a-england Incense Burner

Today I have another of the stunning a-england Rossetti's Goddess collection to show you all.  This is a lovely shifting beauty called Incense Burner and I have taken the description directly from the a-england website as it is described perfectly there.

Incense Burner is described as follows 'Velvety, mysterious and hypnotic dark plum with the chromatic diversity of brown, green, mauve reflections of an antique bronze vessel'

I have done my best to show you the beauty of this one but as with all colour shifters, some of the colours are more dominant than others.

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

 

Now as I said, I have tried my best to show this one off, but as with some polishes, this has to be worn to be truly appreciated.

 

This a-england polish - and many others - are available on the official a-england site if you are in the UK, and if not, 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 Jane Morris and Lynnderella Lucky Numbers

The first polish I have for you all today is Jane Morris which is from the newest a-england collection, Rossettis Goddess.

Jane Morris is a great slate grey holo polish with a very cool subtle little purple sparkle running throughout.

As always with a-englands this polish was a dream to apply, this is 1 coat of the Knight and 2 of the polish.

I have been buying some polishes on ebay from a great seller recently and I have been managing to snag some polishes that I would never have been able to otherwise.  The one I am referring to here is Lynnderella Lucky Numbers which is a variety of red and black glitters in a milky base which also has a great reddy shimmer through it.

This is one coat over the above with a coat of the Shield to level it all out.

This a-england polish is 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.

As I said, I got this Lynnderella from a seller on ebay (for a very reasonable price so don't think I've been spending crazy money) but upon doing a bit of googling, I think the official places to buy them are here or on ebay here  or in Europe here - but I haven't used any of these sites to purchase before.

Thanks so much for looking <3

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

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.

Candeo Zef (with a-england Princess Tears and Colors by Llarowe Coconut)

Only the one post tonight, as I am tired and ready for the weekend already... But this post does have a couple different polishes in it, so that should make up for it :)

I wanted to show you Candeo Zef which I got off Llarowe probably at least a year ago, possibly closer to two... and I know they are no longer sold on the Llarowe site but you can still buy them on the official site as far as I am aware.

Zef is a great little clear based glitter, and the glitters in it are black, pink and blue in various sizes...and I just love the squares.

Firstly I will show you a really old swatch of this one, that I found in my newly rescued hard drive, my nails were much shorter here but this is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of a-england Princess Tears, 1 of Zef and 1 Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food as a top coat - which has a matte kind of finish.

I now have for you a new swatch using Candeo Zef, in a jelly sandwich with Colors by Llarowe Coconut, which is a pure white jelly polish.  I will show you Coconut first, this is 1 coat of the Knight and 3 coats of the polish.

I then put one coat of Zef on top and another coat of Coconut and 1 coat of the Shield to finish it all off.

As I said, Candeos can be purchased from the official site, and this one is still there, along with some other great looking polishes that I would like to get but I am a little perplexed by the way international orders are handled, probably just as I have not seen it done this way before.

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

Colors by Llarowe polishes can be purchased from the official site, Harlow and Co and Rainbow Connection.

Thanks for looking <3

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

Darling Diva Polish Darling Nikki

Firstly I will apologise as I swatched this polish so many months ago but just managed to get back into my external hard drive and access the pictures I had archived there.  So I am super happy about that, as all my pictures - since Pandora's Nails started are on there - along with some swatched but not shown yet pretties, I thought they were stuck on there forever...

But anyway, this pretty is Darling Nikki and has a sheer purple base which is filled with multicoloured microglitter, small black circles and medium black circles.

I really liked this one but as the description says, the base is sheer so I have shown you it alone and over a base.  I also think these pictures were taken on my previous camera, which was good with the close ups but got replaced as was not go good with some colors.

This picture shows 4 coats Darling Nikki alone on the middle and pinkie and 2 coats of a-england Guinevere on the pointer and ring.

I got this one from  Llarowe but you can also but from the Darling Diva site directly.

Thanks for looking <3

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

a-england Fotheringhay Castle

I have the last of the new a-england Elizabeth and Mary collection to show you today.

Fotheringhay Castle is inspired by the Castle that Mary was imprisoned in until her execution.

This one is a mossy green holo with hints of gold, and surprised me a lot as being quite possibly my favourite of this collection.  I always find this hard to say, especially as I have never not liked an a-england polish, but this one just wowed me so much when on the nail.

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

This collection is 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 Queen of Scots

This is another stunning polish from the new a-england collection.

Queen of Scots is inspired by Mary and is an extremely rich and deep royal blue which has such a glow to it.

And even better the coverage is just amazing....this is 1 coat of the Knight, 1 of the polish (yes, just one) and 1 of the Shield.

This collection is 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 Virgin Queen

Today brings another of the new a-englands from the Elizabeth & Mary collection.  I am loving this collection, and I hope you all are too.

This one is Virgin Queen and is inspired by Elizabeth.

Virgin Queen is an interesting little white/silver/bronze holo and really delicate to wear.

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

This collection is 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 Gloriana

Tonight we have another polish from the lovely new a-england collection, Elizabeth & Mary.

This one is called Gloriana and is such a complex and pretty little metallic red with gold flecks throughout.  I had to check out what the inspiration of this one was and it looks like it is inspired by a boat commissioned for Elizabeths diamond jubilee, which was gold and red so based on this, Adina has once again captured the inspiration so well in her polish.

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

This collection is 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 Crown Of Thistles

Today I have the first polish from an amazing new collection that I am super excited to show you.

Now, everyone knows I love a-england, I am never quiet about this fact.  Adina makes amazing polishes that are not only stunning to look at, they always have such great inspiration.

This polish is from the newest a-england Collection - Elizabeth & Mary - which is a collection based on the two iconic Queens.

I don't know how many of you know this, but I am from Scotland so Crown of Thistles - a purple holo inspired by Scotland national flower - was a sure fire winner for being the first polish I would show from this collection.

This is 1 coat of the Knight, 2 of the Polish and 1 of the Shield.  To be honest, if you were careful, one coat of this polish would suffice, and it is also shiny without topcoat too.  Application, as I have found with all a-englands so far, was a dream.

This is such a great purple holo polish, even without the lovely inspiration, I would still need this polish in my life!

This collection is 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.

Quick Post with Giveaway Winner

Just a very quick post night to congratulate the winner of my a-england giveaway.

Firstly thank you to all my followers, old and new, on sticking about and writing so many comments about how much you love a-england.  I did read them all <3

There seemed to be a clear favourite, Saint George, which is an amazing green polish from the Legend Collection and is also one of a-englands bestsellers, so makes sense it is so many peoples favourite!.  But I did notice that so many of you found it difficult to choose....I don't blame you!

In case you are interested, all of the a-englands are precious to my collection, and I don't know how I would live without even one of them, but if you made me choose I would have to say Camelot/Lancelot are my most used (on my third bottle of each...), they are great alone or as a base for so many other things.  But are far as the colours go Lady of the Lake/Tristam are about equally used (almost finished a bottle of each...) as I so often wear these when I cannot decide what else to put on my nails.  These were my first 2 a-englands, so congrats to them for starting it all...ha.

But anyway, back to the winner, I hope you all help me in congratulating Valery in being the lucky winner, by following a-england on Twitter.  If I do not get a response in 24hrs, a winner will be redrawn.

Hopefully I can get back to regular posting next week, I will make a decided effort and hope to see you all around soon <3 xx


a Rafflecopter giveaway

*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.