Essie Gel Couture

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This week I was invited by one of my favourite nail brands, essie, to have my photo taken by one of my favourite fashion photographers, Rankin. The collaboration is to celebrate the launch of essie's new Gel Couture polishes which launch in the UK on the 1st of June.

A first for essie and a permanent addition to their product line-up, the 25 Gel Couture shades have a gel-like formula offers a thick, glossy, long-wearing finish. The twisted bottle is distinctly different to regular essie polish...
and the brush wand itself is also twisted.

They opened a special Colour Portrait Studio for one day only in London to celebrate colour, and beautiful nails in collaboration with Rankin, giving competition winners the change to come and be pampered, and have their own portrait taken by Rankin.

“Colour plays an important role in my photography, as does making the subject feel confident in front of the camera. The Colour Portrait Studio with essie has been the ultimate expression of both of these.” - Rankin

The Gel Couture polishes are blessed with my favourite essie feature, the wide brush, which makes the product easy and smooth to apply regardless of nail-painting expertise. You can literally apply a coat of polish in a few seconds. As you would expect from essie, the colour selection is totally on point with a great selection of nudes, brights and pastels. It's a two step system so you don't have to apply a base coat, just two layers of colour followed by the Gel Couture top coat.

There are some stunning mauve/lilac/nudes that I totally fell in love with and the baby pink shades are gorgeous too. For the shoot however, I wanted to go for something a little different seeing as the whole day was about colour, so I chose this unusual pastel green shade called 'Zip Me Up' It's actually a really flattering green which are hard to find and because it's so white-based I think it would look amazing with a tan!

I've shot with Rankin before and it's always a great experience so I was really excited about the shoot. I'm usually such a nervous subject when it comes to photoshoots but Rankin works so quickly and makes you feel at ease so the shoots I've done with him before have always been my favourite (plus the images are always so beautiful, it's easy to understand why he's such a big deal and has shot some of the worlds most beautiful people including The Queen, Kate Moss and Adele!) It was a total laugh as per usual and I love the final portrait above! I also wore my new favourite silk bomber jacket from New Look (here) which ended up going really well with the barbie pink background.

It was such a fun experience, so a huge thank you to essie for inviting me along for the day! I'm really excited for you to try the new polishes too, they are so lovely! I actually also have a selection of 5 shades and the top coat to give away to one lucky reader this week too! If you'd like to win, all you have to do is comment below telling me what your favourite essie colour is and why, don't forget to leave your twitter handle or email address as a means of getting in touch. The giveaway closes at midnight GMT on Saturday 28th May 2016. Only open to the UK & Ireland due to shipping restrictions. If you are under 18 please ask permission.

The essie Gel Couture range will be available in Superdrug, Boots, Debenhams and online at boots.com and superdrug.com on the 1st of June for £9.99 each. For more info, visit essie.co.uk!

@essieUK #essiexrankin #GelCouture

- Giveaway now closed - the winner is C Dolly! 

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