Essence 04 My Sweet Escape- Road Trip LE

Hello, meet my very first thermo effect nail polish! I am so glad that Essence jumped on this bandwagon, and don't worry if you missed this- there will be some thermo effect polishes in the new Essence standard range as well!
This would be a pretty polish on its own, a pretty shade of nude but not a boring nude, more like a rosy nude, if it makes any sense.
For the sake of science I stuck my hand in the refrigerator. I mean, I had to test if the effect worked, right?
Aaand, guess what, it did!
Capturing it on photos was a bit hard and it doesn't give justice to the real color, but here it is: a dark rose with grey/blue undertones.

And then I put my hand under warm water. The color was a warm, bright salmon pink. The photos don't give it too much justice, though. But you can definitely see the color change!

FAQ:

Why is it of a such dark pink even before the refrigerator thing?

Because I have the coldest hands ever.

Does it work with a topcoat on too?

Yes, I put the seche vite on one hand and nothing on the other. It worked perfectly.

Do I recommend it?

Hell yes. 
 

Christmas beauty-related gifts

Hello! Are you enjoying the holidays? I hope so!
I wanted to show you three beauty products I received this year, who are also my first UD products, not counting the nail polishes.
Do they really need an introduction?

The Naked Basics was on my wishlist for many reasons: it's small, travel friendly and contains beautiful nude matte shades. Small nude palettes are very popular now, but they aren't matte...
I've tried it on Christmas day, and it's just great. The colors are very pigmented (Faint is my new fave brown) and Walk of Shame is a "my lid but better".  I know Venus is a frost/subtle shimmery color, but It's perfect for highlighting needs, so I'm not gonna complain. I can't wait to learn many combinations and makeups with this.

The UD 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencils are my  new favourite pencils ever. Unsurprising, I know.
Once, I was at Sephora and tried some of them. I fell in love with Uzi, a wonderful gunmetal (with a very appropriate name too). They're soft and allow me to do precise, smooth lines as eyeliner. Uzi might seem too glittery, but it's just metallic and it's a perfect day shade. It has cold undertones and it's just fantastic.
The other one is Invasion, a dark forest green, matte and with cold/blue undertones. It's hard to express how I feel finally owning it, not only because I've desired it for months, but because of the story behind it.
Once I was looking at some online swatches of the UD pencils (I think it was on Sparkage's blog) and was struck by certain color combinations and their names. The matte grey of Desperation, the blue-green of Invasion, the weapon-like grey of Uzi... I fell in love with the color scheme, and started writing a story based on it (inspired by the names too). I haven't finished it yet, but the placeholder title for it is Invasion...
(I plan on connecting that shade to one of my character's outfit).
I feel as if simply staring at it and owning it will help me writing my story.

I hope this doesn't sound too weird... for now, happy holidays! And don't forget to tell me f you received some beauty products for Christmas..

Essence Sparkle Sand Effect nail polish 163- Hey Nude!

When the OPI Bond Girls collection came out I fell in love with many of its polishes, mainly Pussy Galore and Jinx. So when I found a Kiko polish that was Jinx's dupe, it became mine! (It was Kiko 640).
A dupe of Pussy Galore didn't seem to exist. Until Essence came out with this.
Now, let's be honest, it's not a perfect dupe: Pussy Galore is pinker, Hey Nude is more nude-ish (as you could guess). PG is pearly and has no big glitters, HN does.
However, it's exactly what I wanted: a pink/nude shiny sand effect polish. The glitters are quite big, but it's still an office-friendly shade imho. I love how they reflect the light!
I applied three coats for full coverage. If you want less coats, you might want to use a base, and I wonder how it looks on a pinker base, since it can be quite sheer.
Drying time, as most sand effect polishes, was pretty good.
Side note: if you have very long nails the white part of the nail might still be visible under this polish.

I'm still going to give it an A, well done again, Essence.

Corset Nails v2 and a gift from Argentina!

I redid my old corset nails! It went so much better than the other time... I used Essence's tip painter in black from the Tribal Summer LE. Those tip painters are damn useful, the design came out very precise this time.

My cousin went to Argentina for an art exhibition and brought me a nail polish! The shade is Are We There Yet?, a brick rose with gold/pink shimmer. I can't wait to try it! She said she chose it because it reminded her of the place (the color of the houses, and so on).

Orly Red Flare

I wanted to keep this for the beginning of the university lessons, especially since it's a serious, fall/winter color. But I could not resist, it's my first Orly after all!
I must say, there's a great difference from cheap Essence polishes. The formula is just great and has good coverage, almost an one coater. It's also very shiny.

The color is a bit darker irl, the bright daylight makes it look lighter. 
It requires, however, super smooth nails since it makes the nail "lines" very visible.
I'm very happy with this purchase, it's a beautiful shade of red with a retro, serious look.

Vote: A. If you're a person that wears mostly red and "adult" colors (no glittery, only nudes and dark colors...) you should consider purchasing this. I can't wait to see how long it lasts on my nails!

Kiko 372 is on my ring finger, and I'm going to use this as a base for nail art.

Kiko 638 Sugar Mat Nail Lacquer

Pretty much every blogger in a country where Kiko shops can be found has been interested in Kiko's last polish news, the Mirror and the Sugar Mat series, also because of the 20% promo. At the beginning I was only interested in Sugar Mat polishes, then I also bought a Mirror one, for stamping reasons.

I would have loved a grey Sugar Mat polish, since the great concrete-like effect, so I bought the closest color to it: taupe. I tried the black one but didn't like the little glitters, so onwards with taupe!
You can see it on my ring finger.
Personally, I don't think that the sand effect is annoying to touch at all, I kinda spent the whole day touching my nail, it feels nicely.

I apologize for the conditions of my cuticles, it doesn't matter how much I moisturize my skin, winter still hates me.

The other polishes are Nude Dude by H&M and Money Maker by Sephora.

Christmas gifts review part 2

This is actually a double review!
The second nail polish I received for Christmas was OPI The Living Daylights, from the James Bond special collection. It's also my first OPI polish!
The glitters are copper, gold, green and silver, and they're very big. The brush catches lots of glitters, this is just one coat. I wanted to see how it looked on different colors so I did this skittle mani with a nice nail polish set purchased at H&M.
The H&M polishes are Golden Days, Nude Dude, Peacock Green and Purple Potion. The black you see it's actually a beautiful gunmetal shade from Kiko, the 382.
The Living Daylights looks amazing on gunmetal, grey and, surprisingly, on purple. Ok, fine, it looks nice on every color. I can't say the same for the H&M polishes, their colors are great (I'm in love with Peacock Green) but they aren't really long lasting, after a couple of days, well you can see what happened on the Nude Dude finger. And that's a pity because it's a beautiful nude.
In the H&M set there were two more glitter polishes that I haven't tried yet.

So, the OPI polish isn't what I'd call a must have but it's fun, and it made a perfect New Year's Eve mani. Unfortunately, as many glitter polishes, it's a pain in the neck to remove.
The H&M polishes make a good gift (the packaging, man, a beauiful but simple golden box with a peacock, who's not to love that) and the color are very well selected. Plus, it's cheap,  around 7 euros for 6 polishes. I wish they lasted for more days but, alas, you can't have everything.