a-england The Blessed Damozel (and another explanation)

I feel this is a bit of a deja-vu post as I am starting again with an apology for another absence, I really can't force myself to go through another long explanation again, and I'm sure you don't want to hear it all but long story short, just over a month ago I had to get my boy cat, Lestat, put to sleep as his kidneys were failing too, the exact same as his sister 4 months before him.  So you can probably understand my head has not been with it at all, but I am slowly and surely trying to get back to doing 'normal' things I used to enjoy doing, this site being one of them.

So I decided to show you today one of the newer a-england polishes, this one is The Blessed Damozel and is a further addition to the Heavely Quotes polishes.

The Blessed Damozel is a deep violet metallic polish with a velvety finish.  This is a very pigmented polish, the below swatch is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of the polish and 1 of the Shield, but I have worn this polish on a few occasions and you can very easily get away with just one coat.

I had seen it be asked how similar this was to Avalon but except from the fact they are a polish in the purple family and both made by a-england, the similarities end there (unless you count both of them being stunning as a similarity too)

I have done a wee comparison picture for you below, this is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of each polish and 1 of the Shield.

Thanks for looking and an extra thank you for sticking with me through my erratic-ness...

a-englands can be bought on the official a-england site, if you are in the UK, and if not, a-englands can be purchased from Llarowe or visit here for a full list of international stockists

Some products in this post were sent to me for review.

*closed* My Three Year Giveaway featuring a-england

Hello all of you, and firstly I will apologise immensely for my absence, I have been a busy little bee and had a lot going on so the blog unfortunately fell by the wayside.  However, I am back with a little bit of a bang....

My little blog turned three at the start of August and I had arranged a little giveaway with the always lovely and generous Adina of a-england.  She has so kindly agreed to donate 4 of her stunning polishes to the winner of my birthday giveaway, and even more exciting that the winner will get to pick the 4!!

Now if you aren't already familiar with a-england you really should be - in my humble opinion - so this is a great chance to try them out...... or if you have been lusting after some to add to your collection but not managed to get them yet, here you go...or if you already own them all, get some back ups! Ha!

For anyone who doesn't know about a-england Adina started up the company a good few years ago now with the explosive first collection, The Mythicals.  She has continued to wow with further collections - The Legend, Gothic Beauties, Burne-Jones Dream, Ballerina and the stand alone collection Heavenly Quotes. As part of the initial collection she also launched the Knight and Shield which are the only top and base coat I will use now since I got them a few years ago.

The image above just goes to show the little details that go into making a-england more than just  your average brand.  Each collection has its own little logo (apart from the Ballerina collection just now it seems) and I always find them so pretty on the site I decided to make a little group picture with them around the a-england logo.

Now in total, across all of these collections, there are 43 polishes....45 if you include the top and base.  And I am lucky enough to have all of these in pride of place as part of my polish collection.  I have shown all of there on the blog, some many times, but I decided to help you choose (and to show them all off again) I would have a little swatchathon.

So without further ado, here are all of the a-england polishes.....  Just so I don't have to keep saying it, every swatch is 2 coats of the polish without a top or base coat.  I love the way a-englands apply, just like butter and always look flawless!  I won't list all the descriptions, just the names, but you can head to the a-england site for some more information on any of these.

In order (the same as they are on the site) we have:

Starting with the Mythicals - King Arthur, Excalibur, Excalibur Renaissance and Merlin.

Morgan Le Fay, Iseult, Guinevere and Elaine.

Lady of the Lake, Tristam, Lancelot and Camelot.

Avalon, Perceval, Galahad and Holy Grail (new edition)

Holy Grail (limited edition).  Then onto the Legends - Saint George, Dragon and Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes)

Order of the Garter, Princess Tears, Ascalon and Bridal Veil

And then the Gothic Beauties - Dorian Gray, Ophelia, Tess D'Ubervilles and Lady of Shalott

Jane Eyre.  And then the Burne-Jones Dreams - Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), Rose Bower and Briarwood

Sleeping Palace, Fated Prince.  Now the Heavenly Quotes - Hurt No Living Thing and Love Is Enough.

And the Moonbeams...., She Walks in Beauty, Beauty Never Fails.  And Lastly the Ballerinas - Fonteyn

Her Rose Adagio, Encore Margot and Dancing with Nureyev.

Whew!!!  Now thanks for sticking though that and I hope you liked what you seen.  Hopefully I helped your decision and didn't make it more difficult ha!

Now for the giveaway part.....  it is open internationally, should be live from now!!! and will run for the next week.  Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and thank you all so much as always and I hope you stick around after the giveaway is over ;)

Rebecca x

a-england Excalibur Renaissance and Hurt No Living Thing

Today I have a post to show you that I am really excited about, I will warn you know, there are a lot of pictures, but not one the same as I wanted to show you so many different things.

This post not only marks the return of the wonderful a-england Excalibur, now Excalibur Renaissance, it also debuts the new Heavenly Quote, Hurt No Living Thing, which is inspired by the lovely poem by Christina Geogina Rossetti.

Firstly I will show you Excalibur Renaissance, which is essentially just the re-branded and re-launched original Excalibur, but that does not make it any less beautiful.

This is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of the polish and 1 of the Shield.

Now we have Hurt No Living Thing which is a great addition to the current a-england line up, and joins the existing Heavenly Quotes.  It is a lovely muted polish that shifts between grey and dusty pink, and the shimmer in this one is just so amazing.

It is quite a sheer polish, so is good for layering, but also looks so pretty and delicate alone.

This is 1 coat of the Knight, 4 of the polish and 1 of the Shield.

Then we have both polishes together, I used a fan brush dipped in Excalibur and dragged it over the existing mani of Hurt No Living Thing.

Now, I wanted to show you how Hurt No Living Thing looked over several different shades so picked a few out of my a-england family to use.

I also wanted Excalibur Renaissance to make another appearance and since I recently found out just how good it is for nail art, I decided to use it this way.

Each picture is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of the base colour with 1 of Hurt No Living Thing on 3 fingers.  On my ring finger I just left the base alone - which also shows how Hurt No Living Thing changes the base colour - and done some nail art using Excalibur Renaissance, please don't let my very basic skills take away from how good it is at coverage....

I then added 1 coat of the Shield to seal it all in, and noticed no streaking from the art which I have had issues with before when using other colours.

First here is Hurt No Living Thing over Guinevere, with Excalibur hearts.

Now over Briar Rose with Stripes.

Then over Bridal Veil with some sponging.

And now over Elaine with some crosses.

And lastly over Her Rose Adagio, which due to the light base, I didn't think it would show up Excalibur alone too well so I did some Camelot dots and then Excalibur on top.

Wow, that was a long one, thanks so much if you made it to here.

I hope I have shown you how versatile both of these polishes are, and I know I will be using both often.  I especially love how Hurt No Living Thing looks over dark colours and I am sure there are many many more combinations to be tried.

Both of these polishes are now available on the official a-england site, if you are in the UK, and if not, a-englands can be purchased from Llarowe or visit here for a full list of international stockists.

Thanks so much for looking <3

Some products in this post were sent to me for review.

a-england Love Is Enough

I have for you all today the last a-england in my archive, which of course will not be the last a-england I show you as the new Ballerina Collection should be with me shortly, and I am so excited to see them!

But just now I have for you Love Is Enough which is part of the Heavenly Quotes collection and is a shimmery golden olive polish.

This is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of the polish and 1 of the Shield.

As usual, this is a great polish made by the lovely Adina, and I know I say this about all a-england but they are all prized in my collection.

a-englands can be purchased from the official site if you are in the UK, or Llarowe for International customers.  You can find a list of all the a-england stockists on the site.

Thanks for looking <3

 

Some products in this post were sent to me for review.

Nail'd It Unique Put A Ring On It over a-england Beauty Never Fails

I have for you all today a pretty little glitter bomb from Nail'd It Unique called Put a Ring on it.

Put A Ring On It is made up of various sizes and shapes of gold and  holo glitters.

Here is 1 coat over 2 coats of a-englands Beauty Never Fails and 1 coat of the Shield.

 

 

 

You can purchase Nail'd It polishes from Llarowe, or you can also purchase from MeiMeiSignatures.

a-englands can be purchased from the official site if you are in the UK, or also from Llarowe for International customers.  You can find a list of all the a-england stockists on the site.

 Thanks for looking <3

Some products in this post were sent to me for review.

a-england Beauty Never Fails

Here is just a quick post of an a-england polish I realised I hadn't shown you yet.

I have a lot still in my archive to show you and have also managed to get some new swatches done, just need time to sort through them all to get them ready to show you.

But for now here is Beauty Never Fails which is part of the Heavenly Quotes collection.

As with all a-englands appication was amazing and I have no complaints at all.

This is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of Beauty Never Fails and 1 of the Shield.

 

 

 

 

a-englands can be purchased from the official site or from Llarowe.

 

Thanks for looking <3

 

The products in this post were sent to me for review. 

a-england And The Moonbeams

Wow, 2013, Happy New Year everyone!!

For my first post of the year I thought I would show you another of the a-england Heavenly Quotes collection.

This one is called And The Moonbeams and is a shimmery golden polish, it can be worn alone or layered, and I have worn this over a few different colours and loved each combination.

As with each and every a-england polish I have tried to date this one is more complex that you think at first glance and application is easy and almost effortless.

This one was my favourite though, so here is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of Avalon, 1 of Moonbeams and 1 of the Shield.

a-englands can be purchased from the official site or from Llarowe.  

Thanks for looking <3

Some of the products in this post were sent to me for review.

a-england She Walks In Beauty

I have for you all today a stunning a-england polish that adds to the Heavenly Quotes collection.  This one is called 'She Walks In Beauty' and is inspired by the Lord Byron poem of the same name.

Beauty has a shimmery golden base with rose glitter in various sizes scattered through it.  Application was great and the glitter was not tricky to apply at all.

This pretty can be layered or worn alone, but as it is me, or course I layered it, and I chose a-england Guinevere from the Mythicals collection.

So here is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of Guinevere, 1 of She Walks In Beauty and 1 of the Shield.

a-englands can be purchased from the official site.  She Walks In Beauty is not available on the site yet but you can order by emailing Adina using hello@a-england.co.uk or from Llarowe.  

Thanks for looking <3

Some of the products in this post were sent to me for review.