Essie is a brand from the US who specialise in nail varnish/lacquer with a huge range of shades, they have been supplying salons since 1981 with their fabulous nail polishes and now gels.
As some of you might know Diet Coke were running a promotion at Boots stores in May where you could purchase an Essie Nail Polish with a Diet Coke for a special price. Before now I hadn’t ever tried the Essie brand, and I wanted to take advantage of this promotion and reach out of my normal brand comfort zone, and try something new.
I popped down to my local boots and out of the three shades that qualified with the promotion I liked the pale pink one the best. It was called Fiji and I hoped that it would go better with my skin-tone. I own a lot of dark reds and blues, and one of the shades was a deep red colour, and I wanted to try something new and out of my usual choice range.
I was pleasantly surprised with the quality, the nail polish applied smoothly and had a lovely shine to it. The colour I chose suited my skin tone and looked very flattering with a range of outfits as I wore it over the weekend.
It was a fairly thick lacquer, which was great because you could wear it with just one coat if you changed the colour regularly anyway. I could only wear mine for a couple of days before needing to remove it due to work commitments, so when I came to take it off I was surprised how much remover I needed. I think the quality is excellent and would have remained on my nails a long time without many chips if I had let it. I may test this theory with another essie purchase in the future to see how it stands up to other brands I have reviewed recently.
Light shades seem to be on trend this year, and I don’t own many bright colours, so I think I definitely made the right decision by choosing this one. I hope to get more in the near future because there are so many shades available to try! Especially if you go to larger boots stores, I found the range very good in my local.
Overall I think I have been converted to the essie brand, mainly because of how impressed I have been with the quality of this product. I find that it is obviously more expensive than what I am used to purchasing, but I am hoping to save up some boots points and when I fancy trying another shade use them to treat myself on this. Maybe I will review more in the near future – watch this space!
Do you have any essie shades that you’ve purchased this year that you can recommend? I would love to hear other peoples experiences too.
★ Sabrina ★
✩ ✩ ✩ Giveaway Has Now Ended Thanks To All Who Entered ✩ ✩ ✩
1. A14 –Wing It – This brush is designed for applying gel, wax or powder to full eyebrows. The firm bristles allow for you to make precision application. Or it can be used for defining the lash line when putting on gel eye liner because the brushes pointed edge can help achieve a fabulous flick with a steady hand.
This fantastic prize bundle totals over £30! And it could all be yours; all you need to do is follow the steps below in order to gain entry. Good luck!
Severn Wishes Giveaway
I love the shabby chic and vintage style of this tray. It is very sturdy and the colours are vibrant. The detail in the flowers and the cupcakes really bring the piece to life. I feel very lucky to have won such a nice item, and it will be used in the summer months for sure when we have tea and cake to share.
I have always enjoyed playing games that have unique and complex storylines. I love to get lost in the imagination of them, and feel as though I am inside the game and not just playing it. Having played some of the other Call of Duty campaigns I felt like this one would of course be similar, but I was wrong. Not only is this game graphically spectacular but I have found myself becoming so immersed in the action that all aspects of the world around me disappear for a time. The reason for this is because the gameplay is so intense at times, and concentration is paramount to succeeding.
The developer Treyarch returns to this video game to show what three years of hard work can achieve, and I believe they have done a fantastic job with this one. Set in the future, where life is both dark and difficult, you find your chosen character immersed in a world filled with futuristic technology and robotics. Aspects that will play a huge role in the entirety of this game.
Throughout the game I couldn’t fault the onscreen view, everything was clear and concise, maps and objectives were all easy to understand and follow. The graphics were clear and routes were easy to determine. Even in scenes of chaos the game allowed you to know where to go, often combining your movements with those of other characters and objectives.
My favourite type of sample to have is a skincare one. I always enjoy trialing out a new product, especially skin creams and foundation. I often sign up with companies when they request for people to be sent out initial samples to try, I am one of those thousand or so people who tried it (sometimes even less people are chosen) and I feel happy that I have contributed to a products review.
I hope you have liked my opinions on samples, and I will admit, I’m going to take my own advice and use some of my recent freebies too!
Vita Coco sent me this fabulous box with a sample for me to use. Its description reads, ‘Eat It • Wear It • Swear By It’. Even before it arrived to me I already knew how I first wanted to use the coconut oil.
My hair is naturally curly and can be quite dry. I have read about a number of celebrities who swear by regular coconut oil hair treatments. After doing some reading I decided on the best way to test if the product would work on my hair. I would photograph myself during the initial day of testing to determine visual differences. What I hoped to see was shiny and smoother hair after the first use.
So what else can you use this coconut oil for? Cooking is one option, and I have a wonderful curry recipe that I plan to use it on. I would normally buy dried coconut but I think that the raw coconut may mix better and be more cost effective, because it’s so versatile in this state.
So to give an overall review of this product my husband says he would give the contents of the box an 8/10. This is because he loved the figurine and says the quality of the t-shirt is excellent. He won’t be keeping some of the items and I believe he is considering gifting them to friends at Christmastime. But he liked the little ghostbusters ghost plush, even though he is a little old to receive cuddly toys!
I’m very impressed with the colour because of how bold it is. As you can see on my swatch on my arm it’s a deep shade of purple, not as dark as it appears in bulk in the pot, but still a wonderfully bright shade. Although only a very small pot at 4.5g, I feel as though this makeup will go a long long way. I barely used any of the powder for the swatch and I know that with the correct brushes it can be blended well.
Thank you to VLA Cosmetics who got the prize to me very quickly and well packaged as well. I am very happy with the product, and having not tried any MAC makeup before, I am impressed with the pigment.
I have always been a fan of juices and smoothies, and any simple way that I can get nutrients into my body quickly. When I heard about Juice Burst drinks I wanted to try them and give a short review for those who may not have discovered them yet.
Every one of the products counts as one of your five a day, and they are all smooth to drink and delicious too. Juice Burst have core flavours, and a new range of skinny drinks as well. These core juice drinks contain a lot of fruit juice and range from paired fruit perfections such as Orange and Passion Fruit, and the more unusual such as Blood Orange. As for the skinny options these have no added sugar and still contain enough fruit juice to be classed as one of your five a day.
I have been lucky enough to try some of these drinks, and I’m going to review some of them individually for you, outlining the nutritional information as well as what I thought of the flavours.
Spectrum Brushes are some of the most beautiful makeup brushes I have ever seen, no scratch that, they are definitely the prettiest I have seen! But what makes them so good? Well I decided I wanted to try them for myself and review them. So here I am in action, using these brushes and photographing them as I go, to give you an overall review of these unique looking products.
Being lightweight and soft the brushes are each designed for a specific makeup application. The shapes are specific to applying all kinds of makeup including Powder, Cream and Liquid. There are Eye Shadow, Foundation and Contour defining shapes as well as the general brushes for everyday use.
I kept hearing great things about the quality of these brushes from all over social media. And when I held them in my own hands and used them to apply makeup to my skin I could understand what all the fuss was about. Soft and shape specific, they made the application of my makeup products easy and precise.
I’m very pleased that I can add these stunning brushes to my collection, and I hope they last me for many years to come.
If you have enjoyed this review then please feel free to leave me a comment, and look out for more beauty reviews and pictures including these brushes in use, coming soon…