Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A England - bottled chivalry

Like so many others, I relentlessly fell for the spanking new brand A England. Normally, I'm sceptic towards a brand that self-promotes via mass email, but this was just too tempting not to look into - I mean, come on, King Arthur? Camelot? Guinevere? Excalibur? Say no more. The mythos is just effing A. After a short but pleasant mail conversation with the person behind the brand, I placed an order and received my goods not much later. Let's take a look.

The featured gems: Tristam and Lady of the Lake.





Lady of the Lake. A deep but still vivid muted purple holo. Holo! This is two coats, but judging from my photos, I could have done a third one.





Tristam. Another deeply colored holo, this time blue. Two coats on all nails except the ring, which is three. Holy holo ho!

I also got a third one, which never got to show itself in beneficial sunlight.


Morgan Le Fay. With flash and without. A sheer sparkly white shimmer, here in three rather generous coats - of course I had to put it to the opacity test. No total opacity gained, as you can see, but still rather nice if you're into these colors. I thought it looked pretty, and since I'm in the midst of a bore, I chose it as my third polish to try to fuck myself over. It is very pretty, but not my style. Though I may reveal, wearing this in the classroom gave me a lot of time to thoroughly inspect it, and you can't tell from the pictures, but the shimmer flecks are actually very light versions of pink and green, just like a Swedish Princess Cake. A winner for any delicate woman.

What can I say? This brave new line is a complete and utter WIN. The brushes are nice, the formula is great, and I didn't need much cleanup because these babies gave me excellent control. You may find the price tag a little hefty at £9.50, but consider it a luxury that will give you a lot of bang for your bucks. Or pennies, or whatever the knightly Brits call their cash.

I'm hoping for a color expansion, and awfully tempted to try a creme polish. Also available is respective base and top coats, aptly named The Knight and The Shield.

A England ships to many countries, and shipping costs aren't that painful. Go to A England's own site to find out more.

Swedish word of the day:
riddare -noun knight
Somewhat metal.

21 comments:

  1. WOW. I've never heard of this brand but these polishes are AMAZING!

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  2. Utterly gorgeous OMG.

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  3. Agh, lemmings lemmings!!!
    I need those holos! Specially the dark blue one!

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  4. Aaaaaargh now there is even MORE on my wishlist! Beautiful pictures!

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  5. Oh my, the first two.. *drools* Great pictures!

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  6. Thank you for the review! They are exactly the shades I ordered and now I feel a little more confident about the order :)

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  7. So pretty, I would say they are a blingtastickier version of the Tudor Wives collection...

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  8. They look interesting, but the holo effect isn't really holo, right?

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  9. OMG these are gorgeous! Love!!

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  10. I'm so upset with you right now.
    SO UPSET. lol!!

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  11. *thuddump*

    That was my yaw dropping on the floor!

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  12. So Pretty! I was wondering, are the bottle .5 fl oz? Also Do the names come on the bottle? (like on the bottom or back or whatever) Thanks!

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  13. Gorgeous! I was looking at Tristam and Lady of the Lake on their website!

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  14. OMG I neeeeeeeeeeed the holos! :DD

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  15. these look great!! I think i'm going to buy some myself

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  16. Elizabeth Lacquered Lizard: Maybe slightly reminiscent. :) But my first thoughts were that Lady of the Lake would be compared to Color Club Wild at Heart, and Tristam to OPI DS Fantasy. But these are both darker and more muted.

    nihrida: Yes, the shimmer pigment is holographic, but the dark base colors only allow for a certain density, I suppose. :)

    Kathleen: I believe they are just below 0.5 fl oz, 13 ml. And yes, the names are printed on stickers on the back of the bottles. :)

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  17. Ha, I too got exactly those shades! Is there sone collective unconscious thing going on perhaps? =O

    Or just the seasoned polish collector gene doing its work. Wonder which is most scary. Great pics!

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  18. They're so pretty! I have to try these out =)

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