Showing posts with label Ellagee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ellagee. Show all posts

June 1, 2016

Ellagee Jeweled Egg Hunt

Today I have for you yet another polish that I've had sitting around for over a year but never swatched.  This one did make a brief appearance around Christmas, when I made my nail polish Christmas ornaments, and I promised then that I would swatch it eventually.  I guess today is eventually! :)


Jeweled Egg Hunt by Ellagee is a truly stunning holographic glitter.  It's in a clear base, but the glitters are so dense that just two coats over bare nails yields full opacity!


I love the pink and gold color combination, and I love even more the teeny tiny holographic glitters!  Here's yet another polish that makes me feel like I'll need to wear gloves while driving so I don't sit through a green light staring at my nails.


The glitters apply beautifully - almost as smoothly as a creme polish!  I didn't really experience any spreading or wind up with any bare spots on my nails.  A glitter this dense is usually gloopy and difficult to work with, but not this one!  And that's really saying something considering that my bottle is over a year old.


The glitter density of Jeweled Egg Hunt is similar to Black Dahlia Lacquer's Woke Up On 6th Street, which I reviewed on the blog last summer.



For once, I actually got a sunny day while swatching a holo polish!  I was shocked.  Last month was way too cloudy and gloomy.


SHAZAM!!!  I think taking out-of-focus pictures of holo glitters is one of my favorite parts of blogging.  It's so pretty!!!



I took the above photo on my phone, but I'm wishing I'd gotten out my camera and tripod to get this in-focus sunlight shot.  Still, even with less pixels per inch, you can see how beautiful this polish is!

If you like the looks of this polish, I highly recommend you check out Ellagee's entire Bejewled line!  She makes some fabulous-looking holographic glitters (although this is the only one of the line that I own or have used).

What do you think of this polish?  What's your favorite holographic glitter polish?  Let me know in the comments!

December 2, 2015

Christmas Crafting: Nail Polish Ornaments

Got any nail polishes that you love the look of but never wear and don't want to get rid of?  Do you own any Mentality nail polish that you don't feel safe wearing?  Or are you like me, and have a ton of polish and want to actually use some of it up?  Then I've got a craft that I think you'll enjoy!

 

I got this idea from Elizabeth of My World Sparkles Lacquers.  At first I was a little weary to dump out significant amounts of polish at a time, but then I was like "oh please, look at how many bottles of nail polish you have! Do iiiit."  So I bought a 12-pack of small glass ornaments from JoAnn Fabrics (I assume you can find these at most craft stores and pretty much anywhere with a good selection of ornaments) and decked them out!

Elizabeth used much bigger ornaments, so she set hers up on top of open mason jars while they dried.  Since the ornaments that I bought are so small (probably about 1.5" in diameter), I propped mine up on top of opened lotion bottles and their caps.


The process was simple, though a bit lengthy:
1. Pour polish into bulb
2. Swirl polish around, coating entire interior
3. Pour out immediate excess (back into polish bottle - no need to waste yet!)
4. Set ornament tilted downwards, so that no polish will drip out, and allow excess to gather
5. Pour out excess polish (at this point, it's probably thickened enough that you won't want to put it back into the bottle.  I laid out paper towels and newspaper.)
6. Set ornament upright
7. Repeat steps 4-5 if necessary
8. Set ornament upside down and allow to drip out. (Keep an eye on it, though - I let too much polish drip out of one of them and it ended up less opaque than I wanted it!)  Elizabeth put paper towels into her mason jars for this step, but I didn't really want to clean out all of my lotion bottles.  What I ended up doing was only dripping out one ornament at a time into an empty water bottle.
9. Add a second coat if necessary, and repeat steps 1-8 (but don't pour the excess back into the bottle in step 3 if you're using a different color!)

When layering different polishes in these, be sure to do it in the opposite order of painting your nails!  Apply glitters/toppers first, then the base color.

Since I was doing so many of these, I usually started the next ornament after step 3 of the previous one.  It was so much fun!  My dining room was filled with lots of odd scents between the opened lotion bottles and all of the nail polish!  Not exactly the smell I'm used to when decorating for Christmas. :)

Here's a video tutorial of my process:

 

I'm so excited to hang these on our tree this year!  Since we don't have a tree yet (it's in the mail!), I used a bobby pin and my regular light box to take photos of my lovely new ornaments.  Pretty crafty, eh?

Sinful Colors Twilight Twinkles and Sally Hansen CSM Hi Ho Silver
I actually bought Twilight Twinkles specifically for this craft!  I'd hoped that I would use most of it up, but there's still plenty left.  These small ornaments probably only use about 1/4-1/3 of a full-sized bottle of polish.  If you really want to use up a whole bottle of polish, either get bigger ornaments or do multiple ornaments in the same color!

Twisted Colors Elf Vomit and China Glaze White on White
I was hesitant to use Twisted Colors polishes in these ornaments, because sadly Twisted Colors has closed their shop, possibly forever.  But the three Christmas polishes that I got last year are just so perfect for these that I decided to sacrifice some future manis.

Jior Couture Son of a Nutcracker

Nicole by OPI Heavenly Angel and Zoya Mosheen
I considered adding a white background to this one, but I rather like it clear!  Hopefully I can place it strategically in front of a light bulb on the tree so the light can sparkle through.

Okay, I'm going to need to swatch this one soon.  It's amAzing.  All that density is in only two coats!  I'm sure that on the nail, one coat would be almost completely opaque.

Wet n Wild Rockin' Rubies and Sally Hansen CSM Red My Lips
Youch, my phone really messed this one up.  It's nowhere near this neon red in person - and it's actually quite sparkly!  But cameras hate the color red, as I've learned quite well over the past year.

Twisted Colors All Spruced Up and Spoiled by Wet n Wild Green to be Heard
I mean, how could I NOT use this one for an ornament?!  It's so perfect!

Wet n Wild Back Alley Deals and Sally Hansen CSM Blue My Mind
This is the one that I accidentally let too much polish drip out of.  Oops!  I still like it.

Wet n Wild Diamond in the Rough and Hi Ho Silver
The Wet n Wild polish is actually pretty black, but even two coats of it was super sheer in the ornament.  I chose to use a silver background because I figured black would be a bit too dark for a Christmas ornament!  (As in, literally too dark.  Not that I think black is too depressing or whatever.)

Twisted Colors Star of Wonder and Essie Style Cartel
Unghhh. So pretty!  It's much darker and more sparkly in person, but as always, dark colors + camera = bleh.

 
Jior Couture Means a Little Bit More and 
Creative Cuticles Nail Polish Please Have Snow and Mistletoe
I couldn't decide which of these glitters I'd prefer to use, so I mixed them!  I really like the glitter ornaments that I didn't add a background color to.  They look like snowglobes!


Wet n Wild 24 Carats
The little flakes don't show up so well in this shot, but this polish has some gorgeous red flakies in it!  It's super gorgeous and very Christmasy.

Have you ever done anything like this?  What are your favorite Christmas/holiday decorations?  Let me know in the comments!

June 16, 2015

Ellagee: Glimmering Sapphire

Oh my gosh, this post has been sitting around in my Drafts section for months!  I think I need to start double-checking my drafts section more often!

Ever since I got a new car back in October, I've been on a quest to find a nail polish that matches it.  Because, why not?  It's a beautiful sparkly dark blue and, since I'm a nerd, I named it the TARDIS.  (My previous two cars were silver and light blue, so they were the Millennium Falcon and R2D2, respectively.)

On my quest to find a matching polish, I've come across a few that look pretty close, but Glimmering Sapphire by Ellagee looked the best online!  It's a bit more sparkly and glossy than my car (although she might just need a wash), but it's a pretty darned close match.


The formula of Glimmering Sapphire was kind of on the goopy side.  It was thick, and I found that shaking it after every couple of nails made it easier to work with.  But my polishes sit in my Helmer, which is a metal unit that sits underneath a drafty basement window, and it's winter (well, it was when I wrote this post, anyway).  It could be that the polish was too cold, and cold polish is almost always going to be thick.  Perhaps I should sit on my nail polishes for a few minutes before using them in the winter...

 

So, aside from the thickness which could well be my fault, I really like this polish!  It definitely needs two coats - I had guessed that its deep color would allow it to be almost, if not entirely, a one-coater, but the base is somewhat sheer at one coat.  Totally not a problem as I usually prefer to use two coats of polish anyway!  And two coats is perfect opacity.  It definitely wouldn't need three.

The color is truly gorgeous.  In dim light it's a pretty sparkly blue, but in brighter lighting the sparkle is absolutely stunning, and the overall color looks brighter!

Out of focus to better show its sparkle!

Ellagee actually makes a polish that's inspired by The TARDIS - called Sexy Old Girl - and at first I thought I'd get that one to match my car, but that one is definitely brighter and more glittery than my car.  I did, however, buy the TARDIS pendant that Ellagee sells, and it hangs from my rear view mirror! :)


Glimmering Sapphire is from Ellagee's Sparkling Gemstones collection and has a glittery partner, called Crushed Sapphire.

Do any of you name your cars after nerdy things?  Anyone else have a polish that matches their car?  Let me know in the comments!

PS - if you have a few minutes, I would really appreciate it if you took my survey!  I want to know what you think of the blog, how you interact with it on social media, and some other various details.  It should only take about 5-8 minutes, and who knows, your responses may lead to more of your favorite types of posts on the blog!