NOTD: Essie Watermelon

We're officially experiencing a heatwave here in Belgium.  It's crazy hot here and with this kind of weather you have to stay hydrated so enter watermelon.  My man and I are real watermelon addicts.  It's just so refreshing an healthy at the same time, what else could one want right?

So when a colleague at work started talking about Watermelon by Essie I thought this was the perfect time to throw this one on the blog.  It's a classic color that screams summer.  On the US website this color is described as "a creamy and refreshing juicy red", on the Belgian website it's described as "a juicy and refreshing watermelon pink".  It really is a bright pink that navigates towards red so the truth is in-between.

Swatches are made with three coats and as you can see the color still isn't totally opaque.  

Where to buy:

Watermelon by Essie is part of their standard collection so it's available at your local Essie retail.  In Belgium you can find Essie at Di and Kruidvat and one polish costs €12,49.

Essie Retro Revival collection

This collection has been out a while now and I finally found the time to swatch all the colors.  It did take me a while to get all the colors since Starry Starry Night sold out quite fast and it took DI a while to restock.  

On Essie's website you'll find this subscription of the collection:

"For essie's fabulous anniversary, we're celebrating vegas style in honor of the ultimate party town where it all began. in honor of this iconic birthday, the legendary essie color archive has been opened with a thrilling glimpse into the brand's dazzling history. the result is a limited edition collection of six iconic shades that all promise a sparkling night of thrills."

Translation: it's a party collection that was launched for the 35th birthday of Essie!!  These are all colors that have been released in the past in limited editions so the thought of bringing these back is just brilliant.  You see, when these came out I wasn't really into nail polish so I never had a chance to buy them, I even doubt I would've been able to find them in Belgium (but you know that that wouldn't have stopped me).

As usual the collection contains 6 colors: Starry Starry Night, Life Of The Party, Bikini With A Martini, Sequin Sash, Birthday Suit and Cabana Boy.

Starry Starry Night

Starry Starry Night is a bright dark blue color with glitter in it, a very festive color! This color was originally released in 1997 (mind you, that's another century) and became a cult color for many polish addicts!

Starry Starry Night close up

Look at the glitter in there, it's so beautiful!

Life Of The Party

You can never go wrong with a red poilish when partying, this is a dark brownish red with a pearly finish.  This color was originally released in 2002.

Bikini With A Martini

A frosted iridescent pink is how Essie describes this color and I can't describe it any other way.  This color was originally released in 2006.

Sequin Sash

Described as a sheer glittery bronze polish with silver flecks, it's a very sheer formula.  Swatches are made with two coats of polish and you can still see my nails through it.  This color was originally released in 2005.

Sequin Sash close up

Here you have a better look at the silver flecks.  They're not prominent but they are there.

Birthday Suit

A nice nude polish that's quite sheer. This color was originally released in 1981!

Cabana Boy

A cool toned pearly nude with a bit of a lilac/grey undertone.  This color was originally released in 2005.

I love the philosophy behind this collection and I can totally understand why Starry Starry Night was sold out all the time.  For me that one is definitely the star polish of this collection!

Where to buy:

In Belgium this collection is sold exclusively at DI for €12,49.

This week on the blog

I have a few days off and decided to spent most of my time writing blogposts.  Why?  First of all, I have some very exciting new goodies that arrived last week and I really wanted to share them with you!  And second of all, it hit me that I have so many things that I really want to write about and haven't gotten around to it yet.  Or as one of my colleagues told me last week "I bet if you open your drawers at home you could write posts for a whole month".  She's absolutely right, I could write a post every day for a month without buying anything new (but where's the fun in that).  I don't know if I'll be able to post every day but I've written ahead for the whole week by now so maybe it is possible, we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, here's what you can expect on the blog this week:

- Essie's Retro Revival Collection

- Too Faced Sweet Peach Palette

- Embryolisse Lait-Créme Concentré

- NOTD: Catrice Mauve To The Beat

- Dose Of Colors haul and review

- Urban Decay Alice In Wonderland Eyeshadow Palette

If I had to choose between any of these as a favorite than I really couldn't.  (spoiler alert! all products mentioned are awesome)

So tell me, what are you most excited about?

note: this post was meant to go up yesterday but blogger wasn't uploading any pictures,  an update of my laptop fixed everything fortunately 

Essie spring 2016 collection

If you live in Belgium and you love nail polish you have to run to DI this month.  They have this promotion that you can buy any nail polish at half the price when you hand in an old polish.  This is the perfect promotion to stock up on those nice new spring collections that are hitting the store right now.  I took full advantage of this promotion last week, to the point where it got embarrassing.  Since the promotion said you could only hand in one old polish a day I did just that.  Every day during my lunch break I went to DI, handed in an old polish and bought a new one at 50% off.  I even dragged a colleague along one day just so I could get more polishes in a day.  Freaky, I know but I desperately wanted to get the whole Essie Spring collection before the weekend so I could swatch the polishes.  By friday I concluded that I wasn't going to get all 6 of them before the weekend but I still went in the store after work to get my 4th polish of the collection.  Standing at the cash register all of a sudden the sales lady (a very nice sales lady I must add) said: "we just received an email from our headquarters saying that we are allowed to accept 3 old polishes a day per costumer so if you have 3 with you right now you can hand them in ... that way you don't have to come around with one polish each day."  How embarrassing is it when the sales ladies know these things about you?  For me, it's the story of my life but I did feel a bit awkward.  Just a bit though ... I handed in 3 polishes and left with a big smile on my face.

So here you have them, all the colors of the new Essie spring 2016 collection.  I have to say that I was a bit surprised by some of the colors.  I expected the peachy pink nude, the peach, the orange, even the purple one didn't surprise me but I wasn't expecting the green and teal color.  It is a bit of break from the more traditional minty soft pastel colors that you can expect to see in the spring and I like that.  The quality of the polishes is great as usual and I applied 2 coats to get full coverage on all the swatches.

high class affair

I love this color, it's a light peachy nude pink.  A neutral color but with enough cuteness so it isn't boring or dull.

lounge lover

The centerpiece of the collection.  A nice peachy pink that reminded me a bit of Tart Deco when I saw it on the stand.  It isn't as bright a pink as it seems on the picture.  

shades on

An 'in your face' bright purple color.  This is something I'd prefer on my toes rather than on my hands.

off tropic

I love dark green but it feels like an odd color choice for spring.  This is more of a fall color for me but it still is a gorgeous dark green.

pool side service

I don't know how I feel about this color.  It hasn't thrown me off but I'm not really a big fan either.  For me this one will also be more of a feet color rather than a hand color.  It's a petrol/teal color and it is quite different from the usual spring colors I must say.

sunshine state of mind

This just screams sunshine, spring, summer ... it's just such a bright color!! It's a pinky orange, I really don't know how else to describe it, and a definite hit for spring.

Where to buy:

In Belgium you can buy Essie at DI and Kruidvat.  Like I said DI is having a 50% off promotion when you hand in an old polish.  Normal retail price is €12,49.

HAUL: Boots, Beautybay, Catrice and Essie

Sometimes a girl just has to treat herself and last week was sometimes for me ;-)  Did I go overboard?    I don't think so but I'm sure some people do.  I don't care though, I work full-time so I'm allowed to treat myself from time to time.  Most of the products will be on the blog in a more detailed post but here's a quick overview of what I bought and were I bought it.

Boots

The only reason I ordered at Boots was because I really needed some Indeed Labs Hydraluron Sheet Masks.  I adore these sheet masks and I always take some with me on vacation but I was all out and I was starting to feel really uncomfortable about that.  Boots does charge shipping fees but the promotions they offer more than make up for that.  The Sheet Masks were down to £13,32 from £19,99 so it was the right time to order them.  The Nyx Liquid Suede Cream Lipsticks had been on my wish list for a while and Boots is the only place I could get them so this was the perfect time to order some.  I ordered 3 colors: Soft-spoken, Tea & Cookies and Life's a beach.  I also ordered 2 L'Oreal nail polishes from their new Color Riche L'huile nail polishes.  These will be available soon at the drugstore in Belgium, I've already seen the empty shelves at Kruidvat but since they were empty and I'm impatient, I just had to get some already so Rose Ballet and Cherie Macaron went in the shopping basket.  The last item I bought was the L'Oreal Color Riche La Palette for lips in nude.  I also wanted to get the red palette because they seem so handy for traveling but that one was sold out.  The Soap and Glory Peaches and Clean deep purifying cleanser was a free gift.  It's a full-size bottle and I'm really excited about this.  I've never tried anything from Soap Glory before but I've read so much good about the brand that I can't wait to try this out.

Beautybay

Makeup Geek!!  That should say it all ... I've always wanted to try out the MUG product and even though they do ship to Europe I never ordered from them directly.  I love how more and more American companies are shipping worldwide now but shipping costs and taxes can make that whole experience a lot more expensive than expected.  But now we Europeans can buy the MUG products from Beautybay.  I have to say that Beautybay is really stepping up their game.  MUG, Morphe brushes, Dose of Colors, LA Girl ... they are bringing those hard to get brands to us poor European girls.  If only Colourpop could be next ;-)  

I ordered an Extra Large Z-Palette, 2 MUG blushes (Spell Bound and Bliss), 1 MUG contour powder (Break Up) and 6 MUG eyeshadows (Barcelona Beach, Peach Smoothie, Cocoa Bear, Frappé, Crème Brûlée and Cherry Cola).  The Mario Badescu foaming cleanser and glycolic acid toner were freebies.

Catrice at Kruidvat

The updated Catrice range has launched!!  I was at Kruidvat when the promotion lady was filling the shelves with the new polishes, she wasn't quite finishes yet but I managed to grab a few.  Swatches of these will be on the blog.

Essie at DI

DI has the best promotion this month.  If you hand in an old nail polish, you can buy a new one (any brand) at 50% off.  Perfect timing because Essie just launched 2 (!) new collections: the Retro Revival collection and the Spring collection.  I have enough old polishes to get me these two collections at 50% off, which is great because buying these 12 polishes at full price (€12,49) is just too decadent (even for me) but with the 50% off discount I think I can manage to get them all.  The old polishes I'm handing in (in case you were wondering) are all polishes I got for free at some point. Most of them were a promotion of Kruidvat were you got a free polish with a coupon (but the colors are terrible and so is the quality) and they are now serving a good cause.

I will be posting the 2 collections on the blog but it won't be for this week.  The last color of the Retro Revival collection was sold out and according to the saleslady it could be up to 2 weeks before they restock so that collection might take me a while but the Spring collection should be up next weekend if I manage to get all the colors.

And that's it.  I felt like a kid in the candy store opening everything and I'm ready to start playing with my new stuff.  More detailed blogposts will follow soon!

Essie winter 2015 collection

Fall hasn't even started properly in Belgium but that won't stop the winter collections from appearing in stores.  I wasn't expecting the winter collection from Essie yet but last week while I was in the drugstore I immediately noticed the Essie display had changed and so even though I was there for something else, Essie was the first stop I made.  

Virgin snow

Virgin snow is described as 'pure. untouched. pristine. this icy frozen lavender is just waiting to be discovered.'  It is indeed an icy lavender color, not quite sure if this is a winter color though but a great choice if you like lavender colors.

Shall we chalet?

Shall we chalet?  is described as 'well darling, since you ask ... why not? it would be impossible to resist this seductive ruby.' Now this is a winter color if you ask me, a dark ruby red that's sophisticated and is just great for everyday.

Haute tub

Haute tub is described as 'turn up the fashion heat and take the plunge in indulgent jet black with amethyst fire.'  Black with a little sparkle in there, I'm always game for that.  

Haute tub

In my opinion, the sparkle could be a lit better.  You have to look very close to actually find it, from afar it looks like a black with a lot of shine but not really sparkling in any way.

Apres-chic

Apres-chic is described as 'sprot this iconic platinum and go from ski bunny to winter wonderland queen.'  This is definitely the eye-catcher of the collection.  A nice silver nail polish that applies really easy without too much streaking.  The formula is easy to work with, which isn't always the case with silvery colors.  

Apres-chic

Personally, I think this is a great polish for an accent nail or if you're into nail art or if you're going to a silver themed party.  Aside from that, it's a bit too full on for me.  

Altitude attitude

Altitude attitude is described as 'rise to the occasion in elevated sublime scarlet and scale the heights of fashion without batting a lash.' Or, to say it bluntly, it's a nice scarlet red.  Nothing special though, just a nice classic red (a color that every girl should have in her collection).

Peak show

Peak show is described as 'enjoy the view from the top. in this scenic powder pink, it's the place to be in all its pretty glory.' And it is a light bright pink, so light it looks more like white from afar.  But once again the formula is great, as usual with Essie.

This collection didn't really wow me I must say.  There aren't any real innovative colors here, nothing that had me excited.  Aside from apres-chic I find the colors more standard, like they could come from the permanent Essie range.

Note: all descriptions are copied from Essie.com.

Where to buy:

In Belgium you can find Essie at Kruidvat and DI.  Retail price is 11,99€ at Kruidvat and 12,45€ at DI.

NOTD: Essie Fiji and some chit chat

Well, I found out that posting something every day isn't realistic for me.  I realized this last weekend when I had 3 weeks of ironing to catch up on (I hate ironing and it's the first chore I tend to push aside but 3 weeks of ironing is a lot).  Since fall is creeping up on us and I take my pictures with natural daylight,  there aren't that many hours left to take pictures.  Considering I also have to work every other saturday morning, time is limited.  This blog is a hobby and I love it a lot but at this point I don't want to invest in fancy lighting so I have to make due with what nature gives me.  

That being said, I still have a lot to share with you.  I've been seeing the holiday collections and palettes that have been coming out and I'm getting really excited!! I have to remind myself that I'll never be able to use it all but I'm already sensing that rationality won't be able to claim total victory.  Already on the list: Tarte Light of the party makeup case (as seen here) and Too Faced Le Grand Palais (because look at it, it's just so cute).  

Things will calm down soon, very soon!  I have a week off next week.  At first we were planning on going on a citytrip (Berlin or Barcelona) but in the end we decided to just stay at home, do some chores and go on a few day trips.  I'm not usually one to stay at home when I have vacation (I am a wanderlust after all) but I have to admit that I'm kind of looking forward to it.  Just sleeping in everyday (well, I'm not a long sleeper but the fact that the alarm clock also has a week off is enough for me), taking pictures for the blog, going to Ikea (yes!!), clean out my closets and of corse playing around with makeup ... that somehow really sounds good to me.  Does this mean I'm getting old?

For now, I'll leave you with this NOTD: Essie's Fiji.  A classic that goes with every season and is definitely a must-have.

Anything you'd like to say?  Don't be shy, leave a comment!

Essie fall 2015 collection

It shouldn't come as a surprise but I generally love Essie polishes.  The quality of the polish, the range of colors but the most important one for me: the brush!  I love the wide brush, it applies polish so easily (even with my non-dominant hand)!  

Essie's permanent range has a great choice in colors and yet they always seem to able to come up with something special for their limited editions.  And now fall is here!  The good thing about fall polish wise is that the time is here for glitter!! Yess!! Probably one of the thing I love most about fall (aside from scented candles and my little couch blanket).

The fall collection exists of 6 colors (from left to right):  Color Binge, With The Band, In The Lobby, Leggy Legend, Bell-bottom Bells, Frock'n Roll.

Color Binge

Color Binge is described as an orange red and it is just that: a gorgeous color that applies easy.  In the picture I'm wearing 2 coats and you can tell it gives good coverage (which isn't usually the case with a color like this).

With The Band

With The Band is described as a toasted spice burgundy.  Personally I would describe it as a 'rusty' dark red.  But let the picture speak for itself.  Again 2 coats give great coverage.

In The Lobby

In The Lobby is described as an exotic cinnamon plum.  It is plum, not quite sure where the exotic an cinnamon come in though.  I applied 2 coats and as you can see, the result is quite 'patchy'.  I couldn't even it out in 2 coats but I'm pretty sure a third would've made the result a lot better.  Because of the 'patchiness' I don't think I'll be putting this one on a lot this fall, which is a shame really.

Leggy Legend

Leggy Legend is described as a 'glamourous alloyed bronze bombshell'.  It's a gorgeous bronze polish  but maybe a bit too orange for my skin tone.  I do love these kind of polishes.  2 coats are enough for great coverage and the formula isn't streaky at all.

Bell-bottom Bells

please excuse the awkward pinky pose ;-)

Bell-bottom Bells is described as a midnight indigo.  I'm not one to wear blue nails often, something about a bottle of blue polish just puts me off (no idea why really) but once I applied it, I was kind of fond of this one.  It will get a special place on top of my nail polish vanity so it's always in sight for fall.  I wonder how many times I'll grab it.

Frock'n Roll

close up of Frock'n Roll

And last but certainly not least: Fronck'n Roll.  Described as a lustrous shimmering rich expresso.  I was a bit surprised by this description since I only read it after I swatched it.  When you look at it closely there seems to be a bit of plum in there.  You can see it a bit on the close-up picture (which was initially taken to show you the shimmery part of the polish).  I love this color, I love these kind of shimmers in polishes and that's what fall is all about.  2 coats give perfect coverage and the polish has a great formula.  I already know I will be wearing this one a lot this fall.

top row: Color Binge, With The Band, In The Lobby

bottom row: Leggy Legend, Bell-bottom Blues, Frock'n Roll

Where to buy:

You can buy Essie in Belgium at DI and Kruidvat.  As of Tuesday sept 8, Kruidvat has a promotion where you get 20% off when you buy 1 Essie polish and 30% off when you buy 2.  Or you can order Essie at bol.com.

Catrice Colour Brightening Base Coat with Keratin

To me base coats are a necessity but not really the most of exciting products.  You need one to prevent colors from staining your nails and if you can combine that with a nail hardener to strengthen your nails than you’re all set.  I used to be a big fan of the Orly bonder formula but since  I’ve started using a nail hardener as a base coat, I really haven’t missed it.

There are some base coats out there that have a specific use and this one by Catrice is supposed to intensify your color.  I wanted to try it and I used my newly saved Essie Action as my guinea pig.

one coat of base coat on the left, two coats on the right

To me the base coat is just a white nail polish but with the correction fluid finish.  I can imagine putting a nice shiny topcoat on there and no one would notice the difference between a white polish and this base coat.  I put on 2 coats of it because 1 didn’t cover very well and I didn’t want to risk seeing the streaks through the polish.

So 2 coats of Colour Brightening Base Coat (01 On Top Of The Alpes) followed by 2 coats of Action by Essie.  You can definitely tell the difference.  This combination makes me even reassess my feelings for Action.  From hate to love?  Not really, but from hate to like?  Definitely. 

I can imagine you can get the same effect when using a normal white polish as a base but I’d opt for the Catrice version instead of using my white - mostly Essie and therefor more expensive - polishes.

Where to buy:

You can buy Catrice Colour Brightening Base Coat in the color 01 On top Of The Alpes at Kruidvat for €2,99.