A England Fated Prince Swatches and Review

a england Fated Prince
Fated Prince, from the Burne-Jones Dream collection, is a grey-green holographic polish.  It's a dark grey, more charcoal than silver, and it has a subtle, warm olive undertone.  The holographic effect is visible in low light, but really comes alive in the sun. 

The formula on it is excellent.  Dense, opaque, smooth, quick-drying, and extremely durable.  This is two coats of polish and it's completely opaque.  Unlike a lot of other holographic polishes that can chip within hours, all of the a england holos tend to last forever on my nails without any hint of damage or wear.  They also lack that thin foil texture that shows imperfections on the nail, which I also appreciate because it hides my ridges nicely. 

a england polishes are available directly from their website (UK only) or from Llarowe, Ninja Polish, and Overall Beauty (US).  Click here for a list of other international distributors. 

(sent for review)

a england Briar Rose / Sleeping Beauty Swatches and Review

a england Briar Rose / Sleeping Beauty from the Burne-Jones Dream Collection.

(press sample)

 A cranbery-rose scattered holo.  Has a milky, dusty, faded sort of look to it.  The holographic effect is not strong, but it adds to the dusty-dreamy look of the polish.

The formula on this was great.  Not goopy and dragging, not thin and runny.  Applies like a dense creme polish.  Great coverage.  I used two coats and it was completely opaque.  Fast dry time.  Very, very durable, even without topcoat.

I feel like this is a perfect fit with the theme.  Not only is it a very fairytale type of color, but the color and finish, with that dusty, antique sort of haze to it, really goes well with the feeling that Edward Burne-Jones painting gives off.

The entire Burne-Jones Dream collection, including Briar Rose / Sleeping Beauty, can be purchased here. If you'd prefer to order from within the US, it's also carried at Ninja Polish.

(sample sent for review)

a-england Gem of the Month: Princess Tears

I just noticed that this month's featured polish on a-england's website is Princess Tears! I haven't posted this color yet, so what better time to show it than now? It's really beautiful and not at all what I thought it would be...


a-england Princess Tears. This shade is from the newly released Legends collection. It's described on the website as a lilac, so I was expecting it to be one of those really common pale lilac/borderline pink holos. It's not, it's way better than that. It is lilac, but it's dark and silvered. It's a grey and lilac duochrome that also flashes pink and green. In addition to the amazing multichromatic color shift, it's also holographic like the rest of the Legends collection. The combination of holo and duochrome makes this polish look amazing in any type of light; it doesn't have to be viewed in full sunlight to look its best. I think this looks pretty similar to a-england Ascalon, but like a lighter, softer version. Ascalon is a darker grey with a deeper blue-toned purple in it, this is lighter and more pewter colored and the purple part of it appears more pink than the purple in Ascalon.

The formula on this is just as nice and smooth as the other polishes from the Legends collection. It's a little thinner than the dark colors like Bridal Veil and Saint George so it's not opaque in one coat like those are, but looks great at two or three coats (depends on how strong you want the duochrome to be). I did three and I like it best that way, it brings out the green flash more.

Holo and duochrome at the same time. Perfection.

This is currently in stock on a-england's website, £9 with free worldwide shipping (!!!).

(This was sent for review.)

a-england The Legends Collection Swatches and Review

The long-rumored and highly anticipated a-england The Legends holographics are here! You may remember the first a-england holos, and how amazing they were... And then you might also remember Adina (creator and owner of a-england) saying that she was working on something holographic for the next collection... And now here they are, seven brand new a-england holos and they do not disappoint. I only have five of the seven, but the other two look just as fantastic as these.

Ascalon, Bridal Veil, Dragon, Tristam Eyes/Princess Sabra, Saint George.

a-england Ascalon. Not only is Ascalon holographic, it's duochrome as well. It's a medium grey base with a strong purple flash. At some angles you can see an opposing teal/green flash where there's no purple. I don't think I captured any of the blue-green reflection in my pictures, but it's there in real life. This also has a pretty decent scattered holo effect, and it's the smooth kind of hologram particle, not the chunky glitter-style one like in Nubar Gem.



a-england Bridal Veil. This one is a super rich black with a subtle scattered holo effect. It is incredibly black and extremely pigmented. It's not a match to OPI My Private Jet (the original one) or Color Club Revvvolution. The hologram particles in this are small and sparse. It looks like a plain black shimmer indoors but in sunlight the rainbow effect does come out. It's more like Bloom Mena than any other black-based holo I've tried.



a-england Dragon. Dragon is the *perfect* name for this one. I've never seen a more dragony polish than this. It's a medium soft green base- somewhere in between fern and olive- and it has a fiery orangey copper-gold duochrome shimmer. It's also holographic, but a scattered holo. It looks quite a bit darker in the flash pictures than it does in real life, but the flash seems to show the holo effect the best.



a-england Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes). Princess Sabra has a little note above the name that says "Tristam Eyes," and I think that's really cute. Tristam is Adina's cat and this shade seems to perfectly match the color of his eyes. It's a light golden olive green, very yellow toned. The holographic sparkle in this one is very strong.



a-england Saint George. This is a very saturated teal with holographic shimmer. It is dark and it is very rich. My picture doesn't adequately capture how colorful this looks, it's one of the nicest teals I've ever seen. The holographic effect isn't very strong in this, and the blue and green sparkles are dominant.

The other two shades in the collection are Princess Tears, which looks to be a soft purple holo, and Order of the Garter, which looks like a blue shimmer.

The application on these was excellent. Better than the previous a-england holos I tried. Some of them are opaque in one coat and have an insane amount of pigment to them. The others are opaque in two thin coats. No streaking or bald spots like many holographic formulas are prone to. The formula on these is very thick and dense, but not the kind of thick that feels dry and drags. Because of the thick formula, these are prone to bubbling. Be sure to do thin coats and wait a few minutes in between each just in case. The dry time was very good as well.

I think these are awesome. The combination of holo and duochrome really stole my heart. The non-duochrome ones are just as nice because they're extremely pigmented and saturated looking. The black is very black, the teal is very teal. I found these to be a joy to use and every shade looks fantastic on the nail. Plus, they're different from the rest of the holographic polishes in my collection; they're not the same old overdone silver/pastel blue/pastel purple holo polishes that we see constantly. The only flaw with them is that they can bubble if you're not careful.

These will be available soon on a-england.co.uk (with free worldwide shipping), but they're currently in stock at Llarowe if you want them now!

(This was sent for review.)

a-england The Mythicals - Elaine, Lancelot, Merlin, Morgan Le Fay.

I previously reviewed a-england's Avalon, Lady of the Lake and Tristam and was quite impressed with the gorgeous shades. Today I have swatches of some of the other shades- Elaine, Lancelot, Merlin and Morgan Le Fay.


Elaine. The flash picture is washed out but it shows the base color of the polish really well. This is a dark blue-toned purple creme. Like a lot of this year's fall shades, it has that smoky/dusty/faded finish so it fits right in with the current fall polish trend. It is extremely dense and pigmented and needed only one coat for full coverage, but I did two anyway. I know this polish is named after Elaine of Astolat, but I can't help but think...

I'M SORRY! I CAN'T HELP IT!!!

Lancelot. I loved the description of this one on the website: "Intriguing mysterious black red garnet. Lo! Gothic glory! Alternate on nails this blackest red with camelot the blackest black for even more depth and mistery." Black red garnet! Gothic glory! In the bottle you can tell that it's not just black, but on the nails it pretty much just looks black. Sometimes you can see a wine hue to it, but it's not obviously red. Despite that, I love the way it looks. Just a little softer than pure black. I had a little problem with the thickness of this one, though. It was so thick I could barely spread it- after a full dropper of Seche Restore it was perfect. A one-coater. I still did two coats.


Merlin. Really shiny silver glitter. This differs from other silver glitters in the shape of the particles. Instead of round glitter like usual, this one has small irregular shapes- some are roundish, others look like broken shards of metal. This is pretty dense, I'm wearing two coats here and it's almost entirely opaque. Maybe a little too dense for layering:

This is one coat of Merlin over two coats of Lancelot. See how dense this glitter is? Almost entirely covers the base polish.


Morgan Le Fay. This is a sheer white shimmer. It has a little silver to it and even seems to reflect pale blue in some lights. It's very clean and delicate looking. It is on the sheer side so it's probably good for layering, but I like it better by itself. This is three coats and I think it looks perfect.

The formula on these was good except for on Lancelot. The two cremes were one-coaters but extremely thick. The sparkly ones needed two to three coats but had a thinner, easier to control texture. Drying time is on the long side but becomes more reasonable when used with Seche Vite topcoat.

I really like these. Maybe not as much as the holo goodness of Lady of the Lake and Tristam, but they're still very nice. Morgan Le Fay might actually be my favorite of the group- it looks so clean and delicate and ethereal, like snow or mist.

I've heard a rumor that there may be more holos from a-england in our future... Fingers crossed!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Three amazing a-England The Mythicals nail polishes

A England (aka a-england, I'm not sure which is the official format) is a brand-new London nail polish brand. Normally I'm extremely wary of reviewing brand new indie brands because of my experience with the world of indie mineral makeup, but a-england has been around for a while now and seems to be a pretty stand-up company with a really gorgeous, high-quality product. I'm very excited to be reviewing these three shades from The Mythicals line. I'm sure most of you hardcore polish junkies have seen these already, so allow my photos to add to the stack of evidence confirming how gorgeous these are. Seriously, they are so cool

Oh, and also cool? The entire line is themed on Arthurian legend.

These are the shades I tried:

Avalon. This is a very deep (but not blackened) blue-toned purple with iridescent shimmer. It's not just a plain shimmer, though, it has a two-toned blue purple/red purple thing going on. I suppose I could call this a duochrome, but instead of shifting, both colors are visible all the time. It's really neat, it's almost layered looking.



Lady of the Lake. Can you believe your eyes? A PURPLE HOLO. I know it looks very blue in my photos, and it is a blue sort of purple, but it is less blue and more purple in real life. The angle where it looks most purple is in brighter light which makes it look a little washed out. This is a very rich, regal, gorgeous starry type of purple. I am seriously impressed with this polish. It has smooth holo particles, not a chunky glitter, but not a true linear holo. Really, really fantastic, I can't even tell you how great this polish is. It's dark and vampy but still obviously purple and that sprinkle of rainbow sparkle is totally mesmerizing.


Tristam. This one is similar to Lady Of The Lake except it's all blue. A very rich deep blue (also obviously blue, not blackened) with a nice amount of hologram shimmer. The particles are fine and smooth, not chunky or rough or glitter-like. So beautiful. This is not a dupe for OPI Designer Series Glamour, but it is somewhat similar, so if you missed out on that one, you may want to pick this one up to satisfy your dark blue holo craving.

The formula on these was great. The holo polishes were very thick, but that also means that they were very opaque. If I did a really thick coat, I could get one coat coverage. I did two thinner coats and that was perfect. Avalon was a little thinner than the holos, but it still had a little of that three-free thick feeling to it. All applied well, the brushes and bottles were not flawed in any way and I didn't get stained from the blue (shockingly). The only complaint I can think of on the formula is that they seem to have a pretty long dry time. I always use quick dry topcoat, and I used Seche Vite when I wore each of these, but they still stayed dentable for quite a long time.

Overall, this looks like a really strong and creative line. It's small- there are only around a dozen shades- but it's good. Not all of the colors seem completely unique, they have your standard silver foil, black creme and pale pink type shades, but they all look fantastic. The holo polishes and the purples were the stand-outs to me, but I'd love to see the metallic gold, the vampy black-red and the other blues and purples in person.

The polishes aren't cheap, though- they're £9.00, which is about $14 US dollars. Not outrageous or overpriced, but more expensive than your average salon brand. I'd say those holos are totally worth it, but I might hesitate to pay that much for a plain black or white unless the formula and coverage was really amazing.

They are running a special, though:



(These were sent to me for review.)