ellagee's 1985 Neon Shimmer Collection!

Please note that these products were generously provided to me for review by Laura Garrett, owner and creator of ellagee Handcrafted Nail Polish.  The compensation in exchange for this review is pictured below, and provided polishes/gifts are graciously accepted and do not affect my opinions regarding the products.  This blog review post is my honest opinion for the owner's and any consumers' benefit.  I would like to thank Laura again for giving me this opportunity, especially since I am obsessed with her creations now!  :)

(Warning: Post is pic heavy!!)

These babies glow under UV light!
Photo borrowed with permission from ellagee's Etsy shop

Photo borrowed with permission from ellagee's Etsy shop

So after a long, anxious wait (thanks a ton, post office!!!) I finally received the AMAZING samples Laura sent me to review from her new 1985 Neon Shimmer Collection!  I cannot tell you guys enough how impressed I am with these colors and how badly I want to get a couple more of them!

As before Laura sent me a sweet little package with a note & some Smarties (mm mm!).

Yay! Her business card was included as well!

 

L-R "Dude!," "Like, Totally Coral," & "Totally Blue-bular"

Let's start with the basics for each color so I don't overwhelm you with redundancy.  Firstly I put down a single coat of Sinful Color's Snow Me White under two coat of each of the neons.  Unless otherwise stated I used my Orly Top to Bottom as a base and didn't use any top coat because these colors are seriously stunning on their own!  The formula for each one was bliss to use.  The first coat goes on evenly and very pretty and only becomes sheer when you're running out of polish on the brush.  The second coat was for good measure and did not give me any grief: no clumping, no streaking, no dragging.  The few times I did have an issue (because I'm a klutz and my orangewood stick drug a little extra off the top or side) I was actually, believe it or not, able to dab a little bit of color correctively to the area and it just melted right together!!!  It's such a forgiving formula.  Most colors would streak or they would look like a messy coat on top, but not these.  I don't know how she did it, but she left me wishing every neon I grab could be such a pleasure to use.

These beautiful shades are neon so they dry to a sort of matte finish, but they have a shimmer in them that makes them so super unique.  They look almost velvety when dry and I took like... a zillion pictures of these shades! 

Oh, and check out who else was impressed with these colors!  C helped herself before I even got to take pics of the goodies!!!

 

First up is "Totally Blue-bular," which Laura describes as a "blue neon glammed up with a soft white shimmer."  I love this color!  Totally Blue-bular glows from within.  There are a couple of blue neons on my shelf and I honestly hate one of them (I won't name names, but a little *sparrow* will tell you that it is a glitter matte finish...).  I was so happy that the ellagee shades do not dry with the ugly neon matte texture some mainstream colors have that make them look cheap.

Look at that shimmer!!!

 Now, being that the first thing I thought with this color was "woah it glows from within," I remember someone once described Max Factor Fantasy Fire this way, so I thought it would be fun to see what a coat of Fantasy Fire would look like over this, so here it is:

Next up is  "Like, Totally Coral," which also has the lovely soft white shimmer.  This color is super warm and summery!  I don't think my skin tone wears it as nicely as I hoped it would, but it is soooo beautiful.  As with the other colors the formula is super impressive!  This one looked a little more matte than the others so in the pics I used a coat of Seche Vite on the first two fingers to see how it would look.  It's funny, you can hardly tell in the pic that the bottom two fingers are more matte.

 I saved my favorite for last, of course!  "Dude!" is truly the most amazing yellow neon polish I have ever seen.  It is the highlighter neon yellow that I have DREAMED of ever since I became obsessed with polish.  So, Laura, thank you, and I cannot wait to buy a full size and never, ever, ever share it! LOL

Perfect formula, super glowy, and no top coat.  Also, I'm including a shade pic to show you that it practically glows no matter what.  Even in my living room in the dim light I felt like it could almost be glow in the dark.

Shade, outdoors

What do you think of these!?  I absolutely must get myself a full size of Dude! and of Lime-o-rama.  They are just too amazing to pass up.

You can find Laura's creations at her etsy shop: ellagee Handcrafted Polish

And you can also enter her awesome giveaways she is hosting lately on her Facebook.