*PR samples

Hello lovelies,

Guess what? New A England collection is out and I have swatches! The collection is called Elizabeth & Mary and is inspired by '2 iconic Queens in British history'. It consists of 5 brand new shades, 3 holographic, one shimmer and one metallic.

Adina, the creator of the A England brand, says: "I tried to catch the mood from their portraits, their story and from the idea of the mossy Fotheringhay Castle where Mary met her destiny."

Crown Of Thistles - a purple holographic that matches the national flower of Scotland. This is a gorgeous medium purple with very fine and quite subtle scattered holographic effect. It's quite a signature for A England to create subtle holo shades rather than full-on linear holos. The polish had really good formula that applied smoothly and dried fast. All I needed were two thin coats because it's highly pigmented. It dried glossy so I'm not wearing topcoat in the photos.

Virgin Queen - antique white/silver/bronze holographic shade. Virgin Queen is one of those so hard-to-describe colours. I can see shades of silver brown, antique gold and hints of bronze. All that infused with subtle scattered holo powder. It has a bit of a metallic feel to it but it is not really metallic. It has easy to apply formula that dried fast and smooth and was fully opaque in two thin coats. Very unusual and A/W appropriate shade!

Fotheringhay Castle - mossy green scattered holographic with gold reflections. Second very unique colour in this collection, I don't think I have a dupe in my collection. The name is somewhat a problem for me as I can't even pronounce it but that doesn't stop me painting my nails with it! The formula was excellent and easy to apply and this polish is almost one coater. I applied two thin coats and no topcoat. It dried fast and glossy.

Gloriana - metallic rusty red base with gold flecks. Gloriana is very rich colour that was very hard to capture. It looks different in daylight, different under artificial light and in the sun. I just want to call it foxy red but I guess that's not really perfect description for it :) The formula was again easy to apply with great pigmentation. I'm wearing two thin coats and no topcoat.

Queen Of Scots - deep, rich royal blue shimmer. Oh wow, what a stunning blue! This is a perfect winter vampy shade and I absolutely love it! It is so glossy and smooth even without topcoat and the formula is opaque in one coat. I'm wearing two thin coats to get the best possible finish. It applied so nicely, I only have one thing to say about it - just get it while you can!

I really don't know what to say and not sound like I'm fan-girling over this collection. It's full of awesome colours with excellent formulas so that's really all you need to know. This collection is another 'nail world' masterpiece and I just don't understand how Adina does it. If A England can have such perfect formulas why can't other brands??? A England sets a very high standard for polishes (at least in my eyes) and they are totally worth the price, even better when there is a promotion running.

Elizabeth & Mary collection and all the others are available at www.a-england.co.uk and will be soon at various international stocklists.

Have a lovely day and stay polished! Lucie x

*PR samples

Hello lovelies,

It's finally mine, my precious! I bought the whole piCture pOlish limited edition of these polishes yet the newest release Borealis was out of stock everywhere. Then the nail polish angel Sally Magpies (UK store for many indie brands) offered to send me a bottle...well I was in heaven! Whole collection complete <3 Thank you so much Sally for this amazing polish!

Borealis is a dark blue based shimmer with multichrome shift to purple and burnt orange. It also contains generous amount of multichrome glitter, the same type that was in Ozotic Elytra line. It is a bit of a chameleon and the changes weren't so easy to capture even though you could see them beautifully on the nails. Especially when the lighting was dimmer the polish changed to burnt orange tones but it was impossible to take a picture with a reasonable quality.

I have applied one coat of Borealis over one coat of black polish (A England Camelot) and then smoothed the surface out with topcoat. It dried fast but a bit gritty because of the glitter but nothing topcoat wouldn't sort out. The formula was easy to apply, absolutely no problem. I can't wait to try the rest of the LE shades!

piCture pOlish is available at their website or at many international e-shops however I doubt this particular shade is still available anywhere, sorry :(

Have a nice start of the week! Lucie x