Fame Fatal

Allow me to introduce my new nail colour passion. Fame Fatal by Essence. It's a perfect tomato red shade (the pic looks pinker than it is) as with all of this Colour & Go range from the line, it really does dry in minutes and above all else...it is €1.29!

The Friday Freebie

I've got a great giveaway for you today! To celebrate me winning Best Irish Blogger, the lovely people at Essence got in touch and are offering a hamper full of Essence products. Yes, A Hamper! It contains one of the Jumbo Metallic eye pencils that I posted about earlier this week...

One of their Soft and Natural foundations....

One of their lovely lip glosses...

and a Studio Nail File

Nail Fashion Stickers

Metallics Nail Polish

Metallics Gel eyeliner brush

Glitter Eye Pencil

Ooh, lucky you!

Leave me a comment below and I will announce the winner on Monday.

Essence Treasures

I'm on an Essence exploration at the moment. I'm in the process of testing various products from the range to see if they will fit well on my Beauty On Your Budget makeup course. So far, so good. I'm very impressed with their colour range. This week I've been wearing one of these Jumbo Eye Pencils from their Metallics range. I have shade 03 (on the right above) which is a soft cool copper. It is a really wearable tone that enhances all eye colours yet still looks subtle, therefore perfect for daytime. Just scribble it over your entire eye lid, blend at the edges, add mascara and you're set. It's fantastic for a super fast eye. To make it appear darker for night, simply colour in your lid with a deep brown kohl pencil first and apply the Jumbo pencil on top. Couldn't be easier!

I have developed quite a thing for nail polishes of late. Not unusual, you may say, but I had bare nails for years preferring the totally natural look. But lately I've become so much more adventurous and curious about all the exciting nail colour trends.One of my favourites from last year was the taupe-y/grey look. I did think however that after a couple of days they looked a bit dead so I tried the Walk of Fame shade from Essence as it looked a little more mauve than flat grey. And it is! The slight hint of mauve is much more flattering on a pale skin tone. It needs two coats and a top coat for extra glossiness but once those are in place, I love it!

And the extra benefit? It's only €1.29!

(image from shortnchic)

Kitted Out

I went to do some makeup explorations yesterday to find more cheap and cheerful bits and bobs to use on my Beauty on Your Budget makeup course. I have been fascinated by German brand Essence for some time now. For a pharmacy brand it is very comprehensive, very up to date with their shades and very, very reasonable. Ridiculously reasonable in fact! Considering the brutal Irish financial budget cuts yesterday will leave us all rather worse off, I reckon that so many of us will be looking to trim down their beauty expenditure so I'm looking forward to getting this course going in the new year and brands like Essence will flourish as long as people know how to use their products.

So, back to my explorations; I couldn't resist the Smokey Eyes Set in shade 01 which is a dead ringer for the Ligne de Chanel that I posted about last week, but at the amazing price of €2.99. It comprises of a gel liner on one side and a charcoal shadow with a slight shimmer on the other side. It contains a nifty little brush to apply them too. Now, I found that the best way to build an intense look is to cover the eye lid with the gel side; it's quite creamy so is very easy to work with. Blend it into the socket with your fingers for a soft, diffused look. Then add a layer of the dry shadow all over the gel layer. This sets the colour and keeps it in place. I was very impressed with it - it gives a great look and is impossible to beat price-wise.

The second kit that grabbed my attention was the Eyebrow Styling Kit. Most of the budget brands tend not to have such a kit, so I was happy to see the attention to detail in this little beaut! It contains two tones of highly pigmented brow shadow, a little slanted brush for precise application and to top it all off; you get three eyebrow stencils. Now, I wouldn't advice using the stencils to apply the colour, as you should only colour in what hair you have. But they are good guides for shaping your brows - just hold over the hair, fill in the shape very strongly with colour, remove the stencil and pluck away the hairs that are not coloured outside the stencils shape.

Price wise, I think it's €1.99, (I lost the receipt) but it's definitely under €3.

I will be definitely reviewing the range further; mascaras and eye shadows are next on the list!

*** I would be delighted if you could vote for me to win Best Irish Blogger here***

thank you