Essence - Rock it Baby

Purple shimmer  

More old swatches as my nails are still growing out..  Not sure how this one sat unshown for so long...

This is Rock it Baby from Essence from back in 2009, maybe even 2008....

Rock it Baby is a gorgeous, stunning, if not totally unique purple shimmer.  The shimmer in the sunlight is pink and blue and really glows.

Application was good and swatches shown are 3 coats, no top coat.

I'm a sucker for a great purple and I love this one, time to dig it out from whichever Helmer drawer it's hiding in!

Essence Colour & Go - Pool Party

Bright blue with silver glass fleck

It's the first day of June and the sun is shining here in the UK so I thought I'd show you a bright summery polish from several years ago

Essence Colour & Go - Pool Party is a bright blue with a good amount of fine silver glass fleck shimmer, this is no hidden shimmer.

This is definitely an oldie but a goodie, I think this range came out in 2009

It is a smidge on the sheer side, my swatches are 3 coats with no top coat and in the direct sunlight pic there is a hint of visible nail line but given the amount of shimmer I'm sure this would work well layered too.

Colour & Go were also a complete bargain, selling for only $1 in the US and less than 2 Euros in Europe.  They do have a slightly insane tagline of '1 second per nail' but I've ignored that for the nonsense it is!

The line still exists but they're now in stumpy, blobby bottles!  I'm not sure if this colour still exists in the current line, if it doesn't it should do!

Essence - Show Your Feet - Purple Magic

Purple shimmer for toes

Don't panic - there are no toes in this blogpost!

So, a first for this blog, toe nail polish.

What makes it toe nail polish you might be asking?

...an antibacterial formula, long lasting and great coverage with just one coat - according to the bottle

Antibacterial formula?  Now I'm no chemist or doctor but my gut feel is that the cocktail of chemicals that make up your average nail polish is pretty inhospitable to bacteria at the best of times, right?  And generally I'm not a fan of antibacterial chemicals being added to stuff as it just gives all the nasty bugs time to get used to the low doses and become immune.  Anyhow, rant over.

Purple Magic is a purple shimmer with very fine pink and grey shimmer.   I love the colour if not the concept!

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat and as you can see it's not v. shiny and would benefit from top coat to gloss it up!

What you think of the Toe Nail Polish concept?  Marketing gone mad or a useful addition given some folks feet?!

Essence - Street Styler

Mid blue with secret shimmer  

Another one from the Essence Urban Messages collection, this is Street Styler

The names of these polishes are making me feel very old!

Street Styler is a slightly teal leaning mid blue.  There's a fine blue secret shimmer and some small silver flakies

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

I like it but I'd like it more if the shimmer was more visible...

Essence - Skyscraper

Greyed out beige with shimmer and small flakies   


This polish is from the Urban Messages collection from 2011, IIRC.

Skyscraper is a very greyed out beige with a mottled look from some fine golden secret shimmer and small blue flakies.  I really like the combination, it looks like fancy polished concrete, definitely an unusual finish and shimmer combination.

I'd say it was reminiscent of Zoya Harley and OPI Sheer Your Toys but without doing a comparison I'd say those colours were more blue/grey toned and without the flakies.

Swatch show is with 3 coats and no top coat so it's a little sheer.

Spain Haulage

Spanish, French and German/European brands...

Apologies for the delay in posting, dear readers, I've been away for a week in Mallorca with my Mum for a relaxing holiday and didn't manage to post anything in the week before or create any scheduled posts #badblogger

We had a lovely relaxing week, the weather was fab, 25°C+ and lots of sunshine.  We shopped, swam and generally relaxed.

I managed to fit in a little polish shopping, we were staying in a fairly small town so there wasn't much opportunity but it did have a few of those perfume/cosmetic shops.  Not an extensive range of brands, I saw OPI and Essie, but I decided to focus on brands that were new to me and some of the new Essence polishes as Essence isn't available in the UK :-(

I'm not sure if these are called LOOK or OK or something else entirely!  They're made by a company called  Impacto Cosmetics based in Valencia.  The bottles are 12ml.  And that's about all the info I can make out from the tiny, tiny print on the bottle.

 Two luscious green toned polishes from Rare and Lola .  The Rare bottle is 10ml and the Lola 11ml.  These two brands are both based in Madrid, Spain but the polish is made in France.

And lastly the Essences I picked up.  Unfortunately we were severely restricted on weight with our (shared) suitcase so I couldn't pick up as many of these as I would've liked...

I quite like the new bottles, they're pleasantly stubby and chunky.  I do hope they haven't mucked about with the brush though.

And on the right is Essences take on the double-ended layering polishes called Nail Colour³.  I chose Midnight Date/City That Never Sleeps as  CTNS looks like an interesting glittery/flakey purple/green combo.

Smallish but hopefully interesting haul.  Looking forward to swatching these soon as my ring finger nail is finally growing back, all my treatments and a week in the sun seem to have done the trick!

Essence Natventurista - Chirp Chirp

Grey toned cream with pink flash

Another one from the strangely named Natventurista collection.

Chirp Chirp is a slightly greyed cream colour with strong pink flash

Swatch is 3 coats with no top coat.

This one was slightly tricky to work with, it was more sheer than expected but overall I like it, it's unusual.

Essence Natventurista - Mother Earth is Watching You

Cool brown with silver shimmer

More random Essences from one of my many trips to Germany last year.  I don't know much about this collection other than there's obviously some kind of nature/eco theme to it.

Mother Earth is Watching You is a cool brown with lots of silvery shimmer

Swatch show is 2 coats with no top coat


Initially I thought might be similar to one of my faves Zoya Pasha but as you can see from the comparison shot Pasha is darker, browner a little warmer and more of a pearl than Mother Earth is Watching You

Comparison L-R MEIWY, MEIWY, Pasha, MEIWY.

A nice polish, neutral with a bit of extra interest although slightly brushstrokey as you can see.  I like the overprinting on the bottle cap.

Essence - Street Styler

 Tealish blue with shimmer and flakies

I picked up a couple of shades from the Essence Urban Messages collection on my recent Germany trip.  First up is Street Styler.

Street Styler is a teal leaning mid blue with a fine blue secret shimmer and small silver flakies.  This combination really works, the colour doesn't look flat and although the shimmer and flakes are fine they're visible and super pretty in the sunlight


Application and formula were good and the swatch is 2 coats, with no top coat.

I'm back!

Gah, 3 weeks away from the blog.  I have good reasons, I promise!

First week I was on holiday in Turkey with my beloved - fantastic, relaxing, blissful, just what we needed, seems like such a long time ago now.

Second week I was at a conference in Berlin for work - less blissful, not helped by catching horrible gastric flu mid week.  Being ill when you're away from home and don't speak the language is crap.  And then this week has been a continuation of the lurgy.  I think I might finally be getting over it...

Of course it being a trip to Germany (again) I managed a bit of polish shopping, and even picked up a couple in Turkey!

Essence magnet, magnetics x2 and a a glitter top coat.

 A couple of Essence top coats from a weird rotating display.  2 x Essence nudes.

 4 x Misslyn.  Haven't seen or tried this brand before, are they new?

 2 x P2 (have loved all the ones I've tried before) and a P2 crackle.  I'm not really a crackle fan but this one looked so pretty I couldn't resist.

 Turkish polish!  Alix Avien.  They were about a pound each so I'm not expecting much!

And I succumbed to Peridot in Duty Free.  I kept looking a pictures and swatches and trying to find anywhere in the UK I could buy it online for less than silly money and then there it was in Duty Free, reader, my willpower deserted me. 

Swatches and reviews to follow.

Germany Polish Haul

Yes, another one...

I work for a global IT company in Technical Sales and one or twice a year we get sent off on an enablement event, usually 3-5 days of 1-2 hour sessions to learn about new products, updates and strategy.

The region I'm part of is called North East and includes Germany and the Nordics so in the last 14 months I've been to the Stuttgart area of Germany 4 times! Don't get me wrong, I like Germany and the nail polish shopping is excellent as you'll see from my haul pics.

But the other main region in Europe is South West and their enablement event was in Barcelona - need I say more?!

Having been to this location before, and due to all the shops in Stuttgart city centre being closed on Sunday (remember when the UK used to be like that?!) I shopped at the same two stores in the small town we were located in, DM and Ihr Platz.

Anyhow, enough whingeing about free trips to Europe - on with the haul pics.

P2 Sun Collection (part of)

Essence @Holographics.com collection (no, they're not Holo but duochrome!)

P2

P2 LE and Essence Paradoxal dupe?

Catrice

Catrice, look at that beauty in the middle!

Catrice - why am I suddenly drawn to Orange?

Essence toppers

Catrice