Ella + Mia Soy Polish Remover: Review

My nails have been a struggle since as far back as middle school. I can remember walking home and noticing that my nails were peeling in layers, and flash forward to 10+ years later, not much has changed. However, back then I also had constant peeling skin around my nails as well, whereas now I experience very little of that problem.

One of my biggest loves and appreciations in life is a beautiful manicure, and when I do my nails my dream is for them to last for about a week before they go to hell. In reality it's about 3 days before small chips start showing up, but that has been a major improvement from even a year ago. The difference? The steps I take to ensure proper care of my hands and nails. 

Rome wasn't built in a day, so I don't expect my hands and nails to be magically cured after my entire life of not taking better care, but now that I have figured out a few things the least I can do would be to talk about what has helped my hand and nail health:

1.) I wear rubber gloves when I hand wash any dishes. I feel like a house wife from the 50's, but it makes a HUGE difference.

2.) I've begun using a vitamin-enriched base coat under my nail polish color and I now use 2 layers of my top coat to ensure a harder, long-lasting manicure.

3.) Instead of regular nail-polish remover, I use a soy polish remover from Ella + Mia. This is quite honestly one of the biggest improvements in my nail life, ever.

Ella + Mia Soy Polish Remover 4oz: $11.50

First and foremost, the whole aesthetic and packaging of Ella + Mia is absolutely adorable and was what drew me in to explore the brand. Elephants are my favorite animal, I've been obsessed with them since high school. The bottle itself of the nail polish remover has a soft velvet-y feeling, like a high-end product.

However, no matter how cute the packaging is, the most important question to ask with any product is: does this product work? The answer is: yes, this nail polish remover takes off my nail polish and nourishes my skin and nails in the process. With normal acetone nail polish my nails and skin feel very dry after removing my nail polish, and I've often wondered if me using an acetone nail polish was causing my top layer of my nail bed to dry out, thus causing it to peel. 

One of the biggest perks about this product? It doesn't smell bad! With acetone remover I have to close the lid immediately after wetting my cotton ball because the smell is vile to me. With the Soy Remover, I can leave the lid off and not a single smell emits from the bottle. It's lovely to remove my nail polish and not feel like I'm getting high.

Despite the wonderful way this product makes my skin and nails feel, there are some draw backs. With acetone nail polish remover, I only need to use one, maybe two cotton balls and in a few minutes I've removed the nail polish from all of my fingernails and some of my toe nails. With this Soy Polish Remover, there's no acetone, so it takes way more cotton balls and waaaaay more time to remove my nail polish. It takes me on average of 15+ minutes and 6-10 cotton balls for my fingernails and toenails with this remover. Glitter/shimmer nail polish takes even longer, and I usually have to go in with an acetone remover to clean up the leftover glitter residue. 

While it's not a 100% perfect product, I love this product due to how much stronger my nails feel after each time I use it. While I won't be ditching my glitter nail polish any time soon and for that I will keep my acetone remover around, this is best for every other nail polish I use. 

Score: 9/10 elephants approve. 

The Polish Prerogative

As someone who strives every day to come closer to becoming a tiny house owner/lifestyle enthusiast, I'm constantly fighting an inner battle due to my love of options. From my shoes to my jewelry to my clothes, I love having lots and lots of options despite the fact that I know I don't need them. 

Naturally it should come as no surprise that that same love of choices extends to my nail polish collection. When I first moved in to my room over a month ago, I had close to 70 nail polishes. The funny thing is, is that it didn't look or feel like that much. One night I was organizing my bathroom and on a whim I counted my collection. My jaw hit the floor. I immediately started grabbing the ones I used the least in the last year and promptly placed them to the side to give away to my roommate and coworkers. 

Within the last 5 weeks I have whittled down my collection to just 21 polishes, including my base and top coats. To some people this is still a lot, and to others this may be very small.

Out of these 21 beauties, I have selected my top 6 favorite ones:

Zoya "Odette": $9.00

I've been in love with Zoya for years. I've done a post on them before, and mentioned them countless times in other posts. They're the original "4-free" nail polish, and their polishes chip the least. This polish is that perfect neutral. At first glance this doesn't look like a neutral, but it goes with EVERYTHING.

OPI "Midnight in Moscow"

Every time I wear this I get compliments everywhere I go. This color is one of the prettiest colors I've ever owned, and every angle in the sun makes it look different.

Julep "Zelda": $14.00

One of my biggest frustrations with Julep is that I have found most of their colors chip very easily. However, the 6 colors I own, 5 of them being shimmer, don't chip easily, dry quickly, and stay on the nails for a very long time. That's why they're still in my collection (obviously), and Zelda always feels fun and glamorous.

LVX "Viridian": $16.00

I discovered this brand by accident in New Orleans last year, and I've been over the moon since. They're 5-free, cruelty-free and vegan, and their polishes last FOREVER on the nails. I also receive a lot of compliments whenever I wear this color, and usually after a week I only have one teensy chip. For me that's a miracle considering how hard I am on my hands. 

Formula X "Neon Top Coat": $10.50

This top coat is the coolest because not only does it help my polishes last way longer than they normally would, it gives the most interesting holographic sheen to every color. 

Sephora by OPI "It's Real 18k Gold Top Coat": $30.00

This bad boy is unfortunately no longer available. 3 Christmases ago I felt like being fancy, Iggy Azalea-style and ordering myself a top coat with flecks of 18k gold in it. It adds the prettiest appearance to any polish I put it over, and I always get compliments whenever I wear it. If they ever decide to bring it back, I'm buying two.

Why I canceled my Ipsy subscription

At the beginning of this year I made a resolution to be more conscious of what I purchase. As an Ipsy bag subscriber, $10 a month was my little happy outlet, my escape from the stress going on around me. I lit up like a Christmas tree every time I saw that pink metallic pouch in the mail each month. When I separated and moved into my friend's house about a month ago though, I packed up all my things and unpacked them in my new single girl bathroom. It was eye-opening and overwhelming as I kept pulling mini-bottle after mini-tube out of my cardboard boxes marked "Bathroom/Beauty".

After getting settled and having multiple friends over, each one uttered the same sentiment when they saw my bathroom set up and makeup stash. "You own a lot of products for someone who doesn't work in the beauty industry" they all said in a similar fashion. As a woman who will be on the move all this summer, I don't want to be tied down by beauty - I want to be freed by it. While I've given away many many products to my coworker's delight, I still have so many that I'm beginning to understand how Frodo felt when he looked at Moordoor. Despite trying my hardest, I realized about 2 weeks ago that I've become almost buried in beauty and it's overwhelming me. Beauty is supposed to bring happiness, but instead it's made me feel anxiety over wasted money and products.

At the beginning of the year I had a feeling this day would come, and so, with much sadness, I canceled my Ipsy subscription a little over a week ago. While having the extra $10 a month in my account isn't a big deal, I am happy that I am no longer adding to this:

 The products in the pictures above are only 1/6 of my beauty arsenal. True story. As someone who wears makeup at LEAST 5 days a week and still can't use up products fast enough, it's an overwhelming task to use all of this before it goes bad, but it's something I'm working on every day diligently. When I fly back to California, my goal is to own only enough to fit 2 large cosmetic bags. I know, laughable, but it's still a goal, right?

For anyone who read my post yesterday, yes I did buy a new beauty product. The Lipstick Queen shade in Frog Prince was purchased due to the fact that it's only ONE product vs. a bag that comes with 4-5 items at a time. Also, with the incoming of this ONE item, TWO items will be taken out of my collection and be given away.

Baby steps lovelies, baby steps.

The Gold Rush of Nail Polish

One of my obsessions started back in high school when I began to dip my toe into the girly-girl pool freshman year: painting my nails. Each week was an exciting moment to choose how I wanted to express my personality and mood, on my nails that is. I wouldn't just change the color though, I would go all out and paint different shapes on each nail. One nail would be fireworks, the next fish, and the next a balloon. I blame it all on my mother when she got me a nail art design kit for my birthday one year.

My obsession has spiraled from there, and now I feel naked without my nails colored. I always try to keep it interesting, even if it's a clear base with a splatter paint effect. I love to make my nails pop. However, I don't love paying full price for nail polish. Nail polish prices can add up very quickly if you're not careful, which is why I'm always on the hunt for great deals and ways to get brands like Deborah Lippmann, Butter London, Julep and Zoya for a fraction of the cost. I've been very lucky over the years; walking into beauty stores on just the right day, having friends and family who tried the color once and didn't like it, and by scanning websites and emails religiously for that magical word "sale". 

[My collection of colors]

While I knew that beauty stores were great places to look, I would pass over stores like TJ Maxx and Marshall's because to me they were only purses, shoes and clothes. I was colored surprised last week though when I walked into Marshalls and found an entire stand dedicated to Julep nail polishes. Yep, those sparkling little beauties that normally retail for $14.00 I found at Marshall's, and guess how much they were. 

$3.99

[The pearlescent color was just too pretty to pass up!]

I did backflips and cartwheels (In my mind) and swiped a color I didn't already own (something that's getting harder and harder to find). After checking out, I felt like I had robbed a bank and gotten away scot-free. I skipped all the way across the parking lot in a dress and heels. Yep, a 26 year-old skipped because of nail polish, in heels no less.

I have no shame, and mad skipping skills.