Monday 29 August 2011

a-england Lady of the Lake

I know, another a-england polish, I can't have that many left to go now, lol.  I have just really been taking pics of the mani I have been wearing, which seems to be a-england almost exclusively these days.

I love this polish though, so without further ado here is Lady of the Lake, which is the purple version of Tristam, and I cannot for the life of me decide which I prefer, maybe Tristam but probably only because he reminds me of his fluffier counterpart, which leads me to me next point.

Taking pictures of to capture the colour of this polish was quite difficult, but for a different reason than usual........

Yes this is my tom cat, Lestat, who was obviously miffed that he wasn't getting the same attention as the nail polish and kept sticking his head in front of my camera.  If it wasn't so cute, it would have been annoying.

Anyways, back to nails, I have first a few pics of Lady of the Lake under natural light, where the purple looks darker and the holo more subtle.




Then a few more pictures under a more direct light where the purple is brighter and the holo particles are dazzling.



Hope you are all loving the a-england polishes as much as I am and again please feel free to leave any comments.

Sunday 28 August 2011

Nails Inc Seven Dials with a-england Camelot and Nails Inc Fitzroy Square

Ok I will warn  you all now, this is a picture heavy post, but I hope it will be worth it for you all in the end :)

I was having a bit of trouble today, after sorting out and re-arranging all my polishes, I could not decide which colour to wear, so I put a poll up on my Pandora's Nails Facebook Page for people to decide which colour for me to do, the poll ended up tied between Purple and Green, but as I had already blogged about a purple (a-england Avalon) thought I should do a green mani, and I knew I didn't just want a plain green mani either.....

I love green polish and have quite a few of them, but finally decided on Nails Inc Seven Dials.

Here is 1 coat of The Knight and 2 coats of Seven Dials (no top coat as I knew there would be more to come and didn't want too many layers of polish on my nails)



I then decided to do tips using a-england Camelot, this was 1 coat and again no top coat.




Lastly, I wanted a very slight tip of glitter, and to follow the green theme I used Nails Inc Fitzroy Square.  This is a quick sweep (wouldn't even call it a coat) of Fitzroy Square and finally 1 coat of the Shield.



Whew, I did warn you!  If you are still with me at this point then thank you very much and I hope you liked my mani.  Please feel free to leave any comments.

Saturday 27 August 2011

a-england Excalibur and King Arthur

I finally got Excalibur, and I am not sure why this was one of the ones I waited so long to get, I think it is due to the fact I already have quite a few silvers, but this is the best silver I have for sure, this is a foil finish and did not seem streaky to me going on, as I find can sometimes be a problem with foils.

First I will show you Excalibur by itself, this is 1 coat of a-england basecoat (The Knight) 2 coats of Excalibur and 1 coat of the Sheild.



  
I love this polish by itself but couldn't help but thinking how nice it would be to match up King Arthur with his sword......

Which led to a tape mani....

This is 1 coat of King Arthur over the above.





I love this combo and will maybe even try other tape mani designs with these two polishes.

Hope you like and please feel free to leave any comments xx

Wednesday 24 August 2011

a-england Perceval

There was only actually this other Mani in that folder I found, the rest had been used already, so figured would just post it just now and then go with new, shorter nailed pictures from here.

This post is a-england Perceval, this is a beautiful red polish and, like Avalon, it feels like it glows when you are wearing it.  It is a true shimmery rich red colour and as far as red shimmers go, this is my favourite.

As usual 1 coat Underground, 2 coats Perceval and 1 coat The Shield.





Perceval can be bought from a-englands website (a-england perceval) and is also their 'Gem of the Month' for August :) x

Nails Inc Summer Glow

Today's post, isn't really today's mani, I found a folder on my computer which was full of sorted pictures that I had saved earlier in the month.  I had thought this must have got deleted by accident as it wasn't there when I went back to look for it, but it has since re-appeared so I decided I would use these up first before posting any new photos

In this folder there were some a-england polish photos and some Nails Inc so thought since the last few posts were a-england would do a Nails Inc one for a change.

So here is a mani (with my longer nails) using Nails Inc Summer Glow, for anyone that might be wondering this is a dupe for Nails Inc Portobello Market.  This is 1 coat of Underground, 2 coats of Summer Glow and 1 coat of the Shield.




Thanks for looking and please feel free to leave any comments :) x

Tuesday 23 August 2011

a-england Holy Grail

There are a lot of firsts in this post, first post with new my new heading and colouring, first pictures with my new watermark and the most daunting first for me, first post with my shorter nails.  I had only planned to cut them down slightly, but got carried away and now they are quite a bit shorter than I have been used to recently, but surprisingly I do like them.

Today I have for you a-englands Holy Grail, this is an amazing gold polish and unlike any of the other gold polishes I already own this one is very much on the yellow side of gold so filled a gap in my collection I didn't even realise I had.

All pictures, as per usual, are 1 coat of Underground basecoat (received the Knight today so will be trying it out shortly) 2 coats of Holy Grail and 1 coat of The Shield.




Thanks for looking and again, please feel free to leave any comments :)

Sunday 21 August 2011

a-england Avalon

Ok, I know what you are probably thinking, another a-england colour but I seriously cannot get enough of these polishes.

Avalon is one of the colours that has been on quite a few of the other blogs but I enjoy wearing it so much I thought I would try and pay my own little tribute to it.

This was probably one of the hardest polishes for me (so far) to capture its true colour on camera, I think I took close to a million (ok probably more like 150) pictures of it and hopefully the few I have picked show Avalon at its best.

This colour is the most true purple colour I own, but also has slight flecks of other colours through it (pink, purple and possibly blue) but this may very well be a trick of the light but regardless of this Avalon glows when you wear it.

Again as always 1 coat of Nails Inc Underground base coat (but finally ordered the Knight yesterday) 2 coats of Avalon and 1 coat of a-englands The Shield.





Polishes can be purchased for £9 from a-englands website, and international shipping is offered.  a-england avalon

Oh and before I go, I have a bit more info on the new (still no name announced) collection, there will be Seven polishes, six of them holos (two greens, which I had mentioned before) and a black (!!!) and a 'vibrant multichrome' will complete the set.  It will be at least 3 months before we can get our hands on 'The Seven' and at the moment the lucky Adina has one sample of each of these but otherwise they are off at the manufactures so there are no promo pics yet either.  I am sure we will get a glimpse of these once Adina has them on the a-england Facebook Page where the competition to win polishes from The Mythicals collection is still ongoing.........

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Nails Inc Pelham Place with a-england Guinevere............Mattified

This post was done at the request of Maria who commented on yesterdays post saying the mani would look really good Mattified.

I have had my Nails Inc Matte top coat for a few months now and have only used it a few times as I like the idea of Matte but also love really shiny nails so normally can't bear to make a colour matte once I have seen it glossy.

So anyway, here is yesterday Mani with Nails Inc Pelham Place and a-englands Guinevere but with 1 coat of Nails Inc Westminster Bridge Matte Effect Top Coat over it.



What do you think?  Do you prefer this mani Matte or Glossy?? 

Monday 15 August 2011

Nails Inc Pelham Place with a-england Guinevere

This mani started out the strangest way, I had an urge to wear baby pink nail polish, which is very unlike me so I was actually surprised that I still had one in my collection, as between swaps and eBay most of my light colours have gone to other homes.  But there must had been a reason that I held onto Nails Inc Pelham Place, I think it was due to the fact it was a very baby pink, but not sheer and I must have thought, one day......

I went to work and received many 'wow, pink nails' comments and was thinking 'yes, this pink is nice, but might need to jazz it up a bit'  This led me to a 'lightbulb' moment of how well Pelham Place would match with a-englands Guinevere.

Which led to ....... my first tape mani...........

This was the first time I had actually tried this and am happy with how it turned out, although the process will need some tweaking I think.

All pictures are with 1 coat of Nails Inc Underground basecoat, 2 coats of Pelham Place, 1 coat of Guinevere and 1 coat of The Shield

Anyways, hope you like and again any comments are appreciated.




Thursday 11 August 2011

a-england Tristam

This post is about a polish I love love love, I have worn it countless times since I got it at the start of July, and always for a few days each time (which to anyone that knows how I am with my polish, that will say a lot)


This was my second purchase from a-england (preceded only by The Lady of the Lake) and was one of the first ones I was interested in buying, the scattered holo particles in this and the Lady are to die for and I was besotted as soon as I seen them.  Adina describes this on the website as 'night blue sky with starlight glimmer and glow' which would sell it to me, even without a picture.  


Anyway, Tristam is a beautiful dark blue with scattered holographic particles through it.  It is lovely in natural light, which will be the pictures I will show you first, but when in direct sunlight (which I had to substitute with my camera flash as the rain is non stop just now) it really comes to life.......  and the fact that it also shares a name with the cutest kitty which makes it extra special........  I couldn't resist putting in a picture of him here, this is the latest one from the a-england Facebook page






Now back to the polish, all pictures are taken using 1 coat of Nails Inc Underground basecoat, 2 coats of Tristam and 1 coat of a-englands topcoat The Shield.


In natural light you can still see the holo, but it is more subtle.......





With flash - which is how the polish looks in the sunshine - the holo is just breathtaking..........






The application of this polish was the great, again it has a thick consistency, but not too thick, and as it is quite highly pigmented 1 coat would have probably sufficed but I went with 2.


As you have probably established I am a little bit infatuated with a-england polishes and cannot wait to get the few more I need to complete The Mythicals collection...................and by the sounds of it this will just be in time for the next collection, which all I really know so far about it is that it will be a new collection, smaller than the Mythicals, and will contain not one but two green holos!!  

It is quite sad how excited this makes me and I cannot wait to see Adinas next stunning additions to the Nail Polish Universe.

Again all current a-england polishes can be bought from the official website for £9 each and here is a link to Tristam.


** 


Oh and for anyone who wants to participate, Adina is running a competition on the a-england Facebook page to win one of the collection, which is running until 26th August.  


How it works - A Polaroid of one of the colours is put up at random and if you 'tag' yourself in this photo you are in for a chance to win this.  I have not participated in this yet as all the colours that have been up for grabs so far are ones I already have but if I happen to be on FB when the ones I don't have get put up, I will be for sure. 

Sunday 7 August 2011

Nails Inc Camden Lock with a-england Merlin Accent Nails

This post combines my long time polish love, Nails Inc and my new love a-england.

I started with a Nails Inc Camden Lock mani, this polish is a deep royal blue colour which would be great if it stopped there but this also has blue, and I am sure also hints of purple glitter running through it.

This polish colour was so hard to capture on camera, all pictures were taken in natural light.

First I will show you picture of Camden Lock on its own, this is 1 coat of Nails Inc Underground Basecoat, two coats of Camden Lock and 1 coat of a-england The Shield.





Now here is the same mani with a-england Merlin over the top of the thumb and pinkie nails.




And lastly, a picture of both bottles, you can see the purple tinge to Camden more in the bottle than on the nail.



Thank for looking and please feel free to leave any comments.