Today I will be talking about the new Essence 2015 Spring collection. By now most stores have already received their stock and I was lucky enough to be able to check out most of the entire collection.

First Impression:

The beads I was looking forward the most to see in real life were the new Hope and Love beads. I was intrigued with the new Hope bead because it was in gold and (yes once again in pave) because it used white opaque crystal. I’m not usually into opaque but the combination of gold and opaque white fascinated me.

 

Also the new Wisdom bead aroused my curiosity because I must be the only person on earth who does not care for the first Wisdom bead. I have to say it is very lovely, however I don’t care much for it because although the texture is nice, it also holds onto dirt and skin oils more, making easy to get dirty and very hard to clean.

 

Review:

At first glance, I was not impressed with the new Hope bead. I was expecting it to be a bright, crisp white, and instead it looked more dull, almost greenish to my eyes. I think this is because it is white, therefore it will reflect colors more easily, (Think about the whole white/gold – black/blue dress scenario!) however I do like it much more than the first Hope bead. The more I looked at the new Hope bead the more I liked it, I realized the greenish hue was due to the fact that it was reflecting other colors around me, once I started photographing it, I saw it was a brighter white than what I had initially thought. I would most likely buy this white opaque crystal rather than it’s silver counterpart as I don’t much care for milky quartz, it looks plastic-y to me. Perhaps if it were a faceted milky quartz, then maybe I would be drawn to it, but just plain white does not attract me.

 

Now as for the Love bead, I totally love it! I love everything about it, the rose gold, the pink crystals, although I don’t think it’s just pink cubic zirconia, to me the crystals almost reminded me of opalite, however this could just be a reflection of the rose gold itself, the facets look amazing, and I don’t think my camera was able to capture their true beauty. I forgot to ask what material they used in making the new Love bead, once I find out I will update this post.  UPDATE: I did go back and ask, and I was told the materials is rose gold with pink opalescent crystal, so I was close! Here it is in real life versus the stock photo:

                                             

 

I was actually very surprised to see that the IRL photo was pretty close to the stock photo. Usually you would expect some photoshopping in order to retouch it, but to me at least it’s pretty close to the stock photo when it comes to color.

And now we come to the new Wisdom bead, again I don’t have the details of what materials they used to make the blue, almost turquoise looking opaque gems but I do like it. UPDATE:  I asked and was told it is sterling silver with turquoise opaque crystal, again, I was not far off. For some reason it seems more casual to me, perhaps because it does remind me of turquoise jewelry.

 

I think with this bead you do run the risk of it looking like plastic because it is opaque, however I still prefer this over the original Wisdom bead for aforementioned reasons. I think eventually this little number will also make it’s way into my collection one day.

I didn’t take pictures of all of the new plain silver Essence because I forgot (so sorry!) and also because my store did not have the new Friendship bead for some reason however here is a quick snapshot of the Appreciation bead:

 

I do like the Appreciation bead as well, however I’m not too drawn to it for some reason, there’s nothing special about it in my opinion. I like that at least it’s an original design and not a recycled version of another Pandora charm, it’s pretty in itself but something that I can wait to buy.  Although I did forget to take pictures of the Happiness bead and the Affection, from what I do remember is that the new Happiness bead is heavily oxidized like the Wellness bead. As for the Affection bead, I liked the design, reminded me of an open worked version of their Spirituality bead:

I do prefer the Affection bead over the Spirituality, I think because it is open work, and I’m a sucker for those. And finally here is a snapshot of the rest of the beads that are just counterparts to their already existing beads:

 

It would be good to note that because these beads are smaller than the regular Moments, and they are after all hand finished stones, that the stones on the outer edges closer to the cores have less support that the rest of the stones. What  I mean is, if you look very closely at a single stone, you can see that it has at least six points of restriction, or six dots of metal surrounding each stone. The stones along the edge only have four, it makes for an interesting “mesh” looking pattern, nevertheless it could be a concern that these stones could fall out if you are not careful when wearing your Essence bracelet. Only time will tell if four points is enough to secure the stone and prevent them from falling out.

In Conclusion:

I apologize for not being able to feature all of the Essence Spring collection, I thought I had captured all of them and I’ve realized that I missed the new Happiness, Friendship, Affection and Caring beads, I was overwhelmed at how many new beads came out for the Spring line. It makes me very happy to know that the Essence line is doing well and that they even introduced a bit of rose gold into the line. I think I was more excited about seeing the Essence collection than the Moments. I was not very impressed by the Moments Spring release, although I did like a lot of their rings this time around. Also I guess I’m not too surprised that they pavé-ed the Essence line as well, it seems that pavé is here to stay, and I hope Pandora realizes that they may be over doing it a little. The prices for all of the pavé sterling silver Essence are $65, the rose gold Love is $190, the gold Hope is $190, Appreciation is $65, and Affection, Friendship and Happiness are $35. Overall, I like the new Spring line, and cant’ wait to start adding to my Essence collection. What do you think of the new Essence Spring release? Are there any beads that you just have to have? Share your thoughts with me, comment down below, let me know what you think.

 

 

All images with my watermark belong to me, all other images belong to their respective owners such as Pandora