Essie Gel Couture #essiexrankin

Hey everyone! This weekend in the UK was a bank holiday weekend, I know it was also Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. so I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Without sounding like I'm starting a pity party, I had the worst weekend. My car was smashed up with a hammer, I got food poisoning and my camera charger blew my electrics and set off my house alarm. They say bad things come in threes, that's a big enough three for me. Nevertheless, my nails have been a welcome distraction, and I've been writing up some blog posts to try and get ahead a bit.

Today's post is about my day at the #essiexrankin event a couple of weeks ago. I was kindly invited by Essie to join the event to promote their new Gel Couture range, and have my portrait done by the one and only Rankin. I'm still pinching myself that it actually happened, it was such an amazing opportunity, and one I definitely won't forget in a hurry. 

I was given the chance to pick out a shade from the Gel Couture range to highlight in my picture, this is the shade I chose, called Spiked With Style:

The event was held at the Ice Tank in covent garden, I've been before for previous events but it looked great decked out in flowers and nail varnish, lots and lots of nail varnish.

Photo credit: Essie

These were the shades I had to choose from for my manicure, it's not the full Gel Couture collection but just a quick selection (to make the process quicker I imagine). There are 30 shades in total, 25 of which will be available in the UK.

I then had my hair and make up done, which was an entirely new experience for me and it was great to be pampered and made to look glamourous. 

Rankin had lots of assistants wandering around helping him out, so I didn't get to see the man himself until I walked up to the camera. He was such a nice guy. I couldn't pose for the life of me and he made me feel comfortable, and took some extra photos so I could find one I liked. 

They had a big screen up showing the pictures that were being taken, so my friend managed to get the picture above whilst I was having my photos done. I also took a picture of the 6 pictures Rankin narrowed it down to for me to choose from. I couldn't choose which one to pick at all so I let him pick his favourite

In our goody bag we were also given a polish from the Gel Couture range and the topcoat. I received 'Sew Me' which is a peachy shade. Below is two coats with a coat of Gel Couture topcoat

It's claimed you don't need a basecoat as the polishes contain a basecoat themselves. I wore this colour for a week and I didn't get any staining, but it's a relatively neutral shade. I did find the formula slightly hard to work with, but that's only because it's quite thick due to it being a gel range. 

How amazing are the bottles though? Although I must admit they were a pain for holding properly for swatches, as you can see above and below! The life of a blogger ey?

The Gel Couture range launches on the 1st June, so not long to go. Keep an eye out on the Essie website for more information.

And this is the finished portrait that Rankin chose: 

I'm so happy with how it turned out, and I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to go to the event. This little blog has given me so many wonderful chances to do things I could only have dreamt have doing, but this comes pretty high up the list of 'cool things blogging has done for me'. I hope you like the finished result as much as me!

Alice