A England Princess Sabra (Tristam eyes)

I need to make the most of the sun we have left in New Zealand before winter sets in. Each weekend I hope for sun, as its the only time I can photograph polishes outside. By the time I get home from work each night the sun is gone and its freezing cold.

Luckily there was a little bit of sun the other day and I managed to get these swatches done of  A England's Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes). FYI Tristam is Adina's (the owner of A England) cat - you can find pictures of him on the A England Facebook page.

 A England Princess Sabra - sunshine

  A England Princess Sabra - sunshine

 A England Princess Sabra - sunshine

The A England website says that Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes) is:

The heart-stoppingly beautiful daughter of the king, 

whose misfortune it was to have her name drawn as the next sacrificial victim of the dragon.

The color is described as:

Alluringly feline golden olive bronzite, 

the sacrificial Princess constantly shifts with her elusive, myriad hues.

To me it is a pretty olive green holographic polish. This was two coats. The formula is perfection and dry time is great. In the shade it is a soft olive colour, but in the sunshine turns into a magical golden holographic rainbow of awesomeness.

Lots of Love
Lisa

A England Princess Tears

 A England Princess Tears - Sunshine

  A England Princess Tears - Sunshine

  A England Princess Tears - Sunshine

 A England Princess Tears - Shade

 Princess Tears is from the 2012 The Legend Collection from A England. All of the A England polishes have a story behind them. This is from the A England website:

PRINCESS TEARS - Upon being tied to a tree, there to await her fate, the princess shed glistening tears of everlasting sorrow.

As the twin lilac trails of tears stream with an incandescent glow down our doomed heroine's face, they are made even more poignant by luminous grey/ green flashes.

A England is a light lilac purple which flashes a green grey duochrome colour in the bottle. In the sun it is an amazing lilac rainbow. However in the shade this polish isn't very exciting.  Luckily it was sunny today so I was able to appreciate the holographic awesomeness of this polish. This is two coats. The formula on this polish is amazing. It applies beautifully.

Lots of Love
Lisa

A England Saint George

Unfortunately my nails are taking a while longer than I hoped to recover, so at the moment they are supper short nubbins. But nubbins look great in dark colours so I thought since it was sunny today when I got home from work I would try out A England Saint George.

This polish has got to be one of my all time favourites ever! And in a collection of almost 600 polishes this is a big deal.

A England released the Legend collection at the start of this year. It contains 7 polishes, 6 of which are holographic.

According to the A England website Saint George was a:

Bearer of a valiant & courageous heart, this fathomless teal reveals the strength of the brave knight's convictions with his gleaming, fiery core.

A England Saint George - Sunshine

A England Saint George - Shade

This is a dark teal polish that in the sun sparkles an awesome rainbow. I had to compress these pictures so you cant see the rainbows as well as you can in real life. This is two coats, although you could get away with just one. The formula is perfect and dry time is quick. A England polishes always seem to have great forumlas and are super easy to apply.

A England polishes are available from the website http://www.a-england.co.uk/9-the-legend. Shipping is quite often free and is super fast (especially all the way to New Zealand). These work out to be about NZ$17 a polish.

Lots of Love
Lisa

2011 in Review

Well it is 2012 here already. I can not believe how fast 2011 went. Mainly because I haven't lost any weight and I get married in exactly 5 weeks and now I am starting to freak out.

2011 The Year of Crackle

2011 really was the year of the crackle nail polish. There were crackle offerings from OPI (Shatter), China Glaze (Crackle), Color Club (Fracture), Models Own (Smash Up) as well as Sally Hansen, BYS, Nicole By OPI and Sephora by OPI to name just a few. They all had the standard black, with most collection also containing white, silver, gold and an array of other colours.

Color Club - Broken Tokens

Color Club - Kiss & Break Up

There are still more crackles to come in 2012, starting with the plum coloured Super Bass Shatter in OPI's Nicki Minaj collection as well as a Glitter Crackle collection coming from China Glaze.

Best new Brand: A England

I only have 4 of these polishes but I love them all. The names, the colours and especially the formula on these.

A England - Isuelt

Best Product: Orly Bonder

I know this isn't a new product for 2011, but this product has been a manicure life saver for me. When a polish used to chip within a few hours on me, I know get a full solid day without chips (trust me this is good for me).

Best Holographic Polish: A England Tristam

The A England Mythicals collection contained two deep dark holographic shades. Tristam (a dark blue) and Lady of the Lake (a dark purple).

A England - Tristam

Best Collection of 2012: Color Club Wicked Sweet

I love this collection. Bright shimmery neons with ulta violet flashes of blue that smell AMAZING. I especially love I Always Get My Man-darin as I have no other polish quite like it in my collection.

Color Club - I Always Get My Man-darin

We know that next year sees the Zoya Fleck Effects collection coming out (argh more flakies), along with OPI's Nicki Minaj and Holland collections. China Glaze has a collection of neons coming out for summer as well as their promised Hunger Games collection.

Who knows what else will come in 2012. Hopefully more from A England and Models Own.

May 2012 be the year of holos and flakies!

Lots of Love
Lisa

A England Tristam

A England Tristam doesn't really need many words. It is simply just amazing.

A England Tristam - Sunshine

A England Tristam - Sunshine

Tristam - the courteous knight

The symbol of the knightly virtue, and romantic love. When Tristam and Iseult accidentally consume a love potion, fall helplessly in love. Despite facing numerous trials to test their secret affair their love was never known to fade.

Tristam is a deep dark blue holographic polish. Enlarge the pictures in the sun by clicking on them to see how beautiful this really is. I think its great to see more darker colours being made into holographic polishes.

This is two coats. A England is quickly becoming one of my favourite brands for formula. All only need two coats and apply like a dream.

A England also have great customer service, and sometimes even offer free around the world shipping. It also didn't take them long to get to New Zealand (less than a week, compared to another brand in the UK that took a month to arrive here in NZ)

Lots of Love
Lisa

Color Club Tattered in Gold

This is the gold offering from Color Club in their Fracture collection.

Color Club Tattered in Gold (over A England Galahad) - Natural light

Tattered in Gold is a metallic shimmery gold, and because of this it is more sheer on the nail. It feels like it needs to be thicker to get the gold to show up better, but obviously cracks different with different thickness coats.

I honestly found this really hard to pair with base coat colours. I just could not make up my mind over what to stick it over. If you have a gold shatter/fracture/crackle what colours are you using it over?

Lots of Love
Lisa

A England Iseult

I am quickly falling in love with A England and their beautiful polishes.

Todays polish is Iseult - the fair lady.

The legendary beautiful princess forever linked to Tristam after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other in a powerful romance and tragedy.

A England Iseult - White Light

This is a pale pink shimmer. The shimmer is very fine and is slightly iridescent, but does not over-power the pink. The formula is perfect. Two coats and it is perfectly opaque. The consistency is great, nowhere near runny and not too thick.

A England has got free shipping worldwide at the moment. My last order took less than a week to get all the way from England to New Zealand.

I have two more of these polishes to show you at a later date. A England are gearing up to release a new collection soon as well. I can wait to see what they come up with. These are amazing quality polishes.

Lots of Love
Lisa

A England Galahad

Last month A England held a competition on their facebook page. Each day they posted a picture of one of their polishes. All you had to do was tag yourself in one of the pictures to enter. One person then won that polish.

Would you believe I actually won one! I won a brand new bottle of Galahad. I figured I might as well order some more while I am at it so I ordered Iseult, Avalon and Tristam (swatches of these to come later on).

The first A England collection is called The Mythicals.
I wasn't sure what Galahad means but luckily their is a glossary on the A England website.

Galahad is the pure knight. (Son of Lancelot) the achiever of the holy grail. Renowned for his gallantry and purity is considered the most perfect knight in the world.

A England Galahad - Natural Light

Galahad is a dusty medium teal creme. I don't own anything else like this. It is a grey/green toned teal colour. This is two coats. The consistency and feel of this creme polish is perfect. It is very pigmented and could be used as a single coat. Try time is great and it drys to a great gloss finish.

Shipping was really cheap on these polishes and they only took a week to arrive from the other side of the world. Their customer service is excellent. I highly recommend these polishes. With shipping they only work out to be about NZ$15 each. Check out their website at http://www.a-england.co.uk

Lots of Love
Lisa