Cult Nails Love at First Sight and Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls

Love at First Sight was released by boutique polish maker Cult Nails as part of the Dance All Night collection for early summer in May 2013. Described as a "bright pastel influenced purple," this is a creamy medium-light purple or floral lavender shade with strong pink overtones. It's right there where purple, lavender and lilac meet, just a hair more purple than the Crayola color wisteria. To me it has a certain subdued quality that keeps it in the soft bright category. The pastel influence is readily apparent and it places Love at First in a unique spot relative to other creamy purples. I have an abundance of creamy mid-toned grape purples, and this would hold up at the very light end of that spectrum, but it is fairly bold and bright compared to a true pastel lavender or lilac. Suffice to say I have nothing else quite like it in my stash.

Application was dreamy. The pastel influence does not extend to the formula, which is on point with Cult Nails' best. Love at First Sight has a fluid, creamy consistency with a perfectly balanced viscosity for painting, a buttery glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is excellent with the potential for one-coat coverage, but I used two to be sure of completely even opacity. It's unusual to find a color that is whitened, as this clearly is, with such even, streak-free coverage. Lovely! Cleanup is easy with a little bit of pigment travel but no residual staining. Love at First Sight dries naturally in good time to a glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Love at First Sight over treatment and basecoat with a bubbly topcoat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl.

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

I thought that this would make a perfect base for an Ursula glitter manicure. Ursula is the main antagonist in Disney's 1989 animated fantasy film The Little Mermaid, and my generous polish bestie Marisa of Tiny Twinklings recently gifted me the two Ursula polishes from indie polish maker Ellagee's 2014 Villainous Holo-ween collection. The first of the two, The Importance of Body Language, I liked too well by itself to add the matching glitter topper and I'm glad I saved the latter for later because in the interim Love at First Sight arrived in the mail. My path was clear.

Ursula (source)

Poor Unfortunate Souls is the glitter topper from the Villainous Holo-ween Ursula duo, named for the song Ursula sings to Ariel to seduce her into trading her voice for the chance to become temporarily human. It's a gorgeous concoction of holographic turquoise hex glitters sized from micro to medium along with medium hex glitters in black and red. The turquoise holo glitters sparkle in dramatic flashes of sea green and bright blue, perfectly accompanied by the red and black.

I dabbed one generous coat of Poor Unfortunate Souls over the Love at First Sight manicure. Glitter payoff is excellent, with a goodly amount of glitter per brushful. The suspension base is thicker in consistency but not sticky, and the glitters disperse easily over the nail and settle down without any trouble, no tumbling or stickups and only a couple of free edge protrusions. Cleanup wasn't a problem but in my excitement I did leave a few sparklers on my nail environs. Well, either it's all right or it's too bad, as Fuzzy says. Poor Unfortunate Souls dries naturally in good time to a shiny finish with a little texture from the glitter. I added a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food before my topcoat to smooth it out.

Photos show one coat of Poor Unfortunate Souls over the Love at First Sight manicure above, with a layer of Glitter Food followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

I'm not usually one for glitter toppers but I love this one, the color are fantastic and I think it makes for a pretty awesome Ursula manicure over the light purple of Love at First Sight! Thanks, Marisa!

love,
Liz