Review: Essie Summer 2012 Collection

Essie is a brand that’s contantly floating around the blogosphere, and with good reason as the polishes are amazing. Today I’m reviewing the Essie Summer 2012 Collection* from John & Ginger.

I won’t bore you too much with writing, here are the swatches.

Essie Off The Shoulder - £9.95

Essie Mojito Madness - £9.95

Essie Bikini So Teeny - £9.95

Essie Fear or Desire - £9.95

The polishes all apply really well, but I found that three coats were needed for all opacity – although that seems like the norm for Essie.

Off The Shoulder looked very pastel-y in the bottle, but with three coats I found it was more of a bubblegum pink. Fear or Desire is almost like a jelly and I really liked that! Bikini So Teeny is slightly iridescent but you can only tell if you pretty much put your finger in your eye! Mojito madness is probably my least favourite out the set, I just find it too green – I was hoping it’d be lighter and more of a pastel green.

All of the colours were very glossy, which is such a bonus. I’m a shellac kind of girl and part of the shellac appeal is the high shine, but the Essie polishes surprised me and matched the shine – even without a topcoat.

I applied the polish over shellac so that probably warped how long it lasted, but generally speaking Essie polishes last 3-5 days without chips/tip-wear if applied with a base & topcoat.

Bottom line: Very impressed. Even with three coats they all dried really quickly – something I find very important when it comes to nail varnishes, as I’m so impatient!

What are your favourite Essie polishes?

The Essie Summer 2012 Collection is available from the John & Ginger website, priced at £9.95/each.

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DIY Mineral Nail Varnish: BM Beauty in 'Her Majesty'

Picture heavy post!

Last month LuxBox released their first beauty box – blogged here – and whilst I was pleasantly surprised there was item that had popped up in a previous GlossyBox that I really didn’t like.

In theory the BM Eyeshadows are right up my street; they’re mineral based and I love mineral makeup. However, it wasn’t the product itself I had the issue with. The issue was with the colours.

‘Wolf Howl’ and ‘Her Majesty’ respectively, are very glorified names for a garish purple and a very bright pink. I honestly take my virtual hat off to anyone who can pull these colours off, but as a girl who shies away from shadows anyway, these weren’t for me.

Beauty Box Swappers was flooded with these up for swaps, with not many takers so I knew swapping wasn’t an option.

Source

Que brainwave.

I’d heard of some people grinding up their broken shadows and blushes and using them as pigments for nail varnishes, so my loose, garish purple and bright pink were perfect.

Here’s how I did it:

I used an MUA clear nail varnish; at just £1 it’s a complete steal for stuff like this.

SO.

I laid down some paper over the dining table, loose powders can be very messy and I didn’t fancy a new pink table!

I made a little funnel out of a small piece of paper and some sellotape, stuck it in the top of the varnish and tapped the shadow in.

I added about a quarter of the pot, removed the funnel and put the brush back in. Looks like a mini nuclear disaster. (Yes, I’m a geek)

I shook it for about 30 seconds, let it rest for 10 seconds and then shook it again just to make sure that all of the lumps were gone.

This is the swatch after it was mixed in, but I wanted it slightly more pigmented so I repeated the steps again.

Darker swatch.

My new ‘Her Majesty’ nail varnish :) and a whole heap of mess.

Really pleased with how it turned out, the pictures don’t show it well but it’s a very shimmery, golden pink.

I did this with ‘Wolf Howl’ too, but found that the shadow settles quite quickly. If you’ve got some small ball bearings around the house then they’d be perfect to drop in to help you revive the polish when you shake it back together.

Don't limit yourself to loose powders, you can crush pressed powders to use in DIY nail varnishes.

Have you got any powders you’ll be trying this with? Links if you do please :)

Awful Blogger ..

I’m so sorry, I’ve been an awful blogger and haven’t had time to post anything recently.

It was my birthday, and then the boy’s birthday and then my last couple of assignments for uni were due (finally submitted now so I’m free for summer, yay!) plus I’ve been working at a festival for the last few days so I’ve had no time at all.

I promise that things will be back to normal from next week, I’ve made a huge lists of posts that I’ll be doing over the next couple of weeks so expect to see a lot more of me! Plus I’ve got two giveaways coming up too, that I just can’t wait to share with you lovely ladies.

Just so this post isn’t so text heavy, here’s a NOTD picture.

 Excuse the dry skin - acetone! :(

I’ve had to bid goodbye to shellac for a little while - £20 every two weeks was beginning to strain my budget. However, I’ve just bought my own kit so I can do it myself. The varnish is just an interim substitute until next week when I’ll have time to sit down and use it!

Colours used:

-       -- H&M Glitter Crackle – two coats (Review to come soon!)

-       -- NYX 24k Glitter

-       -- Barry M Topcoat & Nail Hardener

The picture doesn’t do it justice, it’s really, really, bright especially when it catches the light and has lasted really well.

Anyway, I’ll be back on form next week! Goodbye until then my lovelies!

Latest in Beauty Themed Box: Editors Pick Box

Earlier this week LIB released their Editors Pick beauty box.

My box arrived this morning and here’s what I got:

L’Occiatane Immortelle Divine Cream 3ml – Worth £4

Emma Hardie Lift & Sculpt Plumping Serum 10ml – Worth £14

Eve Lom Rescue Mask 15ml – Worth £8.40

Miners Nail Colour in Marshmallow – Worth £2.99

AD Skin Synergy Nourishing Night Treatment 5ml – Worth £3.80

The box cost £5.95 plus £2.95 P&P, but with over £30 worth of products then you can’t really go wrong.

L’Occiatane Immortelle Divine Cream – looking forward to trying this but the sample looks a bit too small for me to really be able to make a decision on it.

Emma Hardie Lift & Sculpt Plumping Serum – not really interested in anti-ageing products, but this promises to provide ‘deep hydration’ to the skin. So we’ll see.

Eve Lom Rescue Mask – I’ve got really oily skin so I love clay masks. It can also be used to cure puffy, tired eyes so I’m excited to see if it lives up to that.

Miners Nail Colour – as an avid shellac’er I’m not sure how much I’ll use this. Cute colour though.

AD Skin Synergy Nourishing Night Treatment – again anti-ageing but I’m quickly running out of my current face oil so we’ll give this one a try.

As much as I love LIB Themed Boxes and the contents of this one, the full size products are a little on the pricey side and not very compatible with my student budget. However, I do love the fact that boxes like this give me the chance to try products that I wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise.

Bittersweet.

Did anyone else get one of these boxes? What did you think?

PS. The beautiful Nora over at BBS actually got this box for me, as I knew it would sell out before payday arrived. I’m trying to get her to start a blog but my attempts have failed. BUT you can check out her eBay here as she’s selling some amazing beauty products at low prices.