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

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

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

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!!

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!

Oscar the Grouch nails

I'm not sure what exactly happened with this manicure. One of my favorite glitter toppers is from Different Dimension and it's called To Infinity And Beyond. It's part of the You've Got A Friend In Me duo...and being in love with Toy Story I had to buy it. Also, I tell my boys all the time I love them to infinity and beyond because they loved Toy Story when they were little and they identified with it :-)

I had ellagee's Bashful Sadie that I used for tips on another mani, but I wanted to use it as a base for this one. It's a minty green cream and since To Infinity has lime green and green glitters as well as purple, silver, and white, the colors of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, I thought "Whoa, that'll be perfect!"

Um. Not so much.

When I did these, my niece was over and when I got them finished I said, "Wow, these so look like Oscar the Grouch nails!" And she agreed 100%. And so the name was born...

So not what I was trying for take 2

This month has not been my lucky month for nail art working out how I intended. For this mani, I was trying to go for a sunset, sea, and sand look using three polishes from the ellagee Laule'a collection. I started by painting all my nails with Golden Sands of Waikiki, a beautiful gold shimmer polish. Then using a ripped up makeup sponge I sponged Haleakala Sunrise (a beautiful pink shimmer) near my cuticles for the sunset and Lanikai Beach (an ocean colored shimmer) in the middle of my nail for the sea. Then using ellagee A Kiss For Luck (a glitter top coat with iridescent glitters) I sponged over Golden Sands for the spray coming up on the beach from the ocean. This looked so beautiful and gorgeously beachy in my head...

I think my first mistake was starting with a base of Golden Sands. I should have started with a base of Haleakala Sunrise, then sponged the Lanikai Beach and Golden Sands over the top of it. Also, I think I should have used less Lanikai Beach as the blue seems to absolutely dominate in this mani.

All in all this isn't horrible, but it definitely didn't turn out how I planned. I'm going to try to learn from my mistakes and hopefully round 2 turns out better!

ellagee Laule'a collection, Part 1 :-D

Whew, ok so today I have for you all the first of two posts on the ellagee Laule'a collection. Let me tell you a little about this collection, from my point of view.

The last two collections Laura from ellagee came out with I liked, but I wasn't crazy over the top for them. So I knew when she announced she was doing a collection based on Hawaii I was in trouble. I started saving money back as soon as I heard the whispers. Then she released these. And I bought 7 of 8. Sigh. I knew it was coming. I was prepared. However I'm very quickly running out of room for all my polish, and Laura isn't helping :-) !!

Onto the beauties!!

This is Pua Melia. It is my favorite of all 7 I bought. Holy smokes, I LOVE this polish! It is everything a summery Hawaiian polish should be! It's got yellow and orange and pink and iridescent glitters with a white crelly base. CRELLY. PINK GLITTER. I'm in love!! Plus the formula is awesome and it wears so well!

Next up is Golden Sands of Waikiki. This was the sleeper of the group. I wasn't going to buy it, then I thought oh hell, I'm already buying 6 what's one more? Plus I don't have this particular shade of golden brown shimmer *wink* *wink* I was totally blown away! I didn't expect to like it, but I actually LOVED it! The color is so beautiful and looks so pretty with my skin tone! Formula on this one is a little streaky and it dried to a powdery like finish without topcoat. I have never bought an indie shimmer polish before though so that may be par for the course. These shimmers don't last as long as other ellagee polishes I have, and your brush strokes do kind of show if you're not careful! Also, this was a 3 coater for me.

Last for this post is Haleakala Sunrise. I can't pronounce it, but it must be Hawaiian for GORGEOUS!!! This was my #2 fave of the group. I am a sucker for pinks, and this one did not disappoint. In fact I'm still trying to figure out how to wear it again already without you guys figuring out I'm wearing it again. And again. And again :-) Formula on this one was a little streaky and thin and it was also a 3 coater, but OMG I love the color so much I didn't care! It also dried to a powdery like finish without topcoat. 

Stay tuned for installment #2 of the Laule'a collection coming on Friday!!