is wow for this polish. It's a beautiful fine mixed glitter, in a ivy green colour. Perfect again for the upcoming Christmas season. 

It's so intense that I only needed 1 coat. I do have a issue with glitter polish, which is why I own so few. Is that they never come off, even when soaked. This polish however has what I can only describe, as a peel addition. So after a few days you can peel the edges very easily. So then using a cotton swab, take some polish remover to lift any tricky parts. That way your not doing damage to your nails. Also use a hand and nail cream, as an addition to your skincare regime. 

Well W7 have sent another 2 polishes out , that scream quality and appeal to all. Nails will be heavily featured in the Autumn/winter season. So I think I may feature some posts, showing my handy work.