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A-England Ballerina Collection

March 24, 2014
A-England, Holos, Nailpolish, Obsessed
14 Comments

Each time that A-England’s creator teases us with hints of a new collection, Adina’s eager fans wait with baited breath for what will be unveiled. The incredible formulas, the colours, the historic inspirations behind each collection…  Many of us have become devotees of the brand! And today I have for you the gorgeous Ballerina collection. (For inspiration details, head over to Ommorphia’s launch post.)

A-England’s Ballerina is a collection of four beautiful, delicate holographic polishes in whisper-soft colours. The collection immediately reminded me of the tulle on dancers’ skirts… how perfect!

aengland_Ballerina_Coll

The first shade, and probably my favourite of the four (though it’s nearly impossible to pick a favourite) is Fonteyn. Fonteyn is a lavender-tinged silver holo with a formula so perfect, so divine, that it was a one-coater. It applied with buttery perfection, fully opaque on the first coat, and drying quickly to an incredible shine. (If you own any A-Englands, you’ll know that this brand is renowned for its high-shine finish!) Here is Fonteyn without top coat:

aengland_Ba_FonteynFull sun

aengland_Ba_Fonteyn2In the shade

 

Dancing with Nureyev is blue-purple holographic with a metallic finish that almost changes colour depending on the light. It is a little more indigo in some light, then a little more purple, but always demure.

I paired Fonteyn with Dancing with Nureyev for a subtle holo gradient:

aengland_Ba_Fonteyn_Nureyev_grdt

And two coats of the gorgeous Dancing with Nureyev, no top coat:

aengland_Ba_NureyevFull sun

aengland_Ba_Nureyev2In the shade

I had to include a macro of Dancing with Nureyev because it is so beautiful:

aengland_Ba_Nureyev_macro

Encore Margot is described as an “icy blue prismatic hue,” a pale-silver holographic that dries to a cool dove grey shade. The holo effect on Encore Margot appears a little softer than that of Fonteyn or Dancing with Nureyev, but the effect is breathtaking. Another amazing formula, a little more fluid than Fonteyn, requiring two easy coats. Below, without top coat:

aengland_Ba_EncoreMargotFull sun

aengland_Ba_EncoreMargot2In the Shade

 

Finally, Her Rose Adagio, a delicate soft pink holo described as “faded roses in a silver prismatic base, as romantic as it is ‘en pointe’.” Possessing a similar soft holo and formula like Encore Margot, I used two coats for the photos below:

aengland_Ba_HerRoseAdagioFull sun

aengland_Ba_HerRoseAdagio2In the shade

 

What always stands out for me is A-England’s incredible glossy finish, and its beauty whether in sunlight or in the shade. These colours are so demure and perfect, so aptly named that it is impossible not to fall in love…

 

A-England is available directly from their website for those in the UK, or from several stockists this side of the pond (check out Where to buy), including Nail Polish Canada (with free shipping within Canada!). Don’t forget to follow A-England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and Nail Polish Canada on Facebook and Twitter!

Have you tried any of the Ballerina shades, and which one is your favourite so far?

If you liked this post, please take a moment to ‘like’ this post and/or comment! I love to read what you think.

~xo

 

 

(Product provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

 

 

 

Shimmer Polish Gerry (and a beauty named Elaine!)

September 2, 2013
A-England, Nail Art, Nailpolish, Obsessed, Shimmer Polish
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Happy Labour Day Monday!

Today I have a gorgeous, glittery mani for you, and I hope you love it as much as I did. I think I wore this for a week, never tiring of it and always catching myself staring at its sparkly beauty… It truly is gorgeous. I was in the mood for purple when I created this look. 🙂

The base for my glitter gradient was the stunning A England Elaine, a regal purple creme with an insane shine. I’ve used Elaine before (and worn it many times!) and I knew it would be perfect. I used two coats but Elaine can be almost a one-coater:

AEnglandElaineIs that not a perfect, slightly dusty purple?

In order to retain some of the beauty of Elaine, I decided to apply a gradient of Shimmer Polish Gerry, a sparkly mix of violet and blue glitter with some red, black and silver glitters dispersed throughout. If you know Shimmer Polish (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for! See some of my posts here), you know that Shimmer creates some sparkly ultra-fine glittery gems.

Look at how beautiful this purple glitter gradient turned out:

ShimmerPolishGerry_ElaineI love the above pic in the shade – makes Elaine look so vampy while Gerry looks like it’s floating on the nail surface. (Where’s my polish remover… I think I know what mani to do next!)

Here it is in the sun:

ShimmerPolishGerry_Elaine2

And a macro shot (because I love macros so much):

ShimmerPolishGerry_Elainemacro

Get your very own Shimmer Polish here. Be sure to like Shimmer on Facebook to participate in their contests and see more gorgeous photos and new creations!

I usually purchase A England from Nail Polish Canada or from their US stockist Llarowe (but please check out A England’s site to see their other stockists as well).

So what did you think of my regal purple mani?

~xo

(Some product provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

Picture Polish Ariel’s Tale!

March 27, 2013
A-England, Nailpolish, nubar, Obsessed, piCture pOlish
5 Comments

Happy Thursday!! I am so thrilled this is a shortened week and I get to have a long weekend… just what I need. I hope some of you get to enjoy a day off as well…or at least a beautiful weekend!

Today I have for you one of my favourite boutique brands, piCture pOlish, made in Australia! I have worn quite a few piCture pOlishes, some that I should probably still share on this blog, but I do have another first for you: my first piCture pOlish glitter polish. And a polish with such a cute name: Ariel’s Tale! I keep hearing “Under the Sea” in my head when I see the bottle. 🙂 Ariel’s Tale is a gorgeous turquoise glitter top coat in a clear base, composed of monochromatic tiny square and medium hex glitters. Simple and gorgeous!

I wanted to wear it over a dark base, so I headed for my A-England Lancelot, my go-to “black” (it’s actually a blackened red but I often use it in place of black due to its beauty and shine). This combo did not disappoint! I wore it as a slight glitter gradient. Here are two coats of Lancelot topped with Ariel on the tips:

PicturePolish_ArielsTale_Lancelot

I received so many compliments on this manicure!! The aqua of Ariel’s Tale is soft enough for an elegant, work-appropriate manicure, even on such a stark background. And it sparkled like diamonds on my tips!

 

For a completely different look, I paired Ariel’s Tale with Nubar’s Into the Wild, a beautiful muted emerald green (with its own post coming soon!).

PicturePolish_ArielsTale_Nubarbtl

And Ariel’s Tale looked spectacular!! Judge for yourself:

PicturePolish_ArielsTale_NubarSunLook at the gorgeous turquoise slightly contrasting against the emerald green backdrop in the sun…

And here it is in the shade:

PicturePolish_ArielsTale_Nubar

I just adore the way it sparkles like the ocean… twinkling under the sun…

I already have some more ideas for Ariel’s Tale, maybe wearing it over a light base…  but which of today’s looks is your favourite?

To get your very own Ariel’s Tale,  visit piCture pOlish on-line and or visit any piCture pOlish Network member, including Harlow & Co, Llarowe and Nail Polish Canada.

And don’t forget to follow the Girls on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for all the latest news, giveaways, and more!!

~xo

 

 

(Product provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

Ozotic Sugar 901

February 10, 2013
A-England, Nailpolish, Ozotic, piCture pOlish
2 Comments

So it would seem that I’m on a bit of a piCture pOlish kick… Yesterday it was piCture pOlish Cosmos (which, by the way, is spectacular!!) and today I bring you my very first Ozotic, another Aussie brand that piCture pOlish has added to their portfolio of phenomenal polishes.

Late last year, piCture pOlish introduced the Ozotic Sugars colours, four polishes numbered 901 through 904, each inspired by “adding a tiny drop of food coloring to icing sugar – hence the sugary sweet looking colours.” And sweet and sugary they are!!! A family of topcoat-type polishes, they range in shades from pink to yellow-green. And today I bring you Ozotic Sugar 901, a beautiful iridescent pink in the bottle that magically turns duochrome once applied on the nail, depending on what you layer it over. I decided to go for the obvious this time, and layered it over my favourite near-black, A England’s Lancelot:

AEngland_LancelotLancelot is one of the most spectacular polishes, and one of the few I wear again and again (and again!). A England really got it right with their debut collection…. just look at that shine!!! And the wear on these is incredible. I can go up to 10 days with a little bit of tipwear. Amazing!

Now watch Ozotic Sugar 901 turn this into a whole new polish:

Ozotic_Sugar901

A purple duochrome? Yes please! Click on the picture above to see its full-size splendour… a dreamy, sugary, pinky-purple confection that leans gold or yellow, depending on the light. And the best part? You can add the Ozotic Sugars over even day-old polish, if you like, to give it new life. And this polish dries in moments!

What I really want to do is try this Sugar over different colours… starting with white. And report back to you 🙂

To get your hands on any of the Ozotics, visit piCture pOlish on-line or any of their Network members, including Harlow & Co and Llarowe.

And don’t forget to follow the Girls on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for all the latest news!

~xo

 

Friday Night Glitter Spam

December 19, 2012
A-England, Aphrodite Lacquers, Nailpolish, Obsessed, OPI
5 Comments

I couldn’t help myself… I had some unposted swatches of some gorgeous polishes and figured I’d share them in a spam post. 🙂

First up, a-England’s Elaine. Stunning, regal, elegant. A perfect purple creme, with an incredible high shine – like the rest of this collection. I adore a-England.

AEngland-Elaine_Sun

Elaine became the base for this stunning glitter, from Aphrodite Lacquers’ Friday Night Glitter Bombs Collection (previously reviewed here, here ,here, and here), Velvet Rope.

 

 

Aphrodite_VelvetRope_AE_Elaine

Isn’t this beautiful? Here is one more photo as the sun was setting:

Aphrodite_VelvetRope_AE_ElaineShade

 

One of the most gorgeous OPIs (in my humble opinion) from the Muppets collection was Wocka Wocka, a rich, deep, cool-hued red with a multi-chromatic shimmer. I wish I wore this colour more often because I adore it.

OPI_WockaWocka

 

 

Wocka Wocka became the base for another Aphrodite Lacquers Glitter Bomb:  Catfight, just reviewed yesterday in a jelly sandwich. 🙂

 

Aphrodite_Catfight_OPIWockaWocka

 

Finally, one of my summery go-to colours from OPI, Miami Beet, a beautiful deep berry creme, became the base for Aphrodite’s Pre-Party, a sheer pink polish base with color changing shimmer that goes from pink to coppery gold, and multiple different pink, black, and white glitters.

Aphrodite_PreParty_OPIMiamiBeet

 

 

Here is one of it in the shade… I love the shimmer reflecting off this.

 

 

Aphrodite_PreParty_OPIMiamiBeet_Shade

Most of these OPI colours are still available at fine salons, and Aphrodite Lacquers can be found on Aphrodite’s Etsy shop.  And don’t forget to follow Aphrodite Lacquers on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news!

~xo

Grey Shimmer

October 29, 2012
A-England, Nailpolish, Shimmer Polish
6 Comments

In keeping with the rather grey and dreary weather fueled by Hurricane Sandy today, I thought I would bring you gorgeous greys:  one of my favourite Shimmer Polishes with my very favourite a-England Gothic Beauty!

a-England, a bijoux brand that I simply adore, recently released a dark collection named Gothic Beauties. I adore vamps and had to have all five polishes the moment Adina released them!!

And today I bring you my first review of this collection, featuring the gorgeous Dorian Gray. All of the Gothic Beauties have the beautiful black a-England Camelot as a base, and Dorian Gray is as dark of a gunmetal grey as you can get, even shining in a pearly black in some lights.  This beautiful metallic gunmetal is described as “an intensely sinister pewter grey, forged with a forgiving deep golden shimmer.” And how sinister it is! The deep golden shimmer is very subtle, allowing Dorian to reflect in more of a metallic sheen.
Like many of my a-Englands, Dorian Gray was a one-coater — thick and self-levelling, and really not needing a second coat (though I did apply one). The best part? It’s a smooth, liquid thicker polish, drying quickly and evenly, showing nary a brush stroke.

Here it is, two coats over a coat of The Knight basecoat, topped with a coat of The Shield top coat:

Indoor light

 

I love how dark and truly sinister it looks with flash:

With flash

Do you see that golden, blueish shimmer?

As if Dorian Gray wasn’t spectacular enough on its own, I added this incredible Shimmer Polish that I adored the moment it arrived: Shimmer Vanessa, a slightly darkened jelly base featuring pewter, silver and red glitters, with some black thrown in for good measure. You would think such a dark polish may be subdued, but not Vanessa. It was sparkling in the dimmest light!!! It was simply spectacular!

Here is one coat over my previous Dorian Gray mani:

Full sun

It was insanely sparkly!!! People stopped me to compliment this manicure!

Here is a macro for you to drool over 🙂

Tell me that is not a swoon-worthy polish!

 

I love how elegant this mani turned out. It was sparkly and party-ready, but not in-your-face. I wore this mani to a concert at a classic concert hall, with a gorgeous black dress… it was perfection!

 

You can purchase a-England’s Gothic Beauties (along with all their other beauties) directly on their website, from Nail Polish Canada, or from their US stockist Llarowe.

And you can find Shimmer Polish here. Be sure to like them on Facebook to participate in their contests and see the latest offers!

~xo

 

 

 

(Some product was provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

Go Pink Wednesday, Week 2!

October 9, 2012
A-England, Beauty, Essie, Lynnderella, Nailpolish, piCture pOlish
12 Comments

Wow, we are already in week 2 of our joint Go Pink effort to in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Andrea from Finger Painting Fingers (who led this amazing effort!) and a whole slew of bloggers are sharing our pink manis every Wednesday throughout October!

Today I bring you some of my favourite pink manicures.

First up, one of my very favourite “near-nudes” that I have previously written about here, A England’s Iseult. This stunning, delicate pink polish is perfect for everything from a wedding mani to an office-appropriate mani.

Next I have another stunner, this time from piCture pOlish. I featured this polish as part of piCture pOlish’s Blogfest! Here is Tease! Is this silver microglitter not amazing?

And because this amazing polish sparkles so incredibly, here is a shot in the sun:

The next mani isn’t technically pink as its base colour, Essie’s Sure Shot, leans fuchsia with a shimmer, but together, Lynnderella’s Boy Girl Party and Sure Shot sure look pink together!! I just LOVE this combo!! (see all the pics here)

So what is your favourite pink polish of all time?

~xo



a-England Beauties!

August 27, 2012
A-England, Nailpolish
11 Comments

In honour of the big reveal of a-England’s third and stunning collection by the super-talented Ommorphia Beauty Bar, I felt it was only appropriate to share more love for one of my most favourite brands. a-England has exceedingly surpassed every expectation I have ever had, both in quality, colour and creativity.

Today I bring you Iseult, a beautiful, light and shimmery shade of delicate pink with a pearly finish. I wore this gem before as a base colour (read about it here) and today I will combine it for you once again!

Here are 2 coats of Iseult in daylight:

I wore two coats of Iseult over a base coat of a-England’s The Knight, followed by a topcoat of The Shield.

Here is an indoor picture so you can see the beautiful, subtle shimmer of Iseult. Click on the pic for a full size pic:

I have owned another a-England stunner for some time without writing about it… Here is my gorgeous Iseult mani topped with a coat of Morgan Le Fay, a magical “luminescent white silver” according to a-England’s website. Beauty in a bottle!

And another indoor pic that I love because of the slight blur on the right side of the picture. Blur always demonstrates the pearly, slight holo effect so much better!

This is one of the most universally flattering manicures I have seen. Iseult is so delicate that it is at once beautiful, simple, and best of all, office-appropriate! Even with Morgan Le Fay, the mani is not overly glittery or bright. Iseult is a lady of a colour, and I adore this combo, summer or winter.

You can purchase a-England directly on their website, from Nail Polish Canada, or from their US stockist Llarowe.

What do you think of this mani?

Party Time!

August 11, 2012
A-England, Beauty, Essie, Lynnderella, Nailpolish
2 Comments

I started to look for a previous post I may have written on Lynnderella’s Boy Girl Party, and it turns out that I had not written one!! Considering that this is one of my few favourites from Lynnderella, I am baffled as to how this slipped through the cracks. Nevertheless, today I will make up for that!

Boy Girl Party is one of those polishes I had my eye on since it was released, though it took me some time to finally get my hands on it. I just love its crazy blue, turquoise, red, pink glitter mix! There are so many different kinds of glitter in here – it really is a party!

The first time I wore Boy Girl Party, I layered it over black because I knew the black would make the multi-colour glitter pop: I used A England’s Lancelot, my favourite “black” ever. (Even though Lancelot is actually a black-red, it often looks black unless layered over white or in direct sunlight. And the dreamy application of A England’s cremes make them my go-to polishes!)

Here it is with 2 coats of Lancelot:

I had been dying to try Boy Girl over a brighter base for some time, and I had my eye on Essie’s Sure Shot from the 2012 Resort Collection. Sure Shot is a blue-leaning magenta polish with a gorgeous shimmer.

This colour always reminds me of my mom’s polishes and lipsticks from the ’80s!! As far back as I can remember, cosmetic labels have released a shade like this every few years. In fact, when I first purchased this Essie set, I almost put Sure Shot aside for mom, untried!

My only regret is that I only used 1 coat of Sure Shot, thinking it would suffice as it applied quite evenly and provided good coverage. However, it streaked a little once I added BGP, especially where I had to manipulate the chunky glitter. I will have to redo this properly with 2 coats next time.

And here it is with BGP on it:

And one more:

I LOVE THIS LOOK!!!

I love the cool-tone of Sure Shot under Boy Girl Party, and this has officially beat my beloved Lancelot/Boy Girl Party combo!

I added two coats of top coat: one of A England’s The Shield, and one of China Glaze’s Fast Forward.

What do you think of the two combinations?

~xo

 

Gooo Luigi!

August 5, 2012
A-England, Dollish Polish, Nailpolish, Obsessed
7 Comments

I was lucky enough to snag a few minis during Dollish Polish’s last restock – her launch of the new Super Mario Bros Collection! Although I have not been wearing a lot of chunky glitters lately, I wanted to get my hands on the SMB Collection for nostalgic reasons… I loved Super Mario Bros when I was younger, and had not played in years. Thanks to Dolly’s collection and constant references to Super Mario on Facebook, I finally went out and purchased a Nintendo Wii a few weeks ago!! LOL! (Darn that Dolly and her creative genius!!)

So today I have Go Luigi! for you! And because I couldn’t decide which way to wear it, I swatched on two different colours for you!

Go Luigi! is a clear-base polish with small and medium bright blue and green hex glitters, as well some holographic stars (that I haven’t yet managed to grab).

Here is Go Luigi! over A England’s Lancelot, one of my favourite creme polishes in the world, and my go-to in place of a regular black. Lancelot is a blood-red that looks black in almost all light–except maybe when worn over white or in direct sunlight. I also swatched Go Luigi! over an opaque, French-tip white as I had a feeling it would look great over white (and I have been in a “white polish” mood).

with flash

For this look, I applied 2 coats of each Lancelot and Zoya Snow White over my base coat, and once that dried, I applied a generous coat of Go Luigi! Although I had rolled and rolled and turned upside down my Go Luigi! before application, I still had to do some digging to ensure the brush had lots of glitter on it and that it covered my nails… and after all that digging, I did not get a single star out of the bottle!!

natural light – shade

And here’s a macro shot of all that glitter goodness:

I’d love to know what you think of this post and which combo you liked the best. Did Go Luigi! look best over white or black?

xo

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