Essence Live.Laugh.Celebrate Trend Edition

Hey Guys and Dolls,

As you all know I'm a huge fan of Essence Cosmetics, I've been using it for years, all through school and even now I have so many favourites. I was surprised to hear that they were celebrating their 15th anniversary this year, jeez I feel so old.

To celebrate this momentous occasion Essence Cosmetics brought out the Live.Laugh.Celebrate Trend Edition and I loved it. The stand out product for me is their My Must Haves Palettes that are glammed up. There is also new shades specifically from the Live.Laugh.Celebrate collection to go in them.

I went for a eyeshadow, highlight, blush, lip base, lip powder and setting powder and they are all amazing. The eyeshadow that I've been using the most is called T.G,I.F and its a limited edition matte brown shade. It's beautiful all over the lid for a natural look.

These palettes are available in 4 pan and 8 pan, I bought bought as they are really inexpensive at €1.90. It's €1.90 for each individual pan aswell so that's pretty amazing too. I'm sure this collection is still available in Penneys so snap it up while you still can.

Laura<3

The Lo Down - Essence My Must Haves Palette

Hey Guys and Dolls,

I recently purchased the Essence My Must Haves palette in Penneys in Dundrum Town Centre and I'm so glad I did as it's so amazing! The palette itself costs under €5 so it's cheap as chips, then each individual eyeshadow costs around €1.90 I think. If it's different I'll let you all know.

I bought the eight pan eyeshadow palette but it is also available in a smaller version if that suits you better. I got three shadows this time to fill up my palette and they are actually a fairly big size and they are very pigmented. Sometimes I get disappointed with the pigmentation of some shadows from Essence Cosmetics but these are actually top notch. I picked up the shades, 05 Cotton Candy, 07 Mauvie-Time! and 01 Go Goldie!, of course they are all neutral shades (my favourite) there so pretty. I'm glad I picked these up! I don't think the two lighter shades show up too well on camera but there a gorgeous shimmery gold and pinky colour.

All in all I'm really impressed with this palette, I think if you wanted a custom palette but the prices are too high like they can be I'd definitely recommend checking this Essence Cosmetics offering out. You sure won't be disappointed if you do. I've been using these shadows alot and there so good.

Laura<3

The Lo Down - Essence Shine Shine Shine Wet Look Lipgloss

Hey Guys and Dolls,

I'm not huge into lipgloss cause I feel if it's even that tiny bit windy out my hair always gets stuck into. I found a lipgloss recently that isn't like that at all and I really like it. The lipgloss in question is from Essence and it's from their Shine Shine Shine lipgloss range. I can tell already there going to be really popular indeed.

First off there are 12 beautiful shades to choose from this range from neutrals to purples there is a lot of choice. I definitely have my eye on a couple of neutral shades that's for sure. In the picture below I'm wearing no.8 Indie Romance on my lips it's a gorgeous light pink shade that gives a my lips but better look and I think it looks really pretty indeed. These lipglosses are being launched in March but there is three shades available in stores at the moment to neutral shades and a purple. I can't wait for the full line to launch very soon. Essence Cosmetics new Spring Summer range looks incredible there's so many good products to choose from. I saw they were bringing out colour correctors and make your own eyeshadow palette so I definitely want to pick up these once they launch. Back to the lipgloss, it's really pigmented and doesn't feel sticky at all which is always good in my books. It just looks really natural so it would look perfect with any makeup look.

My verdict for the price €2.49 and the shade range as I said is amazing, I really love this lipglosses and I definitely give them my approval plus two thumbs up from me.

Laura<3

Blog Sale!

Hi Guys,

I've been cleaning out my room the past few days and I've decided to do my first ever blog sale. Considering I've been blogging over two years I'm surprised I haven't done one before now. I have quite a few bits and bobs put together for this Sale so I'm sure you'll find something that catches your eye. I don't use this stuff anymore and I'm sure one of you guys out there will get way more use out of it then I will.

 Sleek Blush By 3 palette in Lace - €9- unused

Sleek Ultra Matte V2 Eyeshadow palette €8

Selection of China Glaze polishes- €12 for all five or €3.50 each

Angel Wings

Glitter All The Way

Swanky Silk

Champagne Kisses

Techno

Topshop Louise Gray Pinch Punch Nailpolish - €5

All 4 Essie mini polishes - €6

Topshop Louise Gray lipstick in Legend - €6 - unused

Bourjois Rouge Edition lipstick in 17 Rose Millesime - €6

Topshop Cream Blush in Flush - €5 (used only a couple of times)

Topshop Cream Blush in Head Over Heals -€5 (used only a couple of times)

No7  Stay Perfect Eyeshadow in Beachshine - €5

Yves Saint Laurent Pink Celebration Highlighting Powder - €15 - swatched a couple of times.

MAC Mineralise Eyeshadow in Rare Find - €15 (swatched once or twice)

MAC Mineralise Eyeshadow in Smoked Ruby - €15 (swatched once or twice)

MAC Cream Colour Base in Seaside - €10 (just swatched)

MAC Cream Colour Base in Take Root - €10- (just swatched)

MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Natural in Light Plus - €16 (used once)  SOLD

Essence Breaking Dawn Highlight Powder - €4 (used once)

Essence Breaking Dawn Blush - €3 (used once)

MAC Metal X Cream Eyeshadow in Palladium - €10 (used a couple of times)

MAC Metal X Cream Eyeshadow in Gold Carbon - €10 (unused)

Nars Blush Bronzer Trio  includes Orgasm, Albatross and Laguna - €25

MAC's My Paradise Cheek Powder - €15 (gold overspray still intact)

Urban Decay The Vice Palette - €25 (used only a handful of times)

Laura Mercier Mineral Powder in Natural Beige - only used twice - €25

2 Laura Mercier Body Cremes in Fresh Fig , Creme de Pistache & Almond Coconut 100g- never used - €30 for all three or €12 each.

 Jean Paul Gaultier & Diet Coke Limited Edition Collectors Box - €18 (bottles unopened)

Karl Lagerfield & Diet Coke Limited Edition Collectors Box - €16  (bottles unopened)

Blog Sale Terms & Conditions

Opened Internationally

Prices above do not include postage & packaging

First come first serve

If your interested in purchasing anything from my Blog Sale leave a comment below telling me what product you'd like to purchase and your email address so I can contact you regarding payment. I'm sending my first batch of products that I sold through my Instagram Sale tomorrow, if your quick I'll be able to include your purchases too.

Laura<3

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection

With the release of Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 just around the corner, like alot of other people I am beyond excited. I've read all the books and I love the movies so I can't wait to go along and see the final installment next weekend. The hard thing will be dragging my boyfriend along as I can't say he is the biggest fan of the Saga, he hasn't seen any of them. I think the boxset may be making it way into his Christmas stocking, just kidding Paddy if your reading this.

When I seen my favourite budget brand Essence was bring out a limited edition makeup collection coinciding with the release of the movie I couldn't wait to have a good look at the range. After work last week I walked by an Essence stand and seen the new products on display. Sometimes I find their limited edition products can be a bit hit and miss, they may not bring out shades that I'd go for. Now some people may love them but there just not for me at all. You can't really go wrong with the price though, everything is pretty much under €5 and the quality of the stuff I've tried so far is great. I ended up buying two products from the Twilight collection, Renesmee Red Blush and Bella's Secret Shimmer Powder. I know some people may be disappointed with the product names but I really like them. There is alot more to choose from but these stood out to me the most and I think I'll get more use out of them too. The shimmer powder is quite similar to the limited edition Circus Circus Highlight Powder from a past collection, which I really liked but I unfortunately smashed it recently. I thought this would be a great replacement and I wasn't wrong at all. If you have the Circus Circus Highlight Powder I don't think there's much point in buying this as they are pretty much identical. On the otherhand I wasn't too keen on the blush at first, it's a dark red in the pan. I thought I'd look like a Circus Clown with this on my cheeks but I was wrong this blush is seriously beautiful. It gives a really nice natural flush of colour to the cheeks which I'm not going lie I wasn't expecting at all. I've been using this everyday since I bought it and I may pick up another one before the whole collection sells out, I like it that much!! If you can get your hands on it I'd certainly recommend it. I know the packaging comes across as rather plain but I believe it was such a good idea by the brand. I know if they came out with over the top packaging alot of Twilight fans may not be happy with it. I know when brands come out with products to tie in with movies/celebrities, sometimes you can get a vision in your head of what you want the packaging to look like. If it's something totally different then what you were expecting, it's inevitable that your going to be left disappointing. You know yourself you can never please people. I think the brand went the right way with this packaging as it kinda lets the products do the talking too. That's my two cents on this collection all in all I really like it indeed.

Are you a big Twilight fan? What do you think of the Essence Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection?

Laura<3

Essence Snow White Collection

I love Essence, all their products are affordable and I've always been happy with past bits I've picked up from them. They are also forever bringing out gorgeous on trend Limited Edition products. This month sees the release of the Snow White collection which consists of a selection of polishes, gorgeous glitter topcoats, a emery board and some cute nail art stickers. I love this film so of course it was given that I would pick up some bits. I'm jetting off to Manchester tomorrow so I was reserved and just picked up three little gems. I bought two top coats of which there are three to choose from. I went for 01 Evil Queen (huge purple discs ) and 03 Prince Charming (mixture of gold and silver glitter with large blue chunks). I fell in love with them both, I couldn't resist. I love their names aswell, definitely stays through to the movie. Out of the two, I probably prefer Prince Charming it's just too pretty and would add a bit of sparkle on top of any nail colour. I'm using it with OPI's I Have a Herring Problem from the Holland Collection. I like the Evil Queen topcoat but I find it trickier to apply so it can get a bit time consuming. I paired this with my favourite OPI Holland Collection polish, Pedal Faster Suzi! If you want to apply a topcoat in a hurry I'd go for Prince Charming. The next item I picked up from the collection wasn't going to break the bank at €1.29, the nail caught my eye right away. On one side there's Snow White and on the reverse, the Evil Queen. I just thought that this was adorable and I was on the lookout for a new nail file anyway.

What do you think of the Snow White collection? Will you be picking anything up?

Laura<3

Essence Circus Circus Collection

In late December I bought a cream eyeshadow from Essence's Limited Edition Circus Circus Collection. I was really impressed with the one I purchased 01 It's Magic, a gorgeous shimmery gold shade. I have been using this all over my lid with a dark brown in the crease (beautiful!). I found with this eyeshadow that it's best to wear a primer underneath I've been using my Urban Decay Primer Potion. Recently I went back to have a peek at the other products available in this collection. In the bigger stores alot of the stock was gone, so this must of been very popular. My local pharmacy had a a quite a bit left after browsing for a while, I left with these Circus Circus products.

Circus Circus Highlighter Powder in 01 It's Magic

This is one of the products from the collection I didn't see in bigger stores. How cute is it? No wonder it sold out fast. I love how everything in this collection is circus related, like look at the big top. You may be able to see that the powder in my compact is slightly lopsided. That's because all the highlighting powders in my pharmacy were broken. I was surprised the powder wasn't completely shattered. The lovely sales assistant glued the metal pan back into the compact for me (What good customer service!). I don't have too many highlighter powders in my makeup collection. At €3.49 for this I couldn't really go wrong.

Circus Circus Cream Eyeshadow in 02 Raise The Curtain For... & 03 My Sparkling Acrobat

Having loved It's Magic, I had high hopes for both of these cream eyeshadows. Raise The Curtain For... is a lovely shimmery taupe shade which I like. I haven't been using it much as it's more of a going out shade in my opinion. This cream eyeshadow is up there with my prior Circus Circus cream shadow purchase. I wish I could be as happy about My Sparkling Acrobat but being quite frank I don't like it. It just doesn't seem to sit on my lid as well as the other two cream eyeshadows in this collection. The colour in the pot is also different to that on the skin. Maybe My Sparkling Acrobat will grow on me but at the moment not l'm not loving it.

Essence Circus Circus Eau De Toilette
Before I smelt the tester in store I wasn't expecting anything special from this fragrance. After smelling it though I instantly fell in love. I was so disappointed when I seen there was none left on the stand. When I was at the till, a sales assistant kindly informed me that one was put on hold and the person never came back. She asked me "Did I want it?" Of course I didn't say no.  This fragrance has a light sweet scent that I like alot. Saying that it wouldn't be a fragrance I'd use everyday and the scent may not appeal to most people. I'd recommend going into a shop to have a sniff  before you buy it. The packaging stays with the circus theme and looks so pretty. The bottle is a generous 50ml size and comes with a spritzer which will look so cute on my dresser. Not a perfume I'd carry around in my bag on a regular basis, knowing my luck the bottle would more than likely break on me. Now for the price, this Eau De Toilette cost me €7.49. Yes you have to love Essence!

I can't tell you how much I love this brand. Everything is such a bargain and sometimes I find their products better than some high end brands out there. I'd highly recommend checking out their full range of products. The Circus Circus Collection was Limited Edition and was launched in December. I've still seen some of the products still in stores so catch them while you can.

Have you tried any products from the Circus Circus Collection?

Laura<3

A Shopaholic's Journey #10 - Christmas Sales and Bits

This post has been a long time coming. I wanted to put it up before New Years but I was pretty busy so it got a bit delayed. Being sick over Christmas ment I couldn't go into the sales on Stephen's Day. I was mildly disappointed that I couldn't but there was nothing I could do so there was no point moaning. Last Thursday, I went to Boots to have a look around. To be honest I wasn't really blown away with much stuff I seen on sale. All the Christmas Gift sets were half price so after browsing for a bit, I left with these!

 

Soap & Glory Yum At Heart set 

I had seen this set before Christmas and needless to say I fell in love with it. Yum At Heart contains a full sized Hand Food and The Breakfast Scrub (my favourite). It also comes with a cute Soap & Glory apron which I think my Mom will love, so I'm going to give it to her. This set was such good value, I paid €10.75 for everything. Each product is worth more than this price so I made quite a saving.

 

Lipsy London Perfect Pamper set

This set was €6.75 down from €13.50. I would of never paid full price for this set as I don't think it would of been worth the money. All the products are minitatures that I'll get a few uses out of. I think they'd be great for my handbag and for holidays. The scent is gorgeous, very floral.

Accessorize Eau De Toilette set

I've always loved the floral scent of the Accessorize Eau De Toilette. It was €10 for the set which I couldn't really go wrong with. The set also contains a 100 ml body wash and body lotion which makes for great value.

17 Peep Show Mascara in Black
This mascara wasn't on sale but I was really intrigued to see what it's like. Peep Show contains lengthening fibres which claim to lengthen lashes aswell as adding volume. I've only used this once and so far so good I like. I'm going to pop up a review really soon.

These purchases were made better with the fact that I used my Boots Advantage points. I saved up €35 euro worth of points so I thought what better time to use them then during the sales!

I popped back into Boots to look at the perfume sets on sale and left with Vera Wang Lovestruck. I already own a bottle of this but I'm almost all out. I included Lovestruck in my favourites back in July, I  like the scent alot. The set was half price down to €24.75 so it was such a bargain.

I was disappointed that I couldn't go into the Lush Sale as I was sick. I was so happy when my parents popped into Lush when they were in town and got me all these goodies! I love Snow Fairy it has such a yummy scent. My Mom only bought me a large bottle a few weeks ago, so I'm going to keep this one for a backup for when the other runs out. Glogg is a part of the Christmas range too, I've never owned one before so I'm looking forward to trying it. Creamed Almond & Coconut Smoothie is a shower soap with a lovely vanilla scent which I enjoy using. I'm nearly all out the mini tub I got in my Seasons Greetings set so of course I was delighted with this. Last but not least another Snow Globe soap, words cannot describe how much I adore this. It's alot like Sexy Peel, even more citrusy if you could imagine. Snow Globe is just so refreshing, I wish it was available all year round. All these products are sure to last me well into 2012.

 

 

Here is some more stuff I picked up in my local pharmacy that wasn't on sale. I've heard alot of good things about both of the above Loreal products, Loreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara and Superliner Carbon Gloss. I also bought the Essence Circus Circus Longlasting Eyeshadow in 01 It's Magic. I thought this would look nice as a pop of colour all over my eyelid. I'm not going to go into these products too much as I want to wait and try them first. I shall let you know my thoughts soon!

I also bought a few things online (beautybay.com and Asos) last week with my Christmas money. They haven't arrived as of yet so I'll try to pop up another post when they do.

Have you grabbed any bargains during the sales?


Laura<3

Weekly Round Up #6

Here's what I got up to last week...

 Monday I finalised my plans for Barcelona. Hotels and Flights are booked...YAY!!  I'm heading over in mid-September so I'm hoping the weather is fantastic. I've heard such great things about this lovely city so of course I'm very exciting about going. I will be taking my camera with me so expect a post about my adventures when I'm back. One of my stops in Barcelona will be to Sephora, as it is makeup heaven. Shockingly I've never been to one so it's a necessity that I go. If there is anywhere in particular I should when I'm there??

Tuesday My room is finally complete. My new floors and shelves look great. I'm still in the process of putting all my belongings back in my room. All my stuff has been in my sister's old room for a while so needless to say my room still looks a mess. My last Shopaholic's Journey post before my holiday also went up today.

Wednesday I met up with my lovely sister and my nephew. I hadn't seen them for an age as I've just been so busy. It's always nice to see my nephew as he's getting so big. It's weird that he's going to be one in 2 weeks, I have no idea where the time has gone. It's really cute cause he's beginning to walk a little and say little words here and there.

Thursday My mom came home from work with these lovely goodies. Her lovely friend got them for me which I thought was so nice. As you can see there is a few different products from the brands Catrice and Essence. One of the products she gave me isn't pictured above and it's the Essence Lash Mania Volume Mascara. It's fab and I have been using it everyday since I got it.

 

Friday I went to see the new Planet of the Apes movie, Rise Of the Apes with my boyfriend, Paddy. I don't want to give to much of this movie away which I have a big habit of doing. What I can tell you is that this movie is really good. I wasn't too keen on going cause I didn't like the last one with Mark Wahlberg but this one is nothing like it. This movie features James Franco (swoon,pictured above) and the beautiful Frieda Pinto who both play their parts incredibly well. This is definitely a Summer must-see movie!!

Sadly I was working Saturday and Sunday so I have nothing to exciting to report about my weekend!!

What did you girls get up to??

Laura<3