Essence Me & My Ice Cream Shimmer Pearls

If I could tell you how absolutely long I waited for this trend to hit South African stores, you'd wonder why I am so crazy about this product... Well let me tell you why - this beautiful Essence creation is a dupe product for the famous Guerlain Meteorites, it is indeed much more affordable yet I've noticed quite a few people complain about how they couldn't find it anywhere. There is something I really really like about this product, it could be everything in fact... It is a perfect product I guess, and here is why! 

The packaging: Simple with beautiful pastel colours, makes this product all girly and even more irresistible to get your hands on. The clear tube makes your eyes twinkle as you look at the colourful pearly beads in the colours of yellow, pink, green, purple  and peach while the screw on lid is a pink pastel colour with text on the top. 

What does Essence say about this product: "Multi coloured shimmer pearls for illuminating finish on face and body. Shade : 01 I-CY U" 

 

What I think of the product: Firstly... As soon as you open the tub, you get this sweet candy and vanilla scent which is present thanks to the pearly beads. The shimmer beads are small little balls of coloured shimmer ( at first I thought they were colour correcting also, but I didn't see much of that... So I wouldn't say they should be taken as colour correcting). 

So these beads are quite shimmery in the tub, but not so much on a brush, because once dusted on skin, it doesn't really give skin the look you get when using an actual illuminator. The trick to it is grab yourself a fluffy powder brush (I used the Essence Powder Brush) and work yourself a good swirl in the beads...

You'll notice a fine white powder, brush it over skin and let the magic begin. I'd have to be honest and say...these shimmer pearls aren't too over powering, of course that doesn't disappoint me because I think it gives my skin a lovely soft glow, which is perfect for the upcoming months. Plus it would be perfect to use over your neck and décolleté as well as your face to add a soft glow and luminous look, do don't expect big sparkles, because this is a soft shimmer which I really appreciate because it is hard to get this on the market now days. 

My final verdict: If a soft glow is what you looking for... Get this beauty right now! It is very limited edition so if you spot it, make sure you grab it off the shelf! It retails at R45 which I think is fairly reasonable for the type of product you're getting as well as it lasting quite long because you don't really need a lot of this product to get a soft shimmery glow. 

 

Essence Me & My Ice Cream Range

Essence Me & My Ice Cream trend has been one of my favourite trends I've viewed online, and I must admit, I waited very patiently to hear when it will be arriving in South African stores. The good news is that Essence South Africa announced that the Me & My Ice Cream range will hit stores this March! I am so excited because I have my eye set on almost everything from the range! I've included some of the products I can't wait to get my hands on as well as the products from the range, I left out the nail stickers, but you can always view it online if you are interested in them!

1. Ice Bomb Cream Blush (R39.95) : Cream dream! This blush with a creamy formula and innovative curvature feels creamy and powdery at the same time. The intensive apricot shade offers a naturally beautiful, fresh complexion. head out into the sunshine – with a portion of your favorite ice cream!

2. Ice Ice Baby Lip Balm (R29.95): Let’s twist! These unique lip balms are available in three different colour combinations: lavender-vanilla, apricot-beige and pink-mint. The colors blend perfectly upon application and look really cute, too! They pamper your lips with shea butter and jojoba oil as well as leaving behind a delicious fragrance.
Available in:

• 01 ice ice baby
• 02 icylicious
• 03 ben & cherries

3. Ben & Cherries Nail Polish (R24.95) : Strawberry, sweet woodruff, blueberry or apricot? The long lasting nail polishes in gorgeous pastel shades like pink, mint, lavender and apricot are sure to put you in the mood for ice cream – and summery nails, of course!
Available in:

• 01 ben & cherries
• 02 always in my mint
• 03 ice, ice baby
• 04 icylicious

4. I-cy u Shimmering Pearls (R44.95): shimmering scoops of ice cream… The softly shimmering pearls with a light color dispersion are perfectly aligned with the pastel shades of this trend edition. They give your face and neckline a subtle glow and can even cover-up fine imperfections as well as slight redness thanks to the different nuances.

5. Conehead Baked Eyeshadow (R39.95): Icy eyes! The longlasting, baked eyeshadows in soft caramel, apricot and mint have a creamy texture and a cool marble effect to conjure-up a summery eye make-up style with a light shimmer.
Available in:

• 01 cone head
• 02 icylicious
• 03 always in my mint

6. I Scream Ice Cream Hand Wipes (R16.95): Ice cream cone to go? To make sure that your hands are fresh and clean after you enjoy your treat, the me & my ice cream hand wipes come in a practical, re-sealable packaging that’s sure to fit into any purse and they have a delicious strawberry ice cream fragrance, too!

Which products from the Essence Me & My Ice Cream Range will you be getting?

 

 

 

Friday Favourite Five

It is Friday again, and time for another round of Friday's Favourite Five. This week I've selected five of my items which I would suffer greatly without, these items are:

1. Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Blush: I love the shimmering effect it gives my face and I often use it as a highlighter, the compact is super cute and I love it!

2. Elizabeth Arden Red Door Lip Gloss: This rich pigmented red gloss is there for when I need that amazing boost of colour, it brings instant gorgeous to lips within seconds.

3. My Trinket Box: I purchased this trinket box from an India Fair, these boxes are quite common (if you see images from my blog, you'll notice I have three in different sizes) I use my trinket box to keep earrings or dots when I'm traveling.

4.Essence Breaking Dawn Pigments- Edward's Love: I chose this pigment as my favourite eye pigments because the colour is a deep charcoal grey which contains glitter, it is perfect if you're trying to do a Smokey eye with a twist.

5. Lee Stafford Shine Spray: I had a miniature can which soon led me to purchasing the big can, it is an amazing spray and makes hair have a beautiful glossy shine.

 

 

Essence Stay Matt Lip Cream

I received this lip cream in the shade 02 Smooth Berry, which is a beautiful deep pink and red mix shade, exactly what I like because I enjoy shades of red as lip make up. The lip cream comes in a small tube which is clear so you can see the cream colour which you're getting, while the lid is a beautiful silver lid which I thought was top cute. 

As soon as you open the lip cream tube, you get a lovely sweet vanilla scent which is so dreamy, I really love the scent, it's light and not overwhelming but you know it's there! The part I really like about this lip cream, is that it's quite a creamy lip cream, it's not thick or sticky but it's creamy in texture, and just one swipe of this lip cream will leave lips in a beautiful even lip colour. 

This lip cream is meant to be matte, which is quite an effect it gives lips. I find it to be semi matte on my lips, but my friends say it's much more matte to them. The lip cream glides on lips with ease and gives lips a lovely matte colour. The gloss is very intense and the 02 Sooth Berry is quite a dramatic colour. I would compare this gloss as a much much more affordable Glossy Stain, because the colour pigments are very rich and stay on lips for quite some time, while the glossy fades into a matte finish. 

I would really recommend you give this lip cream a try, it comes in quite a few shades which you can try, plus the lip cream is like a cream lipstick which sets in a matte finish. This lip cream doesn't dry out lips, nor does it make lips feel uncomfortable. It's perfect for every lady and should be everyone's budget matte lip cream! Mainly because everyone is going for a matte look now days. 

Manicure Monday

This week I decided to go with a slight manicure twist, I wanted plain nails, but then I also wanted something to glitter and sparkle, so I chose my favourite Essence shade called 149 Hello Marshmallow! and my favourite Nails Inc shade called 451 Bloomsbury Square.

Essence : 149 Hello Marshmallow!

 

 

The Essence nail polish is a colour & go polish, which means its quite quick drying, which is something I really love about the range. The shade 149 Hello Marshmallow! is just as cute as it sounds, the shade is a beautiful lavender colour which has a very fine shimmer, which is less visible once the polish has dried up. I really like the Essence brush because its wide enough to reach in all the corners of my nail and give me a beautiful even shade which has no messy sides *sigh* who am I kidding, I messed all around the edges! The bottle has recently gone a change, which makes it quite a cool bottle, a bit of a pear shape, but gives a good grip. The polish itself is quite a strong pastel colour, and only needs around two shades to look the full colour on the bottle, the polish has a lovely glossy finish, thanks to the think textured polish.

Nails Inc: 451 Bloomsbury Square

 

 

Second up is my Nails Inc Polish, yes my mother almost freaked when I said I paid R120 for this polish. This polish comes in the shade 451 Bloomsbury Square which I really love, it's part of the Special Effects range, the polish has 3D glitter. Well to me it's a really fancy way of saying textured glitter, the polish has purple fine glitter and hot pink rough glitter, which once painted gives a texture (something like the liquid sand). The polish has quite a lovely texture which is a bit thin, but glides on fingers perfectly! I love the bottle style because its really eye catching, especially the shimmer mirror effect lid. The brush for the Nails Inc polish is a bit small, but I appreciate it for the hard to reach corners, which I can proudly say this time I didn't mess around my fingers! This nail polish isn't actually meant to be used by itself, because it needs a base coat to show the proper bottle colour, so would be really nice if it was used just as a top coat. I used two coats of this polish to get the desired bottle colour, which I found reasonable.

Today's Manicure Monday

 

I've decided to go with a slight twist, I painted all my nails with two coats of the Essence 49 Hello Marshmallow! and then painted my left and right hand ring finger with one coat of the Nails Inc Special Effects 451 Bloomsbury Square. I only used one coat of the 451 Bloomsbury Square because I wanted the lilac to show slightly as a base coat!

Essence Matt Fixing Compact

Nobody loves an oily looking face, which is why Essence created the perfect solution to solve the oily and shiny finish we have on your face. The new Essence all about matt fixing compact powder is an amazing compact powder which contains fine translucent powder which can be brushed or sponged onto our face, to create a smooth, matte complexion.

The colourless powder is perfect for anyone because you don't have to find time to match your shade because its for all skin tones. I find this translucent powder perfect for giving skin a natural finish all day long. I've used this compact with my BB Creams, Foundations and even over regular moisturiser to avoid an oily look.

The fixing powder comes in a clear glass compact. The actual powder has an embossed design which I think is really cute. I've been using this compact for just over two months and I can say this product is absolutely amazing! It gives skin a lovely natural finish with a soft feel to skin.

 

I would really recommend you give this product a try because it's affordable and does an amazing job keeping skin matte all day long! Plus the compact is slim and can fit in handbags, make up bags and clutch bags for touch ups on the go. The only down fall is the compact doesn't come with a sponge applicator, however it's not hard to get one, so it's not such a big deal. 

Glamour to Go Eyeshadow Palette

I have this eye shadow kit in glamour to go. This amazing eye shadow palette has eight beautiful shades of colours which shimmer and sparkle in the night. This eye shadow palette is meant to be used for a glamorous eye make up, preferably in the night.

The palette has a beautiful clear and silver compact, with a beautiful silver print on the lid which flips back. The palette has eight mini eye shadows and a cute dual brush which has a sponge applicator and an eye shadow brush on either side. They help apply the eye shadow well, and make blending the eye shadow much easier.

The eye shadow has different shades of purple and silver which is why it's my favourite at the moment! However I also love the peach shade and a shade of blue to blend in here and there. I haven't created many different looks, but occasionally I experiment with the palette. I simply love how these eye shadows have such rich pigments which shimmer and shine in the light, they also give eyes intense colour which is always what I'm looking for in an eye shadow.

I would really recommend you give this eye shadow palette a try, the colours are long lasting and rich in colour. These are perfect to get the best look for a dramatic night time look for anyone. Plus the colours are easy to blend so you can get any look you're trying to achieve.