Essie - Bahama Mama

Whilst browsing the aisles of Boots I caught a glimpse of an Essie duo that really caught my eye! The duo included Essie's Bahama Mama and Chinchilly and is titled 'favourites to fall for' - got that right! Both shades really complement one another and definitely have autumn written all over them. They were also both shades that I'd yet to try.

Bahama Mama is described as a "warm, rich, creamy plum'. It's a pretty accurate description to be honest. After two coats of this you achieve a dark but warm plum shade which I think looks gorgeous on. I will say that after two coats the shade appears slightly darker than how it appears in the bottle, but it's not a drastic difference and not one that I feel disappointed with. 

This isn't the first time that I've rambled on about an Essie polish so I'm not going to go in to detail about my opinion on the brand/quality etc. But overall I found this polish applied like a dream, due to the nice sized brush, and the completed look gave me a glossy, opaque shade that I can see myself re-applying throughout the rest of the year. I tend to get a couple of days wear from Essie before I start noticing chips. But this always depends on whether I've applied a top coat and what I've been doing.

I'm looking forward to trying out Chinchilly next as it's a polish I've heard lots about, and it looks so nice in the bottle! Boy do I love Essie, they have so many beautiful shades. What are your go-to autumn nail polish favourites?

Essie - Not Just A Pretty Face

Essie's - Not Just A Pretty Face is a gorgeous pink nude shade. Being a little Essie obsessive, and whilst on the look out for a new nude shade, I decided to grab this one. I love my bright and dark nail polishes but due to work I'm often wearing toned down, natural - nude shades which is fine with me as I also love pretty nudes too.

I'm not going to go in to much of a review for Essie nail polishes as this isn't the first Essie polish I've done a post on (Essie-Eternal Optimist and a few others). But in a nutshell they are great quality, long wearing and are the easiest to apply due to the wide brush. Essie has become a lot more accessible due to being in more mainstream stores such as Boots and Superdrug.

Not Just A Pretty Face applied beautifully, just one coat gave my nails a subtle nude shine to my nails (a sheer my nails but better look). Two coats gave a much more opaque finish which was pretty much spot on with the way the shade looks in the bottle. This leaves a gloss on the nails and in my opinion gives a very pretty and clean look. 

I normally get a few days wear out of Essie's polishes without chips and tip wear which is great. I think this is my new favourite nude for work, I love the gloss and the pinky/nude finish! Have you tried this nail polish? What are your favourite natural/nude polishes?

Essie Bargain

Hello Everyone.

I had to share my little Essie find with you all. While browsing through my local Tk Maxx, last week, I spotted a few packs of 3 Essie nail polishes for... £9.99! I couldn't believe my luck - what a bargain! After picking up Essie's Eternal Optimist (blog post - HERE) a few months back, I quickly fell in love with the brand. So it probably comes as no surprise that I didn't waste time in grabbing this bargain. I don't regularly go into Tk Maxx so I'm not sure how long this deal has been going on for, but I'm guessing it's a new thing as they definitely weren't there the last time I visited the store. There isn't a huge variety of packs of 3's, but there are a a few different shades to choose from. 

Individually these polishes can retail at around £7.99. So for 3 normal sized bottles for £9.99 I'd say that is pretty good going. My pack of 3 included the shades Jag-U-Are, Tea & Crumpets and Capri. I have spotted that Tx Maxx have made a little mistake with labelling these nail polishes, well one in particular anyway! When looking at the Essie website I noticed that Tea & Crumpets isn't actually the polish that was in this set (the real Tea & Crumpets polish is actually more of a shimmery gold colour) there must have been a mistake with the labelling! So unfortunately I can't tell you what the actual name of this Essie polish is - or what it should be. But for the purpose of this post I will refer to it as Tea & Crumpets - even though this is actually incorrect! Very annoying.

Moving on... I love the look of all of these Essie shades, so this was the pack of 3 I choose to go for. 

{L-R - Jag-U-Are, Capri and Tea & Crumpets (isn't correctly labelled)}

In terms of application Jag-U-Are is quite thick so just one coat gave me a lovely opaque finish. I'd describe Jag-U-Are as a cherry red (it looks slightly darker in some of the pictures) with a slight almost gold shimmer to it. I think this shade would look lovely on the toes. Capri is a gorgeous french manicure shade pink, it's very pretty and natural. It's definitely a barely there shade. Tea & Crumpets (which actually ISN'T Tea & Crumpets - confusing I know) is also quite a neutral shade it's a very pale pink/almost white shade which I love. I've compared this to Ballet Slippers and although they're fairly similar in shades Ballet Slippers is slightly paler and less pink in comparison. I have to say I think I'm becoming slightly obsessed with Essie! These polishes apply lovely, they give a nice finish and I love the quirky names. Definitely impressed with this bargain, despite the little labelling mistake. 

{L-R - Tea & Crumpets (again this isn't the correct name of this polish), Capri and Jag-U-Are. Two coats}

I have to say the above image didn't really capture the slight shimmer that comes with Jag-U-Are. But there is a slight shimmer there. I think its a nice alternative to the  standard red. 

So if you're an Essie fan and anyway near a Tk Maxx I'd suggest popping in and having a little browse :)

Essie - Eternal Optimist

I have really missed blogging over the last couple of weeks. There is something quite nice about sitting in front of my laptop and typing away about things I love and enjoy. However, I have been in the final stages of finishing off my degree (good old exams and all that - fun fun fun). So of course my studies became my priority. But I have now finished my course, so I finally have the time to do things that I want to do - such as blogging :)  I was originally going to post an April favourite's post but have decided against it. I didn't have a huge amount of April favourite's to include anyway, so instead I will do individual posts about some of my recent favourite products which I have been absolutely loving. 

If you hadn't already guessed from the title I'm going to do a little post today on an Essie nail polish which I very recently purchased! Being UK based Essie can be quite difficult to get hold of, especially as I'm the type of person that likes to see the products in person. So as you can imagine when I spotted a beautiful new Essie stand in my local Boots I was very happy indeed :) I've always wanted to try this brand (I'm an Essie newbie), and have heard so many good things about it so was excited to pick out a shade! Boots are selling around about 30 different shades, which are all priced at £7.99. The shade that I chose to purchase was number 23 - 'Eternal Optimist'. Not only do I love the name of this nail polish but I love the shade too. 

I would describe this shade (Eternal Optimist) as a muted, nude pink. Essie itself describes this shade as a "spiced tea rose with a dash of cream". The shade almost reminds me of a prawn cocktail kind of shade. Overall I love the packaging of Essie's nail polishes, they're really simple but pretty and sturdy. The brush is quite thick and wide so it's easy to apply a nice, even amount of polish to the nails. The nail polish itself is a lovely consistency, it isn't too watery or too gloppy, so it's a joy to apply. It's possible to get a fairly opaque look with one coat, depending on the amount of polish you load onto the brush, but personally I think two coats looks really lovely and gives a better finished look. The final look on the nails is definitely the colour you see in the bottle, I know sometimes colours on the nails can look very different to when in the bottle. I painted my nails on Saturday afternoon and have had no problems with chipping yet, just a tiny bit of wear and tear at the very end of a few of the nails which is barely even noticeable (it is now Tuesday so that's a good 3 days). When I applied this nail polish I didn't apply a base coat or a top coat, I only applied two coats which gives a slight glossy finish. I'm pretty impressed with the longevity of this nail polish and really love the shade! Another bonus for me was that I found the polish to be quite quick drying once applied to the nails. 

I would definitely recommend this shade, and judging from my experience with this particular polish I would also recommend the brand. I think this shade is lovely for adding a bit of colour to the nails, but is subtle enough to be worn as a slightly different 'nude' shade. It's definitely not like any of my other shades. A big thumbs up from me. 

Have you tried this shade before? Are you an Essie fan or an Essie newbie? I'm looking forward to trying some other Essie shades so would love to hear what peoples favourite's are?