I was craving this set since I saw swatches of Covent Garden Ballet a few month ago and I got it at the asos sale for £15.50. What a bargain! Getting four great polishes for little over the price of one!
First, it's Covent Garden Ballet shot through with a delicate grey with pink-bronze shimmer. It's adorable, what more can I say! We need more delicate beauties like this.
Next is Ledbury Road, a metallic taupe colour that looks like two of my favourite eye shadows.
In the bottle it looked a lot like my Shu Uemura ME 860 (2nd generation) ...
...while on the nail it looks more like Shu Uemura Ir 850 (2nd generation). I love them both of course so I can't help liking the polish that gives me the rather odd opportunity to match my nails to my eyeshadow.
Lower Sloane Street is a soft caramel nude cream. It's pretty, it's easy to wear and work appropriate. A nice basic colour.
And lastly there's Mayfair, a pearlescent off-white. Even though I'm not a huge fan of white, I like this one because it's not stark. It's a little bit muted to be stark and in spite of the pearlesence, there's not issues with brush strokes. The only problem I had with this was that it's a bit goopy, not goopy enough to complain though!
As I mentioned previously, I am currently in Greece. I hadn't been in a beauty supply store in Greece in ages and when I did, I was taken aback by the amount of nail polish and brands available. I try to hold myself back and not buy everything I like and I regret not having taken my polish sample wheels with me to make sure I don't get any exact dupes as too often I find myself gravitating towards the same colours and the even the same hues.
Here is the first one I want to show you by a brand called Seventeen - no relation to the UK brand 17. As soon as I saw this deep glowing orange (at the lowest shelf no less!) I knew I had to have it. It's only the second orange polish I own, but it has become a firm favourite. It's so warm and beautiful it almost soothes me when I look at it.
I know there is a similar orange by OPI in their Germany collection called Deutsch You Want Me Baby?, but I don't think they are dupes. I haven't had a chance to compare them side by side, but from what I've seen 533 is more vibrant and less red than DYWMB. It also stamps well as it is very pigmented, a very well behaved polish that took two coats for complete coverage with no brush stroke issues at all. What I did notice with Seventeen polishes in general is that they take a while to dry, but with a quick drying top coat it's all good. All in all, I love this autumnal beauty very much.
I haven't started a post with music in a while so here's some good ol'American Punk. Punk was never as big in the USA as it was in the UK, but Ain't it fun by the Dead Boys must be one of the best songs of the genre.
Is the polish I have for you today punk-appropriate? I think it is. There's something unusual about Stargazer's 132; this decadent beauty is much more complicated than it looks in the bottle. Ιt is one of those indiscribable colours that seem to change a lot depending on the light and colours around it. It's a little bit metallic grey, a bit pale golden, it leans towards green, sometimes it looks delicare and others it takes on a rather industrial roughness. Stamping over it is always a pleasure as the results vary a lot depending on the colours you use.
It's a sheer polish as it takes 3 good coats to reach full opacity (4 if you do thin layers) and come to think of it, I should try it over black. I am almost certain the results will be interesting!
This polish is definitely worth more of your attention!
Dear reader,
I suggest you press play and let your mind wander far far away to a land of myths, folklore and legends, the land that A-England draws inspiration from.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I purchased the Jubilicious set of polishes from a-England and today I am going to be reviewing them. There's going to be plenty of pictures, a lot of descriptions and a lot of love in this post.
The Jubilicious set includes Order of the Garter (originally from the Legend collection), Morgan Le Fay and Perceval(originally from the Mythicals collection). Deciding to get these was quite a risk for me as I don't easily like shimmer polish and metallic reds are were a big no-no for me. I have another couple of their polishes which I absolutely adore and I knew I would love Order of the Garter, so I took the plunge and I am so glad I did. I can't stop looking at my nails!
I also overcame another pet peeve of mine by using different base colours for a mani. I like stamping and designs, but accent nails and different coloured nails(e.g. skittle, ombre manicures) usually make me feel very uncomfortable; not so much this time. The designs I chose to do are emblematic of the UK, a fleur-de-lys and a Tudor rose; I know Tudor roses usually have 5 petals which would have been difficult for me to do, but I found a reference for four petalled ones.
As always, I didn't practice before attempting this. Every time I want to do a difficult design that I should practice drawing at least one of twice before attempting it on the nail, a Californian voice in my head says "Duuude, life's too short! It's time to rock'n'roll!" and I just go straight at it.
OoG, MLF, P natural light
All of them have the buttery, applies-itself quality that they've become famous for. What I came to love more about them though is their uniqueness. A lot of thought has gone into them and that is something most apparent when you're dealing with shimmer polishes. Shimmer in a polish changes the colour quite dramatically and the colour and pigmentation of the base can make a shimmer fly or die. I'm happy to say we have some amazing fly-ers here!
Order of the Garter (OoG) was the only one I was certain I would like. Its gorgeous blue colour and subtle blue-green shimmer made me go back again and again to the website trying to decide whether I should get it or not. I'm glad I waited and got this set in the end. OG's base colour, surprisingly, is not a clean-cut blue, but a light greyish blue, a periwinkle that leans more blue than violet. It's not very pigmented and requires 3 thin coats for full coverage, but that is a very good thing in this case as the light base allows the shimmer to show through from all 3 layers thus getting a gloriously complex blue polish! Oh, and it doesn't give you lobster hands in case anyone is worried.
Morgan Le Fay (MLF, only one letter short of 'milf' which the legendary Morgan probably was) is a sheer shimmery topcoat. When used on its own you'd probably need 4 coats at least for a not-so-visible nail line and it will look whitish shilverish with tiny occasional flashes of pink and green. When used over another polish, somehow it looks frosty light blue. To recap: when you want to have fairy like fingertips, use it on its own; when you want Ice Queen fingertips, layer it over a darker polish.
Perceval (P), the one I thought I was not going to like, but became my favourite of the set. As I mentioned before, I don't like metallic reds; they are too Alexis Colby for my taste and I already have a metallic red I regretted buying in the past. Perceval is a horse of a different colour though and most of my pictures failed to capture it accurately; it's not a true red, or a vermilion like the legendary Perceval's armour was supposed to be. It has purple in it and it's one of those polishes that appear darker on the edges, 'lit from within'. Frankly, as soon as I applied it, it reminded me of a crimson rose; it has that amazing rich rose colour that changes with every angle and a soft velvet look. As if that's not enough to love it, in low light settings it has a certain glow about it which makes it even more amazing. I throw my glove at anyone who thinks Perceval is 'just another red'.
If you managed to read through this post, bravo! You must be a knight of NI! Now for the pictures.
Ps-I think I will fall victim to Jubilove after all. If I had it. the fleur-de-lys would have had a Holy Grail line across instead of red, and the rose would have a Holy Grail centre. Merlin would have to wait for his turn. Why didn't I think of that earlier?
Natural Light
Direct sunlight
Direct sunlight with flash
Direct sunlight
Mine! Mine! Mine!
Thumbs up for MLF looking blue over black matte
Base colours are more true to life in this. Perceval I love you!
On the sample you can see how OoG evolves with 1,2 and 3 layers. The '4' is irrelevant.
... the postman brought in this morning!! The A-England Jubilicious set from the Jubilee Delights! I will be reviewing and swatching them later, but the weather is so nice, I couldn't resist snapping a shot!
In case you are wondering they are (left to right): Perceval, Morgan le Fay and Order of the Garter.
You can get either these or the Jubilove set in the special sale price from their website (free worldwide postage!)
PS- Had I bought the Jubilove set, I would have been compeled to have a title as cheesy as "And they called it Jubilove", post this along with it and then you'd be singing that sappy tune in your head all day! mwahaha!
Isn't this colour gorgeous? The only drawback is that it's actually a nail art polish with a thin long brush, but I think the colour is worth the effort. It's a dark green that is only a couple of steps away from being called 'teal', very smooth, leaves no brush strokes, only one coat needed, lasts forever (I had it on for a week with no chipping) and looks green even in low light. The finish is very low-key metallic I would say. Definitely worth a try!
Base coat Le Chat CM nail art 39 Hunter Green Stamping polish Stargazer 237 Nail Art Stamp Plate A40
