My ellagee custom and a giveaway teaser...

Hello!!! I know it's been a long time since I've posted but I've been so busy loving on some new polishes. This one is my favorite of all and warning, this is gonna be a loooooong post!

Custom

I contacted Laura at ellagee about doing a custom for me based on my favorite color. I'm sure you can guess what it is based on the pictures below...it's a certain blue, made famous by a certain jeweler...ahem...

This is what she came up with and I named it Angela Blue. Because it's mine. ALLLLLL MIIIIIINE! Actually there were 3 bottles made. One for myself, one for a giveaway (teaser), and one for my polish bestie, Heather at I Feel Polished. I know she loves this color too so I thought it would be a good surprise for her!

I picked Laura to do my custom because she is crazy easy to work with and I love her polishes (I now have 50. Yes 50.). She sent me pics and let me make the final decision. I absolutely love what we came up with :-) The formula is amazing, it's opaque in 2 coats, and I'm pretty sure if I run out she'll make me more. I hope! I also decided to do an accent nail because this polish is way too pretty for my manicure with it not to shine!

Accent nail

For my accent nail to go with Angela Blue, I was inspired by the lampshades made famous by *cough* Louis Comfort Tiffany. His lampshades are so beautiful and coveted by many. Especially by me. Anyway so I found a picture of one with red, orange, and purple flowers and decided to do my own take on it. For the base I used another custom (SURPRISE!) from Laura that came with my Angela Blue, Sweet Heather, inspired by the white ribbon that's on the boxes from the aforementioned jeweler :-) Then I used a very small dotting tool and Zoya Elodie, a medium orange/coral, and made an irregular dot in the middle of my nail. Using the same dotting tool, I used Pure Ice Siren (red), ellagee Haleakala Sunrise (pink shimmer), and ellagee Aloha Oe (purple shimmer) to make irregular shapes for the petals. Next I used Essie Go Overboard (dark teal) for the leaves. Then using a very small nail art brush (and a shaky hand but remember, I did this on my left hand...and I'm left handed o.O) I used Sinful Colors Black On Black to fill in the lines and actually make the petals and leaves. Then I drew some random lines coming off the flower to indicate the "lampshade" part. I thought it turned out really well, considering A) this is my 2nd attempt at free hand nail art and B) I did it right-handed!

Giveaway

I have one more bottle of Angela Blue to give away to a lucky reader. As soon as I hit 100 likes on Facebook and 100 followers on IG, be looking for a chance to win a bottle of my custom!!

Pretty in blue,

The Unprofessional Polisher

Holy Holo Part 1 :-)

If anyone reads my ramblings on here at all, you must know by now that my favorite polish finish is holographic. I love the rainbow effect (Rainbow Syrup all the things ;-) ) they give off, plus they're just so cool! Before I started blogging, I had no idea holographic nail polish even existed. I was living under a rock somewhere in Missouri minding my own business I guess!!

For my birthday, I bought myself the Color Club Halo Hues Collection. My fellow blogger and friend, Heather from I Feel Polished, and I were talking about the awesomeness that is holo and she said I should get the Color Club holos because they were absolutely amazing. So of course I got on Amazon and sure enough they were there and I purchased them before Heather even got the complete sentence out of her mouth!! Amazon's one click ordering is going to be the bane of my wallet's existence!!

Ahem.

Anyway, here are 3 polishes from the collection I bought. All had super smooth formulas, all wore REALLY well (I wore Kismet for 5 days and only one nail chipped) and all were super beautiful!

First is Cosmic Fate. Color Club describes this as a peachy holographic shade, but I would call it orange. I am not a huge orange fan, but I loved this polish!

Next is Kismet. Heather said this looked gold to her. On my nails, it was most definitely light green. The pics are true to the color it was on me. Simply gorgeous!

Last but certainly not least is Miss Bliss. It is a rose pink and so beautiful!

I still have 3 more polishes from this collection to try out, so be looking for a post on them next week! All in all I'm very, very pleased with these and my enabler (heh heh) for telling me to buy them! I'm looking forward to getting more Color Club polish in the future!

PS, I have started a super secret stash of my best loved polishes that no one else can use. Ever. Ever ever. Because I'm a polish nazi. Anyway, these 6 Halo Hues are in the super secret stash. Shhhhhh. I said nothing. :-)

Always polished,

The Unprofessional Polisher

ellagee Doctor Who collection Part 2--the greens

Holy cow! Summer hit Missouri this past week and the air has been so humid it is hampering my abilities to polish! Which is why, despite my best attempts, this post didn't happen last Friday as it should have...my polish wouldn't dry, it was applying all goopy and wonky, and in general I was a hot, cranky, tired mess!

Finally though, here is the last 2 of the 4 polishes I bought from ellagee's Doctor Who collection, and all I can say is...WOW.

First up is Void Stuff...it's a beautiful emerald green jelly polish loaded with green glitters! I used two coats, but should have done three thin ones...this was when I realized the humidity was hampering my polishing. I had trouble with this polish and I have no doubt it was the weather!! The humidity seems to mess with jellies more than any other formula, and I had some troubles with it wanting to goop up at the end of my nail and then pull back. I didn't have this problem with Sexy Old Girl from the same collection so I'm thinking it was the weather. I really thought I would love this polish, but it didn't speak out to me. It's a beautiful color, and so shimmery and shiny in the sunlight, but wasn't a favorite out of the 4. Here it is, in all its emerald green glory:

Next up is Medusa Cascade. Now, as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not a Whovian. So I have no idea where the inspiration and name came from for this polish. All I know is O.M.G. wherever the inspiration came from, it was amazing!

Medusa Cascade is a multi-chrome, shade shifting, wonderful batch of goodness that shifts from gold to yellow to orange to green to teal to blue. My boys said it was very dragon-like...whatever that means. Let me just say I spent 15 minutes in the shower looking at my nails from all angles in and out of the water to see all the colors. Yes, I am, in fact, easily amused, however this polish is just simply gorgeous. The formula is smooth but because it is a chromie, brushstrokes can show. Here it is, Medusa Cascade:

See all the pretty colors?!?!?! My friend Amy said it was no wonder I loved this polish because it was like the beach and ocean all in one polish. All the things I like :-)

Sadly I think Medusa Cascade is gone because Laura can no longer get the pigments used to make it, but she was working on some dupes of the original formulas of some of the multi-chromes in this collection so keep checking!

Forever polished,

The Unprofessional Polisher

ellagee Doctor Who collection Part 1--The Blues

Today I have a couple of amazing polishes from ellagee's Doctor Who collection. I have to admit, I've only seen about 7 episodes and so I haven't completely jumped on the Doctor Who bandwagon, but it is a quirky show, I'll give it that! I got 4 from the collection, 2 greens and 2 blues and today I have the blues for you!

Onto the polish!

First up is Sexy Old Girl. Everyone who watches Doctor Who knows he travels in the TARDIS. Well, this polish is a TARDIS blue jelly with holographic glitters! It is so beautiful! My camera went into sparkle overload and couldn't quite catch the awesomeness of Sexy Old Girl. I had a few problems with the formula on this one, only because there is so much glitter and it wasn't cooperating for me. But once I got it on, WOW! It's a stare at your nails all day long polish!

Next up is Trenzalore, named after the place Doctor Who can't go to. What a pity because if it is as gorgeous as this polish, he's missing out!

You know how sometimes you find things in life that is like a part of your soul, a piece of clothing that just soothes you when you put it on, a blanket that automatically makes you feel cozy and comfy, an animal that seems like they're a part of you? This unexpectedly happened for me with Trenzalore. I kid you not! It was the first polish of the four I tried because I thought it was the ugliest in the bottle. My thoughts were, "Eh, I'll wear this one for a day then I'll take it off and try the pretties." It was more like I put this on, and I wore it for FOUR DAYS until one nail was so chipped I HAD to take it off.

Trenzalore is a soft blue-gray polish with subtle scattered holo. Formula is smooth and amazing and just seeing these pics I want to run home and put it back on. I LOVE this polish!

There you have it! The blues of the Doctor Who collection from ellagee. Both can be found at www.ellagee.com along with the other amazing polishes from this collection!

Found my soul mate polish!

The Unprofessional Polisher

Ellagee Wham!

I love glitter. I love holo.

I LOVE holo glitter!

Today's polish is almost too much for words. This is Wham! by ellagee, a gorgeous mix of white and yellow gold holographic glitter. It's not really a texture polish, but because of all the glitter, it isn't smooth. However, with a coat or two of top coat, it is as smooth as a cream polish, and YOWZERS!!! THE SPARKLE!!!

Formula is okay, a little difficult to manage because of the glitter, but I wore this for 2 days with no glitter snagging or chipping! Removal, well, it is a grouch. But that's to be expected with any glitter polish. I just soak a piece of cotton ball in remover, slap it on my nail, and put a rubber sorting finger over it. Then I do crosswords or watch TV for 10 minutes and ta da!! Glitter is removed!

Ok, so here is Wham! under normal light:

Here is Wham! under muted sunlight:

And here, here is Wham! with flash to show the beauty it is:

Wham! is really blingy and really flashy, but for the record no one at work ran away screaming, "My eyes! My eyes!" so I think it's safe to wear for all occasions :-)

And, if yellow gold is more your thing, check out Kachow! If white gold is more your style, check out Boom!, all at www.ellagee.com.

Or just go to Laura's site anyway, because there will be something you'll love there. Trust me ;-)

Have a sparkling weekend!

The Unprofessional Polisher

Fan Group Love--ellagee Blueberry Ella-ment

I'm really excited for the next, oh, three weeks of posts. I have some fantastic polishes to show you all, starting with this beauty!

Laura at ellagee created another exclusive polish for her fan group on Facebook, Gee, I Love Ellagee! The members of the group got to vote on the color, finish, and name and this is what we chose, Blueberry Ella-ment!

It's a gorgeous cobalt blue linear holo! Formula is so smooth and it is perfect in 2 coats! I wouldn't expect anything less from ellagee!

Here's another pic that shows some of the holo:

For some reason my camera was having a hard time capturing the holo-awesomeness of Blueberry Ella-ment but trust me when I say it's definitely there in person. I love this color so much that I planned my outfit to my cousin's wedding around it :-) What can I say? I love blue and I love ellagee polish!!

Super fruity,

The Unprofessional Polisher

Birefringence--ILNP

Hellooooo!
Today I have a polish that has caught my eye numerous times, and why I never bought it I don't know. Lucky for me a certain friend of mine was very, very generous to me on my birthday and sent it to me, along with 11 other polishes! Altogether I ended up with 26 polishes for my birthday! It was like a dream come true!!

Here is I Love Nail Polish's Birefringence! It is listed as a multichrome polish and in the bottle you can see red, blue, green, yellow, and purple. On my nails though I really only saw two colors, teal and purple. Still, it is an absolutely GORGEOUS polish and it was my first pick to wear out of 12 :-)

Formula was great and I used two coats. Clean up on cuticles is a little tricky but if you're careful (and I was not) you don't have to worry about that so much. It wore really well for me, going about 3 full days before I broke my index nail and it chipped :-(

All in all, I love this polish and will definitely be wearing it again...and again...and again!!

One happy birthday girl!!!

The Unprofessional Polisher

Wet N Wild Haze of Love

I've been on the prowl for the perfect burgundy/brandywine colored polish, and I picked this one up somewhere I was shopping (isn't it sad I don't remember where?!) thinking this was it...

Nope.

Formula on this one is okay, a little on the thin side, and it seemed like no matter how I wrapped my tips they showed through...which is weird because this is a darker colored polish. Also, the color looks like red tinged chocolate brown on my skin tone, which is not what I was going for. And it stained my skin where I have some rough patches from the eczema flare up, because no matter how many times I went over it with remover it would not come off!

Better luck to me next time!!

The Unprofessional Polisher

Orly Macabre Masquerade plus a bonus!!

Good Friday to you all!! I have a polish today I scored during Sally's red tag sale a couple of weekends ago. I picked it up and fell instantly in love with it!

This is Orly Macabre Masquerade, a cobalt blue polish with tiny silver and red glitters. The formula was great on this polish and it's a two coater. If you aren't careful at the tips of your nails though, the glitters will snag and it will chip more easily than a regular cream or shimmer polish. Also clean up for me was kind of a grouch with those tiny glitters! But, so worth it!

The bonus on this post, which I thought was appropriate since this is a blue polish...

MY GREAT NEPHEW JONAH IS HERE!!! Finally!! It seems like I've been waiting forever for his arrival, and he's here! He arrived July 10, 2014 at 3:45 pm. He was 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 21 inches long.

And what a precious face!!! I am so in love with him already!

Happy weekend!!

Proud great-auntie,

The Unprofessional Polisher

Don't Be A Flake!!

A while ago my sister-in-law and I went to the city to do some grocery shopping and happened to stop at Sally's while they were having a 50% off red tag sale. Can I just say that's the absolute wrong thing to do when you're a nail polish junkie?!?! I ended up getting two China Glaze polishes and one Orly polish for less than $5. YAY!!

Here is one of the China Glaze polishes--a glitter topper called Don't Be A Flake! This one has matte sky blue and black hexes with holographic pink hexes. I did one coat over ellagee Forgetful Lucy. I love that in one coat you get plenty of glitter but can still see your base color!

Also, I apologize for the horrible cuticles and fingers~~allergy season is upon me and I have what the doctor called "dyshidrotic eczema". I always thought it was psoriasis, but no, it is a form of eczema and it is putting my hands through the ringer!! No amount of lotion or cuticle oil is helping! So, my fingers are flaking, and need to listen to my polish "Don't Be A Flake", hahaha!!

Flaky as always,

The Unprofessional Polisher

First Llarowe order part 2, A England

Cheerio! Today I have the second half of my first Llarowe order, A England's Tristam Eyes Princess Sabra. This is my very first A England polish and I must say it is bloody fantastic!

I was looking through Llarowe and this polish caught my eye again and again. In the pictures on Llarowe's website, Tristam Eyes Princess Sabra is a golden linear holo. It is beautiful. Their exact description is, "Gorgeous deep golden taupe holographic nail polish".

Imagine my surprise when I unwrapped Princess Sabra and found she is not, in fact, deep golden taupe, but olive green khaki. Still holographic, still gorgeous, but olive green...not gold. Her holo is also not as pronounced in my pics or in person as the pictures on Llarowe's website. But again, she's beautiful and unique to my collection so I wasn't totally disappointed. I also wore her for 3 days :-)

All in all, my first experience ordering from Llarowe was so-so. I will definitely Google pictures of any polishes I want to purchase from there before buying, as the pics for both the polishes I bought were misleading. I did get unique polishes to add to my collection, but they weren't exactly what I was looking for, and had I known that I wouldn't have purchased these particular ones.

Olive polish,

The Unprofessional Polisher

First Llarowe order Part 1, Dance Legend

Howdy everybody! Today I have one of two polishes I bought in my very first order from Llarowe. I don't know what rock I've been hiding under, but apparently it was a large one since I've been buying lots of polish for about a year now and haven't ever purchased from them!

I've been looking for a delicate pink holographic polish, and this one from Dance Legend caught my eye. It's called Shining Rainbow No. 55. I can't tell you any more than that about the name because the label is in Russian. HA!

This polish is gorgeous, but not exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a linear holo, this one is a scattered holo. Still beautiful, and I wore it for three days, but not exactly what I wanted. The formula was really smooth and it went on great in two coats, but the smell....YOWSERS! The smell is awful! I'm not sure if this is typical of Dance Legend polishes but if it is, I am rethinking my Llarowe wishlist.  I'll still use this polish because it's beautiful and unique to my collection, but the smell is definitely a deterrent.

I also tried to get several different shots of this polish, but my nails and camera weren't in sync that day, haha! But she's still gorgeous!

Pretty in pink,

The Unprofessional Polisher

Sweetheart tips with Zoya!

Since I spent so much money on the Naturel collection from Zoya way back when it came out, I decided to use a couple of them for some nail art that turned out surprisingly pretty and very work appropriate.

In my last Square Hue box, I got a polish called Wailea from the Maui collection. The best way I can describe this color is Barbie skin tan. That's what color it reminds me of! I used it for the base. Then, using sweetheart nail decals, I painted the tips of my pinky, ring, and index fingers with Zoya Odette and my thumb and middle finger with Zoya Rue. I wore this mani for three days, and it stayed beautifully!

Stay cool,

The Unprofessional Polisher

Fast mani makeover :-)

Oh you all...baseball season is making my life crazy! We've been playing two and three nights a week so we can makeup games we missed at the beginning of the season due to Mother Nature's crying jags. I haven't had much time to do my nails, and I've been refreshing two and three day old manis so I don't have to spend much time on them.

This mani started with ellagee The Only Water In The Forest. I describe this color as a dirty mint green. It has shimmer to it too, and I'm on a green kick lately, so I decided I was going to use it even though I've already featured it on the blog :-)

After a couple of days, it was looking pretty scruffy, so I got the idea to use it as the base for a watercolor mani--

For this I used ellagee Forgetful Lucy, a Cover Girl lavender, and Zoya Edie. I just polished on some blobs and used a brush dipped in acetone to mix and smooth them. Then, I topped it with ellagee Rainbow Syrup, because, well, you should Rainbow Syrup all the things!! It took me roughly 20 minutes to do and my mani was refreshed and ready to go for another 2 days :-)

Rainbow Syrup all the things!

The Unprofessional Polisher

You Polish Godric...plus a little extra from Penchantelle

Happy Independence Day to all Americans!

I have a polish collaboration today that I debated on posting here. Not because it isn't awesome, because it SO is, but because it is limited edition and has already sold out. But then I thought, heck, why not share it because it's awesome?!

My son is a Harry Potter FREAK. Every year at school he reads all 7 books. He loves Harry Potter, and makes many quirky references to it in every day conversation :-)...
My friend Heather over at I Feel Polished loves Harry Potter too. I first saw this collaboration on her blog and when my son saw me looking at it, he demanded that I buy it!

This is Godric, a polish made by You Polish, and a Gryffindor bracelet made by Penchantelle. I had never tried either of these companies before so that (more than the son's demands) is the reason I bought this collaboration box!

Godric is a reddish/gold holo...and when I say holo, it is HOLO!!! Even without direct sunlight it beams rainbows! Application was amazing in two coats, although I could have used 3 for the pics. This is my first You Polish and I have to say I am VERY IMPRESSED!! I can't wait to try out more!

The bracelet is made with red and gold beads to reference the Gryffindor House colors. And the little charm is the Golden Snitch! The bracelet is VERY comfy to wear and as soon as I can I will be purchasing more of Penchantelle's work!

The box also came with lightning bolt decals from You Polish and some butter beer lip scrub which my sons promptly ATE. It is edible, but I would have liked to use it on MY lips!!

You can see more of what You Polish has to offer at www.youpolish.com

You can see more of what Penchantelle has to offer at www.penchantelle.com

Have a happy and safe 4^th!

The Unprofessional Polisher