Review: Ellagee Beach Bum Sun-Bleached Neon Cremes, All Summer Long glitters, and Lickity Split Latex Mani Mask!

(Press Sample)

Hello!

Today I have some of the most fun, most summery polishes I've seen: two polishes from Ellagee's Beach Bum Sun-Bleached Neon Cremes collection and two from her All Summer Long glitter collection. Plus, I'm going to test out her Lickity Split Latex Mani Mask and see how that works!

Ellagee Salty Breeze and Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Bubble Up and Flutterby Garden

The Beach Bum Sun-Bleached Neon Cremes collection has seven bright-but-not-too-bright summer shades with a semi-matte finish. As the name implies, these colors aren't your typical summer neons, they have a subtle sophistication to them while still maintaining the traditional neon palette. If you're like me and you're not into the highlighter-intensity neons, this collection is for you: if regular neons are Courtney Love, these polishes are Gwen Stefani.

Let's start with Salty Breeze, a radiant orchid creme:

Ellagee Salty Breeze

Ellagee Salty Breeze

Ellagee Salty Breeze

This is two easy coats with no topcoat, to show off the flawless semi-matte finish. The formula was excellent--applied like butter with no patchiness or other issues. Good coverage, fast dry time.

But let's say you aren't in the mood for a semi-matter finish; here's how Salty Breeze looks with a coat of Seche Vite:

Ellagee Salty Breeze with topcoat

Ellagee Salty Breeze with topcoat

Ellagee Salty Breeze with topcoat

Either way, this polish is perfection. It's English gardens and pretty sundresses. It's afternoon tea and strolls on the beach with your sweetie. It's feminine and universally flattering, and I think the sun-bleached finish is unique and romantic.



The second polish I received from this collection is Seaside Cottage, a lemony-avocado creme:

Ellagee Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Seaside Cottage

This is two thick coats; I found the formula to be a little thinner on this one, so I was generous on my second coat. Once I did that, I had full coverage without a problem. Application was amazing again--smooth, no pooling or pulling. Wonderful.

Still not sure why you'd want to cover the awesome finish, but if you just gotta get some shine, here's how it looks with topcoat:

Ellagee Seaside Cottage with topcoat

Ellagee Seaside Cottage with topcoat

Ellagee Seaside Cottage with topcoat

I can't say enough about this color, I'm so glad it's one of the two I received! This is the sort of color that can be over-the-top when done in neon, but the sun-bleached version gives it a softness while still maintaining the edge. It makes me want to throw on my bathing suit and a flowing cover and go lounge by the pool. It makes me want to run down to the beach and learn how to surf. Nah, forget that--I wouldn't want to ruin my nails--I'll watch my honey surf while I use my gorgeous manicure to flip the pages of my magazine.



So, how do you make an awesome polish even better? Duh, add glitter, of course. And Ellagee's All Summer Long collection has ten bright, fun glitters to help you get your summer groove on.


Bubble Up is a blend of pink, purple, green, and blue neon circle glitters that are simply joy in a bottle:

Ellagee Bubble Up over Ellagee Salty Breeze

Ellagee Bubble Up over Ellagee Salty Breeze

Ellagee Bubble Up over Ellagee Salty Breeze

This is one partly-brushed-partly-dabbed coat of Bubble Up over Salty Breeze. Application was good--I didn't get the massive pile-up you get with some circle-glitter blends, although you will want to dab a bit to get the colors and sizes you want where you want them. I didn't find any need to do anything other than give a gentle shake to the bottle to get the bigger circles out; no fishing necessary. Here's the same treatment over Seaside Cottage:

Ellagee Bubble Up over Ellagee Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Bubble Up over Ellagee Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Bubble Up over Ellagee Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Bubble Up over Ellagee Seaside Cottage

I absolutely live for this glitter. It's whimsical, it's happy, it's like my own little bottle of sweet tarts or gumdrops. If this glitter doesn't bring sunshine and smiles into your day when you wear it, something is very wrong with your soul and you should go have that checked. ;-)


The second polish I received from this collection is Flutterby Garden, a mix of circle and flower glitters in orange, pink, yellow, lilac, and green, with black butterflies thrown in to keep you on your toes:

Ellagee Flutterby Garden over Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Flutterby Garden over Seaside Cottage

Ellagee Flutterby Garden over Seaside Cottage

Neons are notoriously shy about having their picture taken, so I took this angled picture to give you a better feel for how truly vibrant they are: 

Ellagee Flutterby Garden over Seaside Cottage

You all know I'm not a flowers-and-butterflies kind of girl, normally. But if the flowers are neon and the butterflies are black, oh heck yeah, sign me up! There are a couple of other glitters in the collection that have butterflies in other colors if you're not into the black butterflies. But I think this gives spice and edge to a typically sweet theme; this is a hot take on garden chic.

This is one application of dabbed polish topped with Seche Vite. I didn't have a problem getting out the flowers; you do have to fish for the butterflies, but you can get around that by turning the bottle upside-down briefly. And I mean briefly--I did it for about 30 seconds and I had plenty of butterflies to choose from.

If you're like me and have very curvy nails, the butterfly glitters may scare you, because the size and the edges will refuse to lie flat. I found that if I put on a second generous coat of Seche Vite (other thick topcoats will probably work, too), that was enough to cover the butterflies so they wouldn't snag on things and pull off. I wore this for three days to test it out and didn't lose a single butterfly.

One of the things I love about this glitter is, it's easy nail art in a bottle. To show you what I mean, I did a little bit of strategic dabbing to create a fast flower scene:

Ellagee Flutterby Garden over Salty Breeze

Ellagee Flutterby Garden over Salty Breeze

That pretty look took me literally two minutes to make--how's that for nail art on the run when you're in a time pinch?


I have one last goodie to show you...Laura included a bottle of her Lickity Split Latex Mani Mask into my package for me to try out. I don't have to tell you nail art is messy, and I'm always looking for the best way to make it easy as possible.

Ellagee Lickity Split Latex Mani Mask

I'm sure you've seen other versions of this that cost quite a lot, and I recently reviewed a very inexpensive version from Amazon. If wish I'd tried out Ellagee's version before I bought the other one, because it has better quality and a very affordable price.

Here's how Lickity Split Latex Mani Mask works:

1) Apply the latex around your nail. Try not to get any onto your nails, because it will act as a mask on your nail as well if you do (note that you can do it on purpose if you want to keep part of your nail untouched!). Don't worry if it gets down in your cuticles (notice I had a little bit do that), it will come right out with a gentle push from a toothpick:

Apply around cuticles

2)Wait for it to dry: 

Wait for it to dry--notice I still have a wet part on the upper right hand part of my ring finger.

Here's where I saw the big difference in quality. While Ellagee's version took a teeny bit little longer to dry (I'm talking 1 minute vs. 30 seconds with the other product), that tiny extra wait was more than worth it, and here's why. With the other version I tried, if the latex on one finger came into contact with the latex on another other finger, it would stick together and start to pull off. That did not happen with the Ellagee version!! This mask is thicker and doesn't instantly bond together when dry. I purposefully let my fingers bump into each other and had no issues, which is sooo much nicer to work with. I'm extremely happy to wait an extra half a second for a product that doesn't stick to itself, so I don't have to constantly worry about my fingers touching each other while I'm doing my nail art, or take forever doing them one-by-one.


3) Do your nail art thang!

Do that nail art thang you do so well

4) Peel the latex back from around the nail, and voila! 

Peel off the latex! 

This is so easy to pull off, I'm literally pulling it off with the same hand I'm using to take the picture. No joke.

You can see I have a little residual polish left, but that's so minor compared to what you're normally left with, especially when you do splatter manis or watermarbles. This solution is paradise; so much better than wrapping your nails in tape or having to use a ton of acetone to clean up.  And Ellagee's version goes for $4.50 a bottle, which is only about a quarter of what you'd pay for a smaller bottle elsewhere.  My summary: reasonable price, doesn't stick to itself, works beautifully, and I don't have to decant it? Sold.

But hey! What if you're allergic to latex?! No worries, she also has a latex-free version you can find here. :)


Ellagee has always been a quality brand, so I'm not surprised that these polishes are outstanding in concept and quality, and I'm very happy to recommend them. Don't wait around before you go grab yours--one of the other sun-bleached neons in the collection is already sold out. And while you're there, check out her accessories section; she has fun bling for your bottles and your keychains, too.

You can find Ellagee's website by clicking here; you can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Happy polishing!
M.

Review: Liquid Latex

(Contains affiliate links)

Hello!!

Remember that purple stuff that I had on my nails the other day that I said was not Liquid Palisade? I'm back to tell you what it is, and why I think you'll prefer it.

I am not made of money, nor do I have a money tree. I'm guessing neither do you. So while I loved the idea of Liquid Palisade, I wasn't too fond of the $22 price tag for a small bottle. Especially when I change my nail art 3-5 times a week.

But, I will admit that I avoid certain messy nail art techniques because they are just too messy for me. Splatter, watermarble, waterspotting, spun sugar, and yes, even gradients at times. I've tried every other suggestion to ease clean up, and nothing worked to my satisfaction.

Then my friend Jenna from Inky Whisker's Musings shared a secret which made all the bad go away, and allowed happiness to reign over my world again: Liquid Latex.

Liquid Latex

She did a post on her blog about this, and I had to try it out. Following her suggestion, I bought this through Amazon; it costs $10 for 4 oz, and 4 oz will probably last you most of your natural life, unless you leave the top off and it dries out. Also at her suggestion, I decanted it into an empty polish bottle, for ease of application:

If you don't have an empty bottle, go to the dollar store and buy the cheapest bottle of polish you can find (something 4-for-a-dollar if you're lucky), dump it out, and fill it with this.

Now, as Shakespeare once said, the course of true love never did run true, and I had some problems with this. They had nothing to do with the product, and everything to do with me being a complete clutz. But on the off-chance that you have clutzy moments like me, here's a word to the wise. Be careful when you open the jar. For some reason, I thought it was going to be fairly thick--it is not. It's very watery, and I splashed it everywhere, including my jeans and carpet. While this will peel right off of smooth surfaces when it dries (tables, skin, even a plastic bag), not so much off jeans and carpet. The same lesson is relevant when you pour this into your bottle--use a plastic funnel or make one from a sheet of paper. Otherwise you will end up with 3 parts liquid latex on the counter to every 1 part that makes it in your bottle. 'Nuff said.


Once you have it in your bottle, you simply brush it on to the skin surrounding your nails:

Liquid latex is sticky!!!

As you can see, I had no problems getting close to my nails. This is one quick coat put on in three strokes--one on each side of the nail, and one across the top. As you can also see, if you allow the latex to touch itself, it will stick together:

One other thing I want you to note about this close-up--see on the pinky, how I came down a little from the top of the cuticle, onto the blue polish? We'll see what happened as a result of that in a minute.

The latex dried very quickly; by the time I finished applying it to my last nail, the first was dried; I'd estimate about 20-30 seconds dry time.


To test it out, I did the gradient that you saw in my last manicure; here's what it looked like after I finished applying the polish:

Liquid latex after gradient technique

My application was about right to catch all of the extra polish that I normally would have had to remove with acetone. It's hard to see in the picture, but on my ring finger a little bit went past the latex on to my skin at the top left; you can see the residual in the next picture below, when the latex is removed.

Peel off that latex, baby!

Next you just peel off the latex. It comes off very easily, mostly in one piece for me, with no muss of fuss. I was impressed to see that it took off almost all of the excess polish:

Liquid Latex leavings

There is some residual left, but it's small enough that it can be quickly removed with a little acetone and a brush, MUCH better than having to deal with all of that mess.

And while it might be tempting to try to paint as close as you can to your polish, beware--look at what happened to the top of my pinky where I accidentally overlapped the latex onto the polish. When I peeled off the latex, it took that bit of gradient right along with it. Which also means you can do some cool things with the liquid latex by painting it directly ON to your nails for nail art techniques; I thought Inky had done some art with that too, but I couldn't find it, so maybe it only existed in my mind! Either way, it's a good idea. :)

Inky also mentioned that if you get some of it down in the area between your polish and your cuticle and it doesn't come off when you peel, use a small dotting tool, orange stick, or similar pointy implement to get it out. :)

So, what's my verdict on this? Oh, heck yeah!! This is going to open up my world to a bunch of techniques that I tend to avoid like the plague. I highly recommend it, and send a huge shout-out to Inky for cluing me in to it!! You can get yours here. :)

Hugs and happy latexing,
M.