Category Archives: Press Releases & Promo Pics

Essie Gel Couture Collection & Launch Event Recap

Essie Gel Couture Collection Swatch And Learn

Officially launching on June 14th, the Essie Gel Couture line boasts 42 new colours with a luxurious bottle design with a twist – literally! It mimics the swirl of a perfectly tailored gown.

The wand is also twisted to help the polish collect onto the brush for superior results, and the bristles are much wider than those of a regular Essie brush. Additionally, the bristles have a tapered cut, which helps makes application a breeze. (You can cover your whole nail in a single swipe, if you want.)

The formula is designed to help manicures last for up to 14 days with a gel-like shine, and you don’t need a UV or LED lamp to use Essie Gel Couture nail polishes, as they are applied like regular lacquers.

The base coat is built into the colours, which is convenient and time-saving. After painting on the colour of your choice, you just need to apply a shiny top coat to seal everything in. (They have released a new top coat specifically for this line.)

Back in May 2016, I attended an exclusive reveal of the Essie Gel Couture line, which was held in Toronto.

The luxurious treatment began even before I arrived, as I was encouraged to arrive with Uber, complementary of PR!

There were drinks and appetizers offered by friendly servers. Also, the setup displaying the new nail polishes and the ‘atelier to after party’ theme was everywhere you looked.

Rita Remark (Essie’s Global Lead Educator) introduced Essie Gel Couture during a short presentation, there were opportunities to get your nails painted by nail technicians, and you could win the paintings that the talented Margaret Lipsey worked on live! (She is the woman behind PIstache and Rose.) More on all this later in the post!

Keep reading to see more photos that I snapped during the event. Also, I show you close-up bottle shots of some of the colours, as well as the official press release for further details.

Edit: I’ve updated the bottom of this post to include images of all 42 shades in the Essie Gel Couture Collection, which is broken up into four sections: Atelier, First Look, Runway Show, and After Party.

Essie GelCouture Collection 2016 Essie Gel Couture Collection 2016

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This Is What $2,000 Custom KISS Nails Look Like

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Chrome Nails KISS Nails Mar y Soul Mani

The most expensive nail polish in my collection cost me $52.68 CAD. In 2011, I splurged on the coveted multi-chromatic wonder, Clarins 230 (or what fellow nail-polish addicts fondly call ‘Unicorn Pee‘). Since then, I haven’t made any wild nail purchases.

Needless to say, $2,000 Custom KISS Nails aren’t in my budget’s stratosphere. (Not even in my exosphere!)

But it’s not always about what you can buy. There’s something to be said about admiring without feeling the need to purchase it. Like the priceless painting hanging in the Art Gallery of Ontario, I can enjoy the artistry without needing it in my living room.

I can appreciate the way the $2,000 custom KISS nails look without needing to spend that much moola.

Just the other day, one of my readers was asking me on social media about chrome nail polish, so it was interesting timing!

Most chrome nail polish I have tried tends to leave behind more of a brushed-chrome finish on the nail, rather than a mirror-like shine, such as what Minx Nails provide. And nail appliques are tricky for me because my nails are narrow and very curvy.

When I was in elementary school or high school, I remember that Sally Hansen came out with a chrome collection, and it was one of the more shiny chromes on the market that I’ve ever tried.

Seeing the custom set of chrome nails created for Gigi Hadid to wear to the 2016 Met Gala was exciting because maybe the brand will release a consumer version, so that we can all easily get a true mirror-like chrome manicure in seconds with zero brushstrokes! *Fingers crossed*

The woman behind the nails? Mar y Soul, and she’s based in New York City.

(Yes, Mar y, not Mary. Hehe, since my name’s Mary, every time I went to type Mar y in this blog post, my fingers tried to type Mary first, out of habit.)

Mar y Soul’s talent has landed her work for more than 300 fashion editorial covers, and she has painted the nails of A-list celebrities.

The rest of this post contains more photos of the awesome chrome nails Mar y Soul created for Gigi Hadid, as well as how to get a similar look on a small budget.

Note: All the photos in this post are courtesy of PR. Collage created by me.

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Zoya Seashells & Sunsets Summer 2016 Collection

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Zoya Summer 2016 Collection Seashells Sunsets

Yesterday, on social media, I shared with you the news that just dropped: the Zoya Summer 2016 Collection is available for sale on Zoya’s website!

It’s divided into two sections:

Zoya Seashells Collection: Textured PixieDusts
Zoya Sunsets Collection: One coat creams

Feasting my eyes on the wide variety of colours, this looks like a fun set, and I’m excited to see that there are two greens in the mix: Cece and Ness.

I think that Zoya releases more greens than any other mainstream nail-polish company off the top of my head. Wish that more brands would be as fearless with colour like Zoya!

Ever since textured nail polishes became trendy long ago, I hopped on that bandwagon. Still not tired of it! It’s possibly the only nail trend that has kept my interest for such a long time. Their dry time is faster than a ferret amped up on coffee (don’t feed your pets that), and the PixieDust formulation is particularly refined with saturated pigmentation.

The creams are supposed to be one-coaters, which is always a good thing, even if I use a minimum of two coats for a standard manicure.

Those of you who do nail stamping and other nail art regularly might also want to check out these creams because they should show up better in your designs.

See the rest of this blog post for more images of the Zoya Summer 2016 Collection!

I’ve included images of their new lipstick shades and gift sets, as well as the official press release, in case you want all the details.

Have you tried any Zoya lipsticks? I haven’t, but I’m curious!

Edit (May 10, 2016): You can get free shipping on everything in the Zoya Seashells and Sunsets Collection when you use the code SUMMERLOVE on Zoya.com until May 15 at 11:59 pm ET! (The code also works on the lipsticks and gift sets in the collection.)

Edit (May 19, 2016): See my swatches of the entire Zoya Seashells Collection (the PixieDust polishes)!

Edit (May 21, 2016): See my swatches of the entire Zoya Sunsets Collection (the creme polishes)!

Edit (June 27, 2016): See my swatches of the two Zoya lipsticks, Candy and Mellie, from this collection!

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