Saint George's Day NOTD - A England's St George and Dragon French Manicure

What better way to celebrate St George's Day than with two gorgeous shades from A England's recent "The Legend" Collection: St George and Dragon, two stunning vibrant green holographic polishes!

This was two coats of St George with 1 coat of Dragon for the tips :)

no flash

I will be featuring a few review of more of the gorgeous holos from this collection soon!
These polishes are available here and right now shipping is free (even internationally!)

Mojito Manicure - Cocktail Themed Nail Art Contest Entry

Here is my Mojito Themed Manicure, for The Cocktail Themed Dare to be Nails Challenge on Makeuptalk.com.

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy 1 coat

A England Morgan Le Fay 2 coats

Konad Special Polish in green and Konad Plate M 75

La Colors Sassy Sparkle (glitter) on tips

Top Coat: Seche Vite

My Inspiration for this manicure was my favourite cocktail: Mojito:

And Now for more pics of the mani :D I had a lot of fun this one, I'd quite like to try out more cocktail themed manis :D

Spotlight on: A England - An Interview with creator Adina Bodana

January 2011 marked the release of a very glamorous new nail polish Brand: A England, the brainchild of creator Adina Bodana. Born in Milan Italy, Adina moved to the UK in 1989, with a background strongly rooted in fashion and a passion for nail polish since her childhood she decided to take the step into nail polish creation.

A England's first range of 15 polishes; The Mythicals, takes the polish lover on a journey through great Arthurian Legend. Packed with a vast range of romantic opulent shades, each polish has its own tale to tell, and if you want to find out more about the legend, there's even a glossary detailing the roots of the legendary names here. From deep dramatic holographic shades to soft sheer pearls, there is definitely a polish to suit every taste, Adina's close connection to Arthurian legend is what inspired her to create this collection, and I was lucky enough to talk to her about her "new baby" A-England:

Adina Bodana

What Inspired you to create Nail Polish?

Long life passion. The immediate gratification. The therapy it represents. The joy of wearing it as part of yourself and being able to watch it all the time.
Was it a hard industry to break into?
I specify i don't have any sponsor or backing and even connection. I was surprised by "the magic" of a press release sent to a few bloggers just the 8th of this January and the excitement it caused. I have been shipping orders to US, Australia, Canada, Europe, UK, even Brazil...
Now my aim is to expand and offer my brand through other store: online or not in order to have a good distribution and be able to come out with new shades.
Do you come up with all the great colours yourself? Are you involved in the creation process?
Yes, sending to the manufacturer Pantone codes, ideas of finish, swatches of colours from various sources. I have to say they followed me brilliantly. The quality is very very important for me.
I absolutely love the names of your polishes, What Inspired you to chose Arthurian Legend as the theme for the Mythicals?

England is the source of inspiration. The Arthurian Legend is the first beautiful story I came across as a child through illustrated books, and cinema. Growing up I have always been impressed by the revelation of universal elements and values in it and how we can reflect ourselves, at times, in one or the other characters and stories. I always like to offer "a bit more" in whatever I do and thought this beautiful saga would complement my collection with a lovely message. On top I love english literature and arts. Malory wrote extensively about the Arthurian Legend. The painter Burne-Jones is one of my favourite of all times and his rendition of the Myth is awesome. I watched in awe and dreamt , almost felt embraced in front of The_Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon when on display at Tate Britain.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Sleep_of_Arthur_in_Avalon

Do you plan on releasing any other themed collections of nail polish with A-England?

Yes. I like nail polish and stories...

If more collections are planned, what types of finish are you hoping to feature more of? (e.g. holographic, duochrome, glitters etc) 

More holos yes, but mostly will endeavour to create appealing and fascinating shades.

What's your favourite colour combination to wear from the Mythicals?

They go with mood, inspiration, whim...
What I use myself mostly: King Arthur, Merlin, Camelot.

Are you still involved in Fashion?

No. My experience in fashion is like a perfect circle and cycle completed and closed. Still well informed though and enjoying window shopping and glossy magazines.
Do you have a favourite nail polish colour of all time?
Glossy BLACK

A England Mythicals Swatches:

here are a few of my favourites from The Mythicals Collection:

                            Tristam                                          Lady of The Lake

                       Morgan Le Fay                                            Merlin

                               Iseult                                           Tristam and Iseult

 Please click the A-England label on the left menu to see all posts featuring the brand.

Bottle Pics:

Chemicals: A England polishes are all big 3 free and not tested on animals. 
Other Products: A England's Mythicals collection also includes a base coat called The Knight and a top coat called The Shield, loving these names :)
Bottle Size: 13ml
Price: £9.50
Coverage: Usually opaque in 2/3 coats
A England Links:

Official Website
A-England's Facebook page (be sure to check out their current 20% off promotion which runs till April 16th)

A England on Twitter

Tristam and Iseult Manicure (with A England Polishes)

A England's Tristam is swiftly becoming one of my favourite blue holographic polishes. So I couldn't resist doing a manicure alongside his tragic lover Iseult, (in Legend Tristam and Iseult fell in love after drinking a potion, which resulted in tragedy). So here is the manicure hope you enjoy :)

OPI Chip Skip

 Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy 1 coat

A England Iseult 3 coats

tips: A England Tristam

Glitter line created using pink glitter Nail Star Art pen

Top Coat: Seche Vite

the mani before I added the glitter lines

A England Nail Polish Swatches Merlin, Iseult and Morgan Le Fay

After absolutely loving Lady of The Lake and Tristam I couldn't resist picking up a few more polishes from A England's The Mythicals (especially since they're still doing a 20% off for facebook fans, link is further on). The polishes I opted for this time were: Merlin (silver glitter), Iseult (pale pink shimmery polish) and Morgan Le Fay (sheer shimmer), first up some bottle pics:

L-R Merlin, Iseult, Morgan Le Fay 

A England Merlin Swatches 

Merlin (The wizard) is a gorgeous silver glitter polish, the particles are rectangular and medium sized and this polish is great for layering on top of another colour or 3/4 coats alone to reach a good opacity. I tried Merlin over Morgan Le Fay, which looked stunning, will save that for a later post :)

 A England Iseult Swatches

Iseult (Tristam's tragic lover) is a pale pink polish packed with hints of shimmer, this took 3 coats to reach full opacity and is an absolutely gorgeous pinky girly shade, great if you love understated polishes, great if your a lover of OPI soft shades type colours, but with an extra hint of glamour, also a lot less sheer than soft shades, you could probably use 1 coat for a french manicure.

Iseult reminds me a little of Zoya Marley from the Zoya Intimates, it could be her pinker little sister, 

Zoya Marley - original post

A England Morgan Le Fay Swatches

Morgan Le Fay (half-sister of King Arthur; a healer) is a gorgeous sheer polish packed with white and silver shimmer, a great polish for layering, this was 3 coats.

I was lucky enough to get the chance to interview A England's creator Adina Bodana recently, that interview will feature in an upcoming Spotlight On: A England post! :D

Don't forget to check out A-England's Facebook page, they're doing an awesome 20% of promotion :D which runs through to April 16th

NOTD - China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Broken Hearted over A-England Lady Of The Lake

When crack met holo
I've not been too sure about all these coloured crackle polishes that have been popping up, I certainly love wearing black crackle but I wasn't convinced the effect would be as awesome with other colours, I'm happy to be wrong. Today's NOTD features A-England's gorgeous Lady Of The Lake, a unique deep mauve holographic polish topped with China Glaze Broken Hearted Crackle Glaze a bright candy pink Crackle Polish. Phew that was a mouthful.

OPI Chip Skip

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy

A-England Lady Of The Lake 2 coats

Top Coat: Seche Vite

China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Broken Hearted 1 coat in non overlapping strokes

Top Coat: Seche Vite

Like most crackles out there, the China Glaze Crackles dry matte, so you would need a top coat to make them shiny, they do look pretty cool and 3-dimensional matte though, here's a pic before top coat:

no topcoat

And some more indoors/outside with top coat piccies :D

If you would like to see swatches of Lady Of The Lake on its own please click here

I really like this effect, and I think the pink crackle goes very well with a purple base, especially when you can see the funky holo effect through the cracks, definitely happy with how this combo turned out :D Kind of reminds me of The Cheshire cat :D

A-England Nail Polish Swatches Lady of The Lake and Tristam

A-England are a relatively new British Nail Polish Brand. I recently received a promotional e-mail featuring their current nail polish line which is called "The Mythicals" with names like "Merlin" "Lancelot" and "Lady of The Lake" I was instantly intrigued by this awesome theme of Arthurian Legend. The colours looked quite fascinating too, and definitely went with the legendary names. They even have a glossary which gives you information on all the names, which is a lovely touch. I was initially a little set aback by the price of polish (£9.50 a bottle) but when I found out A-England were doing a 20% off special for their Facebook Fans (you can find the link to this promotion further down in this post) I simply couldn't resist trying out a few.
The two polishes I decided to try out were: Lady Of The Lake, described on their website as a
"dusky purple with rainbow glimmer and glow" and Tristam "night blue sky with starlight glimmer and glow". I wasn't 100% sure but I thought I could detect a hint of a holographic effect in these two polishes :D

They arrived extremely quickly, and I was overjoyed the second I saw the bottles, these babies looked packed with holo, and were nothing like any other colour I've owned. 

Formula

Both polishes were an absolute joy to apply, perfect consistency and nice even coverage, the brush is thin and similar to China Glaze Brushes, and they both dry with a nice glossy finish, but I still used Seche Vite to speed up the drying process, and they respond very well to this top coat :D

Lady Of The Lake 

Lady Of The Lake is a gorgeous shimmery Mauve colour packed with holographic shimmer, the holographic effect is not linear like GOSH Holgraphic, its a more sparse holo effect similar to those on OPI DS series or My Private Jet holo version. I've never had a dark holo polish before so i absolutely adore this shade, it applied like butter and looks absolutely amazing on! This was 2 coats

Tristam

Tristam has the exact same holographic effect of Lady Of The Lake, except it is a dark denim shade of blue, trully a very unique colour, makes me think of a starry night. The camera has made the polish look a tiny bit darker than it actually is on the nails, the last pic is most colour accurate. This was also opaque at 2 coats, and applied like a dream, seriously love it!

Bottle Pics

Lady Of The Lake and Tristam

I am completely in love with these two polishes and so happy that I tried A-England, I've got my eyes on Merlin (an awesome silver glitter) for a possible next purchase :D Definitely recommend this brand, gorgeous shades and very creative names!

Another thing I find very clever about this brand is the names they've chosen for top coat and base coat - The Shield and The Knight :)
Links:
Official Website
Current Promotion: Check out A-England's Facebook page, they're doing an awesome 20% of promotion :D which runs through to April 16th