Tuesday 20 May 2014

Essence 106 Free Hugs Swatch and Review (Bonus: Psuedo Ladurée Inspired Nail Art)

I am back from a long weekend and I am supposed to feel refreshed! And I do sort of but now I have a gazillion things to do, ahhhh! I'm pretty excited about a lot of the things on my plate though so that's always a good thing. I just wish I had more time for my own things because I am thinking that I would love to make a hardcover printed photo book of my trip to Europe! Maybe soon. In the meantime, I am back for Cheap Polish Tuesday - today I have a polish that I bought from my trip to Europe. As some of you know, I am a huge Essence fan but not a lot of colours are available here in Canada. In fact we only have a quarter of the selection. You can get Essence polish in Ireland from budget fashion store Penneys (Primark in England) as well as a pharmacy store called Cora's. At Penneys, they're priced at €1.79 (which is under the $5 CAD mark to qualify for Cheap Polish Tuesday!)

Essence 'Free Hugs' (because yes, sometimes I do buy polish for the name sake!) is a baby pink creme with enough vibrance to get out of the pastel category. It applies very smooth and opaque and can possibly be swatched in one coat but I used two for good measure. My swatch below is of two coats with no top coat:

Essence Free Hugs Swatch

Essence Free Hugs Swatch

Essence Free Hugs Swatch

Essence Free Hugs Swatch

Essence Free Hugs Swatch

For funsies, I wanted to do some sort of fun nail art because like I mentioned, I have a bit of a mad week with photos! My boyfriend surprised me with Ladurée macarons upon my arrival and I brought the box back to store all the polaroid photos we took together. I've been staring longingly at it since I've been back, gahhh! It's not the right shade of pink, but I got my dotting tool and quickly made this polka dot outline nail art. I used a Kiss striper brush for the black outlines. Even though they don't match the Ladurée perfectly, I think it's still cute (even though it's typically pretty loud for me!):

Essence Free Hugs Polka Dot and Outline Nail Art

Essence Free Hugs Polka Dot and Outline Nail Art

Essence Free Hugs Polka Dot and Outline Nail Art

Essence Free Hugs Polka Dot and Outline Nail Art

I've got a wicked ton of Essence polish but I am pretty stoked about it because I plan on making this blog less of a swatch blog and more of a nail art blog. I love doing up swatches but sometimes I feel like no one cares about an OPI polish that was released two years ago and that's pretty much my whole polish collection - one giant backlog. Anyway, hope you liked FREE HUGS! Right now, I'd give free hugs to everyone because I'm freaking out here, haha!

What do you think of FREE HUGS? Do you ever buy polish for its name, or is that just my weirdness?

9 comments:

  1. I love Free Hugs and the nail art is so perfect!

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    1. Free Hugs is definitely a keeper - totally a great staple for all the nail art to come!

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  2. Hello barbie pink! And wow I love it! I really wish we had more selection here, but I shouldn't complain because at least we have some.

    Also love the nail art you did! I'm at the point where nail art is a 2 day process cause I just can't sit long enough without peeing, lol! But hey, whatever works right? :)

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    1. A lot of the colours I saw over in Ireland are here now like the textured polishes! Those just came to my Shoppers this week.

      Dotting tool nail art is super quick! I bet you could get away with doing it in one day if you did polka dots. :)

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    2. Ooh did you get the new bigger Essence display? It's not at my local Shoppers so I'll have to check out other locations in the city.

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    3. No we didn't get any bigger ones! Are some Shoppers getting bigger ones!? Gahhhh I need to see! I hope we do!

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    4. Yeah apparently some "select" shoppers are getting an expanded display that is about twice the size of the one we have now.

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    5. Ooh I found a list of the locations: http://www.sarahvelasco.com/2014/03/essence-cosmetics.html

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    6. Waaaah no where in BC! But to be fair, I did see all of that and I have the glow in the dark top coat, lol, because why not.

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