Essence Twins Reloaded Edward and Bella - Swatches and Review ♥

Press Sample

Happy Thursday! I am going to my nephew's last junior high concert tonight (he plays the violin) - it's so hard to believe he is going to be in high school soon! Anyway, I wanted to make sure I got a post up today so it's earlier than my normal posting time. 

If you have been into nail polish and nail polish blogs for very long you know about the original Essence Twins Collection. They were super popular and have since been discontinued and are extremely hard to find. Essence brought back some of the fan favorites - sort of. I say "sort of" because, while the names are the same, the polishes are not. But they are just as gorgeous! 

Essence Twins Reloaded Edward and Bella - in the shade

More information and swatches after the jump!

Essence Romeo

Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou, Romeo? LOL OK, that was a lame intro but when is there going to be any other time I could use it? LOL But seriously, I am still looking for my real-life Romeo, anyone know of one that's available? ;-)

I am absolutely in love with the Essence Twins. I only have 3 (Romeo and Edward & Bella) but I really want all of them. The cremes in the Twins are soooo buttery smooth they are nearly one-coaters. Romeo is a nice grey creme with a nice shiny finish. There's really nothing else to say except you need it. LOL

Romeo will be serving as the base for my next post which I think you will all love!! The following is 2 coats of Romeo with one coat of Orly Won't Chip.

I hope you love Romeo!! I think you're going to love what I pair with him!!

Essence Applause, Applause

Hello everyone!! I am so sorry my posting has been so sporadic lately!! I miss posting for you guys every day!! I will do my absolute best to get back to every day posts, it's just hard with life being so crazy right now! If you follow me on my Facebook page you know that I broke a nail yesterday. I broke it badly, it was diagonal and to a point. LOL So it was time to chop them all down, so you will be seeing some super nubbins today. 
I decided it was time to post one of my polishes I got in my swap with Solange and of course I wanted to use the red one first. LOL As per usual, my camera fails at capturing the awesomeness of this polish. The red in the pics is much more orange, in real life this is a cool-toned bright red and the glitter is ah-mazing. I hope to get a new camera this Spring and if I do be prepared to see a LOT OF RED AND GLITTERS!! LOL I love red and glitter but I don't use them much right now because I can't capture their full beauty. Now on to the beautiful polish!!
If you are not familiar with the Essence Circus, Circus Collection I will give you a little info. There are four polishes in the collection (I have 3 and still need Don't Feed The Tiger if anyone has access to it) and each polish is double-sided with a creme on one side and a coordinating glitter on the other. Applause, Applause is a red creme with a red glitter consisting of micro-glitter and larger square glitter. I topped it with Julep Fast Dry Topcoat, this was not a hungry glitter so I didn't use Gelous.
In the first 3 pics are 2 coats of the creme and then the other I put 1 coat of glitter on top. :-)

Thank you for this awesome polish Solange!!!

Essence True Love

Time for another one of my Essence Vampire's Love polishes!! 
My parents recently celebrated their 35th Anniversary and my brother and I took them out to celebrate this weekend. I needed a dark purple polish and I figured one name True Love was perfect for the occasion. I am in love with this polish. It is the perfect dark, vampy, shimmery purple.
The coverage was amazing with 2 coats and I topped it off with Orly Won't Chip.

What do you think of this polish? I think it is absolutely gorgeous!!

Essence The Dawn is Broken with Stamping!!!!

The first day after holo week, you know I was itching to wear some of my other new polishes! LOL I could not wait to get the Essence Vampire's Love collection on my nails that I got in my swap with my friend Traci (from The Trace Face Philes). I couldn't decide which one to wear (they are all so pretty!!) and my friend Jacki from Adventures in Acetone requested The Dawn is Broken, so here it is Jacki!!!

TDIB is a gorgeous grey with dark grey/silver flecks that make it very interesting. The formula was amazing. I have not used very many Essence polishes (yet) but the few that I have used I am very impressed with. The formula is like butter, it was opaque in 2 coats and the brush is very nice.

If you saw my mini haul post earlier today you know that I picked up the Orly Nail Rescue Kit at Sally's. This kit includes nail glue, acrylic powder and a buffer. It is meant to help repair a split or minor break so you can keep the length of your nail and not have to chop it down. It also says it can help reinforce weak nails, which I definitely have. I have not had a break since I got it but I did apply a thin layer to the tips of all of my nails to help reinforce them. The buffer that came with it is too smooth in my opinion, or maybe I put the powder on too thick. Some of my nails look 'lumpy' and it is driving me nuts. I will be smoothing them down tonight so hopefully I will be happier once I get them all smooth. I can definitely tell they are stronger. I have recently started taking supplements to help strengthen my nails so hopefully I won't have to use the powder very long. So I apologize that some of my nails look a little thick and lumpy in these pics.

After applying the acrylic powder and smoothing it (or when I THOUGHT it was smooth) I applied Orly Calcium Shield because it is nice and thick, it did help camouflage some of the ridges. I also bought Orly Won't Chip at Sally's and I used it as my topcoat for this mani. I am very impressed with this, it is nice and thick and made my polish SUPER SHINY. I apologize for the shiny cuticles in the pics, I had just applied cuticle oil. LOL Better than dry cuticles, right?

Whew, that was a lot of jabbering, but I thought everyone would be interested in these products. For the stamping I used Bundle Monster plate BM01 with OPI Black Onyx. I wanted to do a medieval-themed mani, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The cross on  my ring finger didn't turn out perfectly but I guess that adds to the old-world look. LOL I have been getting a lot of requests for more stamping, I love stamping but just hadn't had much time to do it lately. So, this is for all of you who have requested it! And I will do my best to stamp more often!

First up, the polish on its own.

And now for the stamping. :-)

What do you think of this mani? It's not my normal style but I really like it! I hope you do to!!

My two obsessions collide....nail polish and Twilight!

Good morning everyone! I was so excited for this post that I just couldn't wait until this afternoon to post it. :) Before I got into following polish blogs I had no idea that there was a whole world of amazing nail polish out there that the US has absolutely no access to! I have seen so many amazing brands from all over the world....from Brazil to Europe to Asia....it's amazing! Of course, being a polish addict, I want all of these brands but to get them you usually have to know someone who lives where they are sold. I am a member of a Facebook group with some fellow polish addicts, and there are women there from all over the world....this creates an opening for international nail mail!

A few months ago I found out that Essence (a brand sold in Europe) has a collection called "Nail Art Twins". This collection is a made up of polish duos...one is a creme and the other is a glitter topper and they have names of famous couples. When I found out one of the sets was Edward and Bella I HAD to have them, if for nothing else but the name. LOL Lucky for me the set is absolutely GORGEOUS! My friend Ruth from Spain sent these and I am so glad she did!

I decided to do this post today because one month from today, on November 18th, Breaking Dawn Part 1 will FINALLY be released in theaters in the US! I can't wait! And what better way to celebrate than Edward and Bella nail polish!?

I apologize for so many pics....I literally took over 100 pics of this mani and it was hard for me to narrow it down out of the good ones. LOL

First up is Bella - a gorgeous turquoise cream that applies flawlessly. It is nearly a one-coater although I used 2. The first pic is truest to the actual color. I topped it off with a coat of Orly Sec 'N Dry...it was a little on the "satin" side by itself.

But then we add Edward and it is an amazing combo! The first 2 pics are indoor shots and truest to the color. The outside shots show the sparkle really well but also kind of washed the color out.

Look at that gorgeous Edward sparkle in the sun! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself. LOL)

Blurred to show sparkle

What do you think of Edward and Bella? Even of you're not a Twilight fan, these are still amazing polishes to own! Who else is counting down the days until November 18th?!