Fingertiptastic: Essie Resort Collection 2015

So, those of you who read my blog regularly, will know that I recently experienced my first Professional Beauty Show at Excel London. Amongst the many polishes and goodies that I bought that day were these gorgeous polishes.

They are Essie, a brand which I'd never tried before, despite it being readily available in retailers. The colours shown are from the Resort Collection 2015 - and when the colours are as amazing as this, it would be rude not to buy all four!!!

From left to right the shades are Cocoa Karma, Suite Retreat, Time for Me Time and Stones n Roses.

The polish is quite "runny", so you need to make sure there's not too much on the brush, this avoids it pooling in the cuticle area. Once I'd realised this, it made application so much easier and far less messy (with very little need for a clean up around the cuticles). Having relatively small nail beds, I loved the small brush which also made application easier for me. I'll definitely be buying more of this brand!!!

I decided to see if the polish would lend itself to Watermarbling. This is a technique that is very hit and miss for me but having watched yet another tutorial on the Starburst method - I decided to give it a go!!!

I'm pleased to announce that the polishes behaved themselves beautifully and I was able to create the starburst pattern relatively easily (in Watermarbling terms that means it only took me 4 attempts - that's pretty much a record for me!!!)

I only did one nail, due to time restraints (also known as the children being off school!!!) and I painted the rest of my nails with Suite Retreat.

I then decided to add the rest of the colours in the collection using a basic dotticure.

I loved how this looked, but then started wondering how different it would be if I'd used a different base colour (just as well I've got two hands!!!)

Exactly the same colours and exactly the same technique I just switched the base colour to Time for Me Time. I was amazed at how different the mani looked just by switching the base colour. This gave me an idea - I went back to my left hand (the one with the accent water marble) and changed the colour of the other nails.