Zoya Brigitte

Ok this is the last polish I have in the untrieds bin from the Zoya Naturel collection. I know why I've been putting off using this polish...all the others in this collection have made me look like I have a bad case of mannequin hands!! So I was reluctant to try this one.

Brigitte is probably one of my favorites from the Naturel collection though. It's described as a bombshell mauve cream. I'm not certain I know of any bombshells wearing mauve lately, but the description is very true to color. It's a very mature looking polish, and very work appropriate! Formula was amazing and I have no complaints!

Happy Monday!

The Unprofessional Polisher

Twin Nails #2 with I Feel Polished!

Today I have a twin nails post with my friend and fellow blogger, Heather at I Feel Polished! I was needing some inspiration for our twin nails, and one day it was right in front of me...my shower curtain!! Here's what I came up with:

For these nails, I started with two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Then I used one coat of ellagee Rainbow Syrup to give it a sort of opaque sheen since my shower curtain is not clear but grayed out. Then, using a dotting tool I alternated dots of Zoya Pippa, Revlon Urban, Zoya Tangy, ellagee Delphinium, and ellagee Bashful Sadie! It's pretty darn close to what my shower curtain looks like!

And here are Heather's nails:

And here are our nails together in an awesome collage Heather did for me:

It's so much fun doing twin nail posts, especially with Heather who has been so supportive and encouraging when it comes to my blogging! She's an inspiration and a very lovely lady inside and out!!

Have a great weekend!

The Unprofessional Polisher

ellagee 1985

Ohmygawd, I like, totally have some, like, totally awesome neon nail polishes to, like, show you today!

Ok, I can't talk like that anymore! Missourian does Valley Girl doesn't really work lol!

I have 3 polishes from ellagee's 1985 collection for you! They are NEON, they are SHIMMER, they are GLITTER, and they are absolutely CRAZY awesome! What can I say, I'm a child of the '80s and I love me some neon polishes :-)

First up is Like, Totally Coral. It is a shimmery coral neon with a pink tone. I love this polish because A) it's a neon and B) it's the only coral polish I own that doesn't look carrot orange on me. Formula on this was superb for a neon. Typically neon polishes are streaky because of the pigments used, and this one was awesome. I loved it so much and it wore so well I had it on for FOUR DAYS! That is absolutely unheard of for me! Like with most neons, to get the color to really pop it should be applied over a white base. Here is two coats of Like, Totally Coral over white:

In my "lightbox" aka the bathroom sink:

In natural light--pardon my foot I didn't see til just now :-\

With an LED light--I love how you can see the pink shimmer in this one!!

Lime-O-Rama is exactly what the name suggests...it's a lime green neon polish! My son says it's "Mountain Dew can green". I say it's AWESOME! Formula on this one was a little streakier than Like, Totally Coral, but I was also in a hurry to get my nails done because we had a ballgame to get to, so it could be that I wasn't as careful with the undies on this one.

Lightbox

With flash--look at the shimmer <3!

Full sunlight:

Last but certainly not least is Bust A Move, a glitter topper with matte neon blue glitter shreds and hexes and holographic purple squares. I have to admit, I bought this JUST for the name. And every time I say it or type it, I start singing the song!!! Shown here over Like, Totally Coral:

Lightbox:

Natural light:

All in all I LOVE this collection and wish I could have gotten them all! Like, Totally Coral and Lime-O-Rama both retail for $9.50 and Bust A Move retails for $9 and all three plus the rest of the 1985 collection can be found at www.ellagee.com!

See ya on the flip side, yo!

The Unprofessional Polisher

America the Beautiful by ellagee!

Hey everyone! Today I have three polishes from the America the Beautiful collection by ellagee. I am very much a patriot, and wish our great nation could regress to some of the principals our founding fathers held near and dear, but alas I don't think that's going to happen any time soon. My brother fought for this nation and was wounded in Kuwait in 2005, and every time I hear the national anthem I tear up a bit. When I saw this collection, I knew I had to get them!!!

First up is Give Me Liberty, a red jelly with tiny holographic glitter. O.M.G. SOOOO pretty! The holographic glitter makes it look like tiny fireworks are going off when you move your fingers! Application was smooth, and the pictures below show two coats. For the pics I probably could have used another coat, but in real life there was no visible nail line. I actually wore this polish for 3 days without any tip wear or chipping! And I had no staining upon removal ;-)

Next up is Let Freedom Ring, the blue jelly counterpart to Give Me Liberty. Again it's full of holographic glitters...my stars but it is gorgeous! Of course, I love all blue polish but this one, WOW! Formula was smooth and long wearing and it didn't stain! Again the pics are two coats but I probably could have used three.

Last but certainly not least is Our Flag Was Still There, a gorgeous red, blue, silver, and white texture polish! Oh my, but it is sparkly!! I decided to use it over Let Freedom Ring for some nail art! Formula on this one was a little thick but it's a texture so that's completely normal. And WOW! I got TONS of complements on this! Plus, our school colors are red and blue, so I wore it to my boys' baseball game and it was totally fun!

All in all, I'm so glad I bought these polishes because all three can be used at other times besides Independence Day time! All were definitely the quality I've come to know and love from ellagee! If you're interested in getting them for yourself, visit www.ellagee.com! Give Me Liberty and Let Freedom Ring both retail for $9.50, Our Flag Was Still There retails for $10.00.

Ever patriotic,

The Unprofessional Polisher

This is puzzling...

Hah! Not really! Today on the blog I have some puzzle and stripe nail art that I think turned out really well, despite the time it took to do it :-)!!

First, I started out with two coats of Zoya Wednesday, a medium turquiose blue-green cream. Then I used one coat of top coat. After it dried, I taped off my ring fingers and thumbs like a window using striping tape. Then, using Zoya Ziv, a metallic gold foil, I painted the corners of the "window" gold and pulled off the tape. Using a large dotting tool I then dotted on the top and side of the Ziv square to make a puzzle piece. On my pinkie, middle, and index fingers I used gold foil striping tape to make two stripes going random directions.

I love the combination of Ziv and Wednesday, but if I had it to do again I wouldn't have bothered with the striping tape! I think the puzzle pieces are cute on their own! Although Ziv is a little difficult on clean up so next time I'll have to be extra careful with her!

Zoya Giovanna

Today I have a polish that's been in my untrieds bin for a while. I got it back on the Zoya Earth Day Sale, and I'm not sure why I haven't used it, but here it is!

Zoya Giovanna is described on Zoya's website as an emerald green metallic. I say she's more of a duochrome...in some lights she looks emerald green, in others she almost looks dark teal and in any light she has a silvery sheen.

Formula on this polish was fabulous, and I didn't have to worry about brush strokes at all. However, she chipped within the first day even after I sealed my tips very well and SHE'S A STAINER!!!! I was so disappointed that I got chips and then imagine my surprise when removing her after 24 hours of wear I had green finger tips and nails! It was nothing a little soak in baking soda and peroxide didn't take care of, but for a polish this gorgeous Giovanna was a major let down for me!

Neon dotticure!!!

I am so excited about the mani I have on the blog today! I already posted them once to my Instagram because I couldn't wait to share them with you all!

We've already established I am a neon lover, mostly because as I said before, I grew up in the 80s. So I decided to do some nail art using neon polishes.

After a couple of fails with what I had planned, I went with a simple neon french manicure. Then I thought, "You know, these are cool but they could be spiced up some. What could take these nails from bright to obnoxious?" The answer? MORE NEON! That's when I decided to add the dots :-)

For these nails, I began with one thicker coat of Sinful Colors Snow White. I let it dry for about 5 minutes. Then I used China Glaze Pink Voltage and polished my entire nail. I let that dry for about 15-20 minutes. I watched Deadwood on Amazon while I was waiting :-)...I'm trying to clear out my watchlist to make room for new shows but I keep adding things to it! After Pink Voltage was try I used striping tape to tape off the last 1/4th of my nail. Using Orly Melt Your Popsicle I polished the tips. I let that dry for about 5 minutes then I used ellagee Glass topcoat.

After the topcoat, using a small dotting tool and a very small dotting tool I dotted Snow White onto my nails in a pattern I liked. Then I went back over the Snow White using China Glaze Towel Boy Toy for the larger dots and Heart2Art You Had Me At Yellow for the smaller dots. After letting the dots dry for about 45 minutes, I went over my nails again with Glass topcoat to finish them off!

I absolutely love this mani!! It is so bright and fun and summery, plus it's a treat to look at, and tons of people have commented on it already! Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Also, don't forget to follow the blog via Bloglovin, like me on Facebook, and follow me on Pinterest and Instagram!!!

Happy Hump Day!

The Unprofessional Polisher

OPI Sheer Jelly Sandwich

I haven't done a lot of nail art lately, mostly because it's ball season for us right now and with two boys playing (on the same team at least!) I don't have a lot of time to sit down and do involved manis! But, I've gotten tired of just polishing and going on, so I jazzed things up a bit!

I love pink, and I love glitter, and a few months ago I bought 2 OPI Sheer Tints. And this one has been sitting in the untrieds bin just waiting to be used. It's Be Magentale With Me, a pink sheer polish that OPI created to use to give a pink tint to any nail polish. Well, I decided to use it in a jelly sandwich of sorts!

First, I painted basecoat then one coat of Be Magentale With Me. Then I used ellagee Loved By No One More Than Me, a glitter topcoat with silver and pink circle glitter and silver shimmer. Next I used another coat of Be Magentale then used topcoat over that. I loved this mani, and it totally reminded me of one of my fave ellagee polishes, Shirley Temple, only not thermal :-)

Although I loved this mani, I hated that I had VNL because everything I used was sheer, plus can I just say removal was HORRIBLE!!! It was basically like removing basecoat and 4 layers of topcoat with glitter! Even the tried and true cotton ball/acetone/rubber fingers method didn't cut it completely. Next time I think I'll use something else and save Be Magentale With Me for what it was truly intended for...like spicing up all those nude cream Zoyas I bought!!

Orly Melt Your Popsicle!!

Ok, so I've kind of been on a neon kick lately, and really, who in the polish world isn't right now? It's summer, and summer makes me think of neon bright shades! Plus, I grew up in the '80s when neon colored clothes, shoes, and accessories were THE in thing and I haven't really grown out of that ;-)

That being said, today I have Orly's Melt Your Popsicle, an awesome neon orange polish I got on my first ever trip to Sally's Beauty Supply. I've been missing out all these years!!! I bought quite a bit of stuff and found my lotion Holy Grail. And the beauty below:

This polish is a neon orange cream that dries matte so I used a glossy topcoat. I didn't put undies on with it either and used three coats for the pics here. Next time I will definitely use white underneath to make it pop even more and so I don't have to use so much, but as you can see, it didn't need the undies to glow! The formula was smooth and self leveled beautifully, and I wish I could say it had a long wear time but I decided to detail my car the day after I polished with this and it didn't survive the vacuuming, washing, and waxing :-( It's definitely on my list to use again, and SOON!!

NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost

Hey y'all! Hope you're having a fabulous week! It's halfway over, right?!?!

Today I have a review of an NYC polish called Broadway Burgundy Frost. Now, I'm a red fan. A huge red fan! And I've also been kind of a polish snob lately only buying Zoya and my fave indie, ellagee. So when I read some reviews of NYC nail colors and saw some of the colors available on their website, I thought, "Eh, what the heck, I'll try it and see!"

Then, I had to actually FIND NYC polish!!

Their website says they're sold at RiteAid, Walmart, CVS, Target, DuaneReade, and Kmart. Ok. However I checked the only CVS close to me and they didn't have it. I don't even know where the nearest RiteAid is, and I've never even heard of DuaneReade. I also checked the local Walmart store I normally go to and they didn't have it either! The nearest Target and Kmart are 60+ miles away and there was no way I was driving that far for $1 nail polish!! Luckily the other local Walmart store carries it, so I did eventually find it! Whew!! That was a lot of work for nail polish! Side note--I live in the boonies. That's right between BFE and the middle of nowhere. I'm 30 minutes from the nearest Walmart and fast food. It's nuts!

Anyway, so I bought two, and this one was $0.72 at Walmart. Can I tell you how much I love the color?? It is really gorgeous in the sunlight!

I decided I was going to wear this polish until it chipped so I could give an honest review of how well it lasted. Sadly, it was chipped within a day so I only wore it roughly 24 hours. However, the formula was really good on this polish. It went on smoothly and self-leveled really nicely. Also, it didn't stain my nails or cuticles while I wore it or while removing it. I did use a basecoat as always. So, the staying power isn't great but the formula is, the color is gorgeous, and it's non-staining. For $0.72, I'll definitely buy more!!

If you have any suggestions on cheaper drugstore polishes, comment and I'll try 'em!

Neon Rainbows!

Ok so I have a mani for you today that is so simple, yet I loved it so much after three days I was loath to take it off. Maybe because it was bright and almost obnoxious, maybe because it was a little holo-y, maybe because after three days it still hadn't chipped!!! Anyway, I LOVE this one, I think behind my brown and pink dotticure this one is my favorite I've posted since starting my blog.

One thing I hate about neon polishes is that they are SO HARD to photograph! Their neon goodness never seems to show through. For this mani I used two coats of Sinful Colors Snow White, then one coat of Fing'rs Heart 2 Art You Had Me At Yellow (for someone who is a Jerry Maguire fanatic and likes Kenny Chesney, I couldn't pass this polish up simply on principle) a neon, highlighter yellow cream. Then, I used one coat of ellagee Rainbow Syrup to make it a little holo-y.

I was so disappointed that the pictures didn't show the neon or the holo goodness of this mani. So I got a brilliant idea...

I stood in a dim area of the house where there was enough light the flash wouldn't go off. Then I held a small LED flashlight under my chin pointed at my hand and took a picture.

VOILA!!!! Neon rainbows!!!

Bowling-ish dots!!

Today I have a fun manicure I did on a whim one day...and I think it turned out pretty cute!

Nothing makes me happier than the combination of red and white. Mostly because I'm a Cardinals fan and, well, those are their uniform colors! So while I had Nie-cy French Vanilla on, I suddenly thought, why not add some fun red polka dots?!?!

Using a small dotting tool and OPI Wocka Wocka (I LOVE that name!!), I put red dots all over the index and ring finger of my left hand and the middle, pinky, and thumb of my right hand. Then I put a triangle of dots on the remaining nails. I call these bowling-ish nails because the triangle of dots reminds me of the dots on a bowling lane where you can line up your ball (not that I ever actually USE them, but nonetheless)! These were fun and I wore them for 2 days!!