Hello! I have a couple of a-england swatches to show you today from The Mythicals. I've had these for about a year and I wear them quite frequently, but I don't think I've swatched them on here before.
Avalon is probably my favourite purple polish ever. It's blue-toned and glowy and glorious. It has fantastic pigmentation and is opaque in two effortless coats. (Unfortunately it began to rain as I was taking these photos; the blobs on a couple of nails are raindrops!)
Perceval is along the same lines as Avalon in that it's rich and glowy, but it's a vivid red rather than purple. As I've said before I don't wear red polishes that often, but I'll make an exception for this beauty. Again, this is two coats.
You can see swatches of two other Mythicals colours here.
Hola! I'm on holiday in Spain (Seville and Madrid) for the next nine days, but make not with the long faces because I have some fun nail art posts to keep you entertained until I get back. Every other day I'll be posting a manicure inspired by some of my favourite nail blogs.
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A few weeks ago I showed you this manicure that followed a tutorial from the Dutch nail blogger Nailside, and today I have another one. Probably her most famous design is the cloud one. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be to recreate!
The base is two coats of a-england Galahad, a vibrant teal. The other colours are Barry M Silver Foil and Nails Inc Black Taxi - all British brands today!
Have you tried Nailside's cloud tutorial? If not, what are you waiting for?! :)
Hi! I have two a-england swatches for you today. I've had these nail polishes for ages and they're among my favourites of my entire collection, so I decided it was high time I showed them. You will have seen these swatched many times before...but now it's my turn. XD
Lady of the Lake is a blue-toned purple polish with the most amazing scattered holographic shimmer. In the shade it looks like normal shimmer, but in the sunlight it shows its true colours. One of the (many) things I like about a-england polishes is the formula; they all apply perfectly. LotL is very pigmented and was almost opaque in one coat, although I used two for the photos below. All but the last photo were taken in the sun.
Tristam has the same scattered holographic shimmer as Lady of the Lake, but its base colour is a navy blue. It is just as stunning as LotL. I actually wore this one when I went on holiday to Greece last year, and after a week it still looked great. It had grown out a bit at the cuticle and there was some tip-wear, but no chips. How awesome is that?! Again, I used two coats plus top coat for the photos below.
Do you have any a-england polishes? If not - why not?!
I have bit of a different post for you today. I have a lot of photos I haven't posted of manicures I did late last/earlier this year before I became more serious with my nail blogging. I'm actually cringeing a little at the thought of posting these because they're so amateurish. I know my manicures aren't as good as many other nail bloggers', but they're a helluva lot better than they were even just six months ago. (I'm really recommending this to you, aren't I?!) But I'm going to show these anyway, because if nothing else it shows how much I've improved! There are some swatches and some attempts at nail art. I stress the word 'attempt'.
Nails Inc Black Taxi with OPI Rainbow Connection on the ring finger. A weird combination. Also, a bizarre hand position. It reminds me of that moment in Toy Story when Buzz Lightyear asks the little alien toys who's in charge: "The claaaaw."
Illamasqua Kink. It's one of those rubber-finish polishes. Terrible photo, but I really like the polish. Also, my index fingernail appears to be freakily long in comparison to the others here.
OPI Warm & Fozzie. Love this polish. Barry M Copper, a new release, is supposedly very similar to this if anyone is looking for a cheaper alternative.
Nails Inc Old Bond Street. It's a dark grey with a pink/purple shimmer. It's completely gorgeous and I should really re-swatch it so you can see it better.
Essie Lady Like. It's hard to tell from the photo, but it's a greyish pink. It's very work-appropriate. I actually wore it to the interview for my internship a few months ago.
Essie Lady Like with Essie As Gold As It Gets. A random combination I tried out. Subtle, but I like it.
OPI Alpine Snow with Nubar Opulent Pearl. I wanted to see what Opulent Pearl, a flakie top coat, looked like over a white polish. Not much, apparently. I also seem to have decided that painting half my skin would be a good look.
Nails Inc Jermyn Street. I think this was the first nude polish I ever bought, and it's still my favourite. Its formula is unbeatable.
OPI Fly with OPI Save Me. Not a very original combination, but they go well together.
China Glaze For Audrey with Nubar White Polka Dots. LOBSTER HANDS!!! I used a Big Ruby nail tattoo on the ring finger.
a-england Galahad and a-england Tristam. I remember I was so chuffed with this manicure, but my Seche Vite was getting to the gloopy stage when I put it on and the whole thing just bubbled like a witches' cauldron! I was devastated.
Nails Inc Seven Dials with Barry M Silver Foil. I quite like this manicure, but it's a terrible photo. Although the foil looks gold, I actually used a silver polish but the green underneath changed its colour!
So there you have it, my crappy swatches out there for all the world to see. Am I the only one who cringes when looking at early photos of one's manicures? Does anyone else feel they've come a long way since they started nail blogging - whether a few months or a few years ago?
Any nail polish addict worth their salt has heard of the elusive Clarins 230 - aka Unicorn Pee (I genuinely love whoever came up with that nickname). It's been discontinued for years and consequently has become probably the most coveted nail polish in the world. Bottles sell for ridiculous prices on eBay (I just had a look, and some are being sold for more than fifty quid. Bloody hell!). Unfortunately, I don't have a bottle of this polish myself. But what I do have is its dupe, Max Factor Fantasy Fire 45.
When I first read that Max Factor had created a supposed dupe of Clarins 230, I almost choked on my mouthful of Diet Coke. I then decided that right that very minute I had to find one, so I popped to my local Superdrug. Lo and behold, they had it in stock - so I bought four bottles! It's always good to have backups, right?
Loooook! It's a rainbow in a bottle!
As with Clarins 230 it's quite sheer and is best used as a layering polish, particularly if you want the bottle to last longer. I tried two different layering combinations. The first was a-england Avalon, a deep and shimmery purple. I did two coats of Avalon and two of Fantasy Fire, plus a top coat.
I'm actually a little disappointed with this combination. Is that silly? It looks amazing, but I think because Avalon is such a beauty in and of itself, it doesn't give Fantasy Fire a true opportunity to shine. The incredible multichrome shimmer that makes Unicorn Pee and Fantasy Fire so unique gets lost a bit. Having said that, look at that insane green shimmer on the left of my index finger in the last picture!
The second layering combination I tried was with Barry M Indigo, which is a blue/purple shade that's also very pretty on its own. Again, I did two coats of Indigo, two of Fantasy Fire, and a top coat. I forgot to take photos of it initially, so unfortunately there is a little tipwear. I don't think it diminishes the polish at all, though.
Isn't it stunning?! I'm so pleased with how this combination turned out. The bluer base of Indigo really gives Fantasy Fire the opportunity to stand out and show its true colours - all five billion of them!
As I don't have Clarins 230 so I can't really comment on whether it's a true dupe or not. However, after a quick web search I found a comparison post on another blog, which you can find here. The conclusion seems to be that in the bottle it's a bit different, but on the nail it looks exactly the same (huzzah!). Max Factor Fantasy Fire is being sold for £3.99 for a 4.5ml bottle, which is tiiiiiny. That's almost £12 for the equivalent 15ml full-size. However, given the extortionate prices Clarins 230 is going for on eBay, I think Fantasy Fire is worth every penny!
I am a huge fan of a-england polishes. The formula is always flawless and the colours are always interesting. I don't wear many red nail polishes as I feel it's a bit too mainstream - not that I'm exactly what you'd call cool, but I prefer to wear slightly more unusual colours. Having said that, a-england Perceval is an exception to the rule. It's an incredible shimmery red that looks like it's lit from within. It's stunning. Most recently, I wore it with China Glaze Golden Enchantment, a gold holographic glitter top coat.
I didn't manage to take a single photo that didn't come out a bit blurry, for some reason, but it still shows the colour of Perceval well, as well as showing how sparkly and holographic Golden Enchantment is.
I did this manicure a little while ago for my grandfather's 85th birthday party. Perhaps unsurprisingly my nails completely escaped his notice, but I'm really pleased with how this manicure turned out regardless!
I began with two coats of China Glaze Devotion, which I have previously blogged about here. (In hindsight, I have no idea what possessed me to use this silver. It bubbles every time I wear it. Doh.) Once this had dried thoroughly I used Scotch tape to tape off three quarters of each nail. I painted this quarter with a-england's Avalon, the most amazing glowy purple. It's actually one of my favourite purples to wear. I only needed one coat to make it opaque. I waited for it to dry, then changed the tape so that it left the opposite quarter of each nail uncovered, and painted them with Avalon again. I then sealed it all with a top coat.
Despite the bubbling on Devotion, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I think the combination of purple and silver is so eye-catching.
