Essence Cherry Blossom Girl eyeshadow quad

I cannot pass an essence stand without buying something. Fact.

So when perusing my local Essence stand I picked up this eyeshadow quad in 01 Dreaming under a cherry tree, because the colours looked interesting and well, it was 3.49. Seriously, what's to lose.

 I also love how Essence bring out new collections fairly regularly, just like some higher end brands. This is part of the Cherry Blossom Girl collection which is still about now if you'd like to pick this up! There is a lovely peachy/coral blush in this collection which I *may* have to return for...

Never having tried Essence's eyeshadows, I will admit that I thought it wouldn't be much good. 3.49 euros well spent though!

You do need a primer under these, I always use Urban Decay's primer potion in Original. The first colour in the quad can't be seen very well here but it's a off white-taupe colour.

The shades blend nicely together and create, in my opinion, the perfect autumnal eye. I'm always trying to bring out the green in my hazel coloured eyes and this really does that.

A friend complimented me on this last week and wouldn't believe it was Essence until I showed her the quad. Expensive looking eyeshadow on a budget, yes please!

NOTD Essence Most Wanted

A very quick nail post!

I usually love bright nail varnish so I was surprised to be drawn to this chocolate brown colour. I think it looks really lovely but it's probably a bit dark for summer!

Sorry for the awkward hand pose but it was the best light I could get!

I did polka dots on one accent nail on each hand (my ring finger) to lighten up the whole look and I can see this being a HUGE trend in my future nail polish adventures =D (please excuse the cuticles!)

Essence Most Wanted and Bourjois while nail varnish for french manicures.

One thing I will say about this Essence polish is that while it may be cheap (under 2 euro I think!) I found the quality wasn't great. It chipped after a day (grrr). Also two/three coats are most definitely needed tor the polish to be opaque. Not sure if I'd re-purchase another Essence polish I might just stick with the lovely & budget-tastic Catrice!

Essence Lash Mania saves the day!

After my unpleasant experience with Maybelline's The Falsies Black drama I was all out of mascara. Faced with the prospect of NO MASCARA (eek!) I quickly sprinted down to the local shopping centre to find something to tide me over.

The chemist was SHUT. No Rimmel fix then.

I hit Dunnes in desperation, the Rimmel stand was destroyed. However the Essence stand was perfectly untouched (messy testers/children seem to be snobs too haha) so I rushed in that direction and quickly picked up a tube of Essence lash mania ultra volume mascara.

This mascara was only supposed to be a quick fix but now I absolutely LOVE it :) It separates and defines lashes really well. It's not very thickening or densifying but that doesn't really bother me, I still use it for day and night time and it does the job very well.

Did I mention it's only 2.49 euros...? That's me sold! :)