Essie Hide and Go Chic

There is always a sinking feeling that comes straight after you discover a product is worth the hype, because you know that you're going to need more, many more.

I always resisted Essie because of the price, I always decided I would rather get more polishes from a cheaper brand. The square bottles are embossed with the Essie logo and they look very chic and luxury, but they can't be that good, I thought.

I was wrong.

Hide & Go Chic was part of this years' Spring Collection and the shade I received in British Beauty Bloggers Latest in Beauty box. It is a deep azure blue, almost teal, colour. It is highly pigmented and if needed, one coat could do the job but two coats makes sure it's opaque.

The colour is not what has won me over, it is beautiful and unique, but it is the application that makes me want to go back for more. The formula for a start is great, it's silky smooth, and doesn't streak but the brush also makes the application really easy, is thin, round and shorter than other brands, so it fits on the nail bed just right.

I am on day four of wear with no chips yet, but some slight wear at the tips. I was a bit hasty with my application though, and didn't seal the tips but I think if I had done that they would still be perfect.

It is also worth noting that Essie is a 3-Free brand, which means they don't contain chemicals Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene, if you are concerned about these.

So I will adding Essie polish to my "to buy" list when I visit home in a few weeks. Essie can be found in Boots stores, and other places online, where they usually cost around £7.99 each.

If you have tried Essie polishes let me know which is your favourite and which I need to try next.

Sleek Nude collection

I know there are already lots of posts with reviews and swatches of this palette and this is my take. When I first saw it both on blogs and in store I didn’t have a ‘got to have it’ moment the way I have with previous collections released this year.

I have too many nudes if anything so I didn’t really need to add this to the collection. What eventually swayed me was the number of matte shades there are available. Those of you who have read my blog for a while will know that for a period my go to palette was the NYX One night in Morocco, which contains matte smoky shades. I like to use a mix of matte and shimmer shades, particularly for daytime/work looks which are more subtle.

First Row:
L-R: Nougat (matte beige), Nubuck (light matte grey), Cappucino (matte cream), Honeycomb (matte yellow-beige), Toast (matte peach-beige), Taupe (light shimmery beige-brown-pink)

Second Row:
L-R: Conker (shimmery purple), Moss (shimmery olive green), Bark (matte dark grey-brown), Mineral Earth (deep shimmery brown), Regal (matte deep purple), Noir (matte black)

Lets get the Urban Decay Naked comparison out of the way since I remember seeing posts suggesting this may be a dupe. It's not! The Naked palette contains fewer nudes and the colours are much more pigmented.

The lighter shades in this palette aren’t very pigmented which is a shame considering the pigmentation in the other palettes has been flawless. That being said I predominantly use the top two shades on the right hand side and although they are subtle they are great for work and day looks since they are so natural.

The selection of dark colours means that it is really easy to turn a day look into a night time look really quickly if you are in a hurry. I took this with me for a business trip recently and it was perfect for exactly that reason. My only criticism is some shades translate very similarly on the eye as can see in the swatches.

I think the colours in the palette will lend themselves well to all skin tones, I think it is always good to have a selection of naturals, even to aid with looks containing brighter colours for blending purposes.


The suede blush of the collection has quickly become my favourite. It is a warm taupe matte shade which translates onto the cheeks to give a nice glow. The blush is not very pigmented, but being my first Sleek blush I am not sure if this is an exception since I seem to remember on swatching the last two collection colours, that they were very pigmented.

Completing the collection is a pout polish in the shade ‘bare minimum’. I feel it is very redundant to do reviews of these pout polishes since they are always the same: sheer colour, great moisturising feel. I do think this particular colour will work well on top of other nude/pink lipsticks. 

I will be posting some looks with this soon. What do you think of the collection? If you are still undecided weather to pick it up, keep an eye out on my blog this week and might have something special for you ;-)

Rimmel Nude Delight

I have searched a long time for the perfect nude lip colour. Shade have either been more of a pink or made me look dead they are so pale (ELF natural nymph!).

The shade nude delight by Rimmel has been one I have had my eye on for a long time. I had such a fear that it was going to end up another waste of money that I kept picking it up and putting it back again, but I finally took the plunge when Rimmel were offering a free black liquid eyeliner with any purchase (I don’t need one, I’m just a sucker for a deal).

It turns out it is the perfect nude! I was so glad when I finally tried it, this I know will become my favourite lipstick and it definitely my ‘my lips but better’ shade.

It’s not a very hydrating lipstick especially considering it is labelled as the moisture renew range, but I can forgive that considering how much I love the colour. It isn’t very long lasting either, but again, forgivable.

I think it was around £6.49, so a standard price for a drug store lipstick, but I think I would always hold out for some sort of offer rather than pay the full price!

Sleek pout polishes

I wanted to swatch the latest limited Sleek pout polishes from the Mediterranean and Caribbean collections. Monte carlo is a sheer pink shade and Bonaire an orange. Both appear far brighter in the pot than on the lips but that being said the colour pay off is greater than that of more expensive glosses I have. 

I can see myself making a collection of all the limited editions which are released, I love the packaging and the image on the front of the tin which is something I think should have been carried over on the eyeshadow palettes. 

Monte Carlo

Bonaire

I see myself reaching for the pink shade more than the orange, which is a little brighter than the image shows, although with a light hand I think this could look very pretty.

I prefer to apply both of these with a brush to get the best colour pay off and allows you control the amount of colour. I plan on taking these glosses on holiday with me later this year. Not only are the colours great for the sunshine but I love the moisturising properties.

Which shade do you prefer?

QVC O.P.I Set

I mentioned in a previous post that I took advantage of a QVC today’s special value featuring O.P.I nails. The parcel arrived on Monday and I immediately tore it open and swatched everything!

A little disappointingly, the package arrived with very little in the way of pretty packaging. Just as well I was so excited about the contents. 

I’ll start with the less exciting stuff, O.P.I nail envy, which is just on time in terms of my nail condition, since they are peeling and breaking regularly. Also a cuticle gel, package for your handbag.

On to the colours, if you did read my last post, I primarily brought this set for the silver shatter polish (more about that later!). On air I was not too impressed with the colours. Having now seen them in the bottle and on my nails, I love them.

My favourite is the ‘houston we have a purple’ which is like no other shade I own, there is a strong pink to the shade, and in different lighting, the shade can look completely different, but always beautiful.

Surprisingly, I also loved the ‘guy meets gal-veston’ shade, which is a lovely coral, which I was expecting to be a lot more neon than it is. Also included was ‘you don’t know jacques’ a deep taupe colour, which is more of an autumn shade than a summer in my opinion, but will work great with neutral outfits. When I first saw the taupe polish on air, I thought it may be similar to ‘mushroom’ by Barry M, but as you can see from the image, mushroom is a lighter shade.



Finally, the star purchase in my eyes, the silver shatter. A beautiful, shimmery silver, which looks stunning on the nail. I love this more than the black shade and I think it will work perfectly in the summer and winter.

All of the polishes have a sheer finish, and need a minimum of two coats. Unfortunately, my base coat took an age to dry and in my impatience I applied the polishes anyway and found they took ages to dry too. I am assuming this is the base coat rather than the polish itself, otherwise this will be quite disappointing, but I  will comment on this again when I get round to a nails of the week post. 

Let me know what you think of the shades, and do you think the silver shatter will get everyone excited about shatter polishes again?

 N.B. Incase you were wondering, no it’s not my hands featured in all the pictures, I used my mum as a tester too! 

Sleek True Colour Lipsticks

Sleek added some new lipsticks to their true colour collection and are on promotion at Superdrug at 2 for £6. Having originally spotted them, I walked away with none overwhelmed with the choice. After seeing swatches on PinkSweetSz blog, I went back with a bit more direction, in mind getting exactly the same colour combination of peaches and cream and papaya punch that Sharmin combined so well. When I swatched them myself I got a bit scared with the colours, and played it safe with my choices.

I ended up picking up 4 lipsticks, only 3 of which were the new collection. However, this allows me to do a small comparison between the old and new! The packaging is very slick, and compact, great for keeping on you. You do get less product with the new collection though. By the way did anyone else struggle getting through that box they come in?!

I brought;

Barely There (sheen)

Bare All (matte)

Liqueur (sheen)

Rose Petal (sheen, old collection)

Right to left, barely there, rose petal, bare all, liqueur.

Top to bottom, rose petal, liqueur, barely there, and bare all. 

I consistency of the sheen colours of the new collection is very creamy and is more creamy than the old collection, but all feel very moisturising on the lips. The vibrancy of the colours is great, so you just need to apply according to how subtle or dramatic you want. I love the matte shade, more than I thought I would, it is not as creamy as the sheen finishes, but it still applies well. You do need to make sure your lips are well moisturised before wearing these though, as they do point out all the cracks!

Barely There

Bare All

Liqueur

Rose Petal

Overall I am really impressed, I have played it safe with my colour choices, there are some beautiful vibrant shades, but I am just not bold enough to wear them and don’t really know what suits me best. I am not sure how long the promotion runs for, but I would suggest getting down to Superdrug soon to make the most of it!  

ELF Lip Products Review

In ELFs recent facebook promotion I decided I would pick out a few of their lip products I have been wanting to try. Luckily the face Mist and Set was thrown in as a freebie which was an added bonus since this had been on my wish list since it came out, once I have tested this fully I will do a review on this separately.

Here is my small haul;

For starters, I love ELF. Their studio line products feature in my daily face and I have never been disappointed. That being said I haven’t actually ever purchased eye shadows or lip products from them, not for lack of want, but more never being able to decide what colours to go for.

I brought two new shades of the £1.50 lip glosses, in maltshake and pink kiss. Maltshake came out a lot darker than I expected but is still a nice colour, it is more a brown than the I was expecting. I really like these though so a big thumbs up for these two.

I also decided to go for the Baby Lips lipstick also from the £1.50 range. It is more like a gloss than a lipstick to me and with the pigmentation of my natural lips this added little colour. Although I do really like the combination of my Rimmel Lipliner (pink) all over my lips with this on top.

From the studio line I wanted to go for a lip-stain and thought I was getting a nice peach colour with first date. However, this was a lot brighter than I expected though and I can’t see myself wearing this, unless I find something to mix it with. I don’t think I will repurchase any of these as from what I have tested the product doesn’t act as a lip stain. As you can see in the image below, once you reapply the gloss it dilutes the colour lip stain which is not what you would expect.

I finally brought one mineral lipstick in bare brown. A much darker brown that I was expecting so I was worried initially to wear it as I thought it may be too dark for my skin tone but it is a really lovely colour. I will definitely be repurchasing these as they are so creamy and lovely to wear. On the negative side they aren’t very long lasting. This also looks lovely with the maltshake gloss on top to darken it a bit or candlelight (not shown) to lighten it.

My only complaint from this whole purchase has been that the website colours/pictures are terrible at giving an accurate representation. In this instance I was lucky that I liked most of the colours and they suited me, but that could have easily not been the case. I think ELF would benefit from a brief description of the colour on the website to help. Otherwise I still love the brand and I look forward to adding more of their products to my collection.

Thanks for reading!

Please see my YouTube video for more ramblings!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7k5TXY9Fc4