Swatches, review & nail art Essence Trend Edition Hello Autumn

Essence just came out with their new trend edition called "Hello Autumn".

With this collection Essence welcomes the autumn season with its beautiful golden sunshine and rustling leaves.

BeautiFALL!

The nail lacquers featured in this collection are all thermo nail polish and change color depending on the temperature.

But how many lacquers are in this collection?

The blog promo I received and the website as well show 5 lacquers.

So far I could only get my hands on 4 and haven't seen the 5th one anywhere.

The 4 lacquers I could get, are:

- 01 beauti-FALL red

- 02 meet my pumpkin

- 03 charlie seen in green

- 04 keep calm & go for a walk

And this would be the 5th lacquer:

- 05 autumn & the city

Well, you know me, if I can get my hands on the 5th lacquer anytime, I will update this post with it.

Review

I'm finally starting to love a good thermo polish. Especially with long nails cause it gives a perfect French manicure without any trouble.

These nail lacquers are so perfect for the fall season; great fall colors and the color change like fall leaves couldn't be found better.

I'm starting with the review so you won't be shocked when seeing the swatches :D

I had a lot of trouble catching the color change on camera. It was there in real life but subtle.

I experienced that my body temperature was low and it was a cold day as well...leaving me with mostly the "cold" color.

Holding my hand under warm water and resting my tips at some ice did show a bigger color change.

In the swatches you will see a subtle color change around the tips which was just slightly more visible in real life.

Now, if the bigger color change can only be achieved by holding your hand in hot water or a bucket full of ice...it isn't a strong thermo but my problem is that I can't really tell for sure.

Leaving you with my experience, I do have to say that even this subtle color change and simply the fall colors itself make this a beautiful fall collection.

For me all 4 are keepers!

Application was easy and these creme polishes were opaque with 2 coats.

Swatches

01 beauti-FALL red

02 meet my pumpkin

03 charlie seen in green

04 keep calm & go for a walk

Nail art

The first fall nail art is a fact.

And I tried something new for you!

Material:

- White nail polish

- Nail art brush

- Nail polish in fall colors (I of course used this collection)

- Scotch tape also known as magic/removable tape

- Pen or pencil or marker

- Scissors (preferably small and used for crafting)

- Tweezers

- Topcoat

Step 1:

Start with applying a white nail polish on all the nails. 

Let it dry completely and use a topcoat to speed up the drying time.

Step 2:

Place some pieces of tape (10 if you're going to do all 10 nails) on a flat surface. 

The pieces of tape can be as big as you want but around nail size is most handy.

Use a pen to draw fall leaves on the pieces of tape.

To prevent smudging and to make cutting easy, place another piece of tape on top of the drawed ones.

Step 3:

Use the scissors to cut out the fall leaves. 

And place the fall leave like a sticker on your nails.

Step 4:

Get your polishes and the nail art brush.

Paint small fall leaves around the outline of your sticker.

Wait for it to completely dry!!!

Step 5:

Use the tweezers or your nails to remove the stickers from your nails.

Step 6:

Apply topcoat to seal your design.

Swatches, review and nail art Catrice Limited Edition Metallure

Today I bring you the latest limited edition by Catrice, called Metallure.

Catrice: "Precious metals are conquering the late summer months and are being combined with the trend revival of the marble look. Fashion and accessories appear to be covered in a high shine and are being established as glamorous must-haves with a fashionable liquid look. Not futuristic, but fresh, natural and flowing. The limited edition Metallure is offering the matching beauty products to go with the metallic trend in August and September 2014. In addition to the classic colours of precious metals like gold, silver and copper, this collection also includes fresh pink, classical red and soft white."

This limited edition features 5 nail lacquers:

- C01 Alluring Red

- C02 Alluring Pink

- C03 Metalight

- C04 Metallicious

- C05 Metalfusion

Swatches

C01 Alluring Red

This is 2 coats of Alluring Red.

Alluring Red is a very pretty metallic red with a subtle shimmer.

Perfect for the Fall and Winter season.

It's pretty opaque and you could get away with just 1 coat.

C02 Alluring Pink

When I first saw this color I was wondering why this was included in this edition.

It looks more like a creme than a metallic lacquer.

Once it was on you can notice the same kind of shimmer from Alluring Red, subtle but it's there.

Alluring Pink is a quite sheer polish and with the 2 coats in the picture above you still have some tip see through. It doesn't bother me that much.

C03 Metalight

Metalight is a metallic warm rosé gold.

Very streaky which can be expected with metallic lacquers.

This is 2 coats but you could get away with 1 coat.

C04 Metallicious

Metallicious is a metallic gold with some green undertones as I can see it.

Again streaky and pretty much a 1 coater.

I used 2 coats for the swatch above.

C05 Metalfusion

Metalfusion is a metallic dark silver/dark grey.

Streaky and you could get away with 1 coat.

Swatch is 2 coats of Metalfusion.

Review

I love metallic lacquers but weird enough I feel myself reaching more to the first 2 lacquers (red and pink) which are more subtle shimmer polishes than metallic.

For me the colors aren't very unique but this time a year (end of Summer) it is refreshing to have some color change towards the Fall season.

The opaqueness of these lacquers is really great. You could mostly get away with just 1 coat.

Drying time however took some longer than I expected, especially when you rather quickly apply a second coat.

The brushes weren't the worst but I still think they could improve it.

I quote Catrice: "The extra-broad reservoir brush captures just the right amount of polish required for each nail and delivers streak-free results like a pro."

Now, I don't want to call myself a pro, but I've applied lacquers enough to state that this is not streak-free!

Again, somthing I don't expect with metallic lacquers, but also something you shouldn't promise if you can't live up to it.

Verdict: Not a bad collection considering I want to keep 3 out of 5.

Nail art

I wanted to keep it close to the metal look.

Featured nail art by Catrice is a water marble but you all know how I really hate love water marbling.

I went for the dry brush technique instead.

You can find a great tutorial here by Lucy's stash

I used diagonal brush strokes creating multiplication signs.

Nailpolis 1,000,000 Facebook fans nail art

Hi all!

I'm back :-D

The kids are going to school again, vacation is over, the floor is painted and the house redecorated.

Busy, busy, busy, but finally I'm back with a nail art!

I probably mentioned Nailpolis before which is an online museum of nail art and community dedicated to all things nails.

Not only can you share your nail art/swatches with the rest of the world but they also host great contests, give aways and take interviews with some of the members (which could be your favorite blogger ;-D)

As it happens I've been interviewed as well. The interview can be found here.

Today's nail art is my entry for Nailpolis 1,000,000 Facebook fans contest.

Entering this contest means you receive the limited edition 1,000,000 badge and a $5 gift card to spend on nail polish...yay!!

They also choose 3 winners to be featured on their Facebook cover photo and those will receive a $20 gift card.

As inspiration for my nail art I took the limited edition 1,000,000 badge.