Briar Rose - a-england

HI!

I have the final polish from a-england's Burne-Jones Dream collection. I said the other day on Twitter that this collection has made me remember what I love about nail polish and in particular a-england. Every single one has been absolutely stand-out and this last one is no different. Today's polish is 'Briar Rose - Sleeping Beauty'.

'Briar Rose' is such a beautiful cranberry-leaning rose colour. It has fairly purple undertones and in my opinion is just down-right flattering. The holo in 'Briar Rose' is not at all shy, but at the same time it's not totally outrageous. That good old scattered linear effect that I love.

When it catches the light, 'Briar Rose' gives off the most glorious glow. It is so beautiful and so elegant with the holo just giving it that little bit of edge!


As has been a running theme throughout this collection, the formula was spectacular. How does Adina do it? This was yet another 1 coater (though yes, you are seeing 2 coats entirely because I cannot do a neat first coat).

a-england polishes can be purchased from a lot of places around the world. Unfortunately, you can only order direct from them if you are in the UK, but be sure to check out their list of worldwide distributors to find a place close to where you live.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Kelvin Bleu - Polished by KTP

Hi!

I'm super excited to show you a polish that I've been lusting after for a long time. Polished by KTP is a brand that I've been seeing popping up on places like Makeup Withdrawal and her photos made me want them even more. I finally managed to get hold of a couple of them and the first that I'm showing you today is 'Kelvin Bleu' - Holographic Version. 'Kelvin Bleu' is a thermal polish that changes colour with body temperature.

I love this polish so much! The first thing I have to say about this is that the quality of 'Kelvin Bleu' is outrageously good. I wore this polish for 6 days and it only chipped on a couple of nails on the 6th day because I gave my nails a beating at work. It still looked as good as new at the beginning of the 6th day though. The top photo is the cold colour and it is so striking. The bottom colour is the hot colour.

The change of colour of 'Kelvin Bleu' was beautiful, though very distracting! I found myself checking what temperature my hands were so often. The polish is quite sensitive, so it would change fairly readily. A lot of the time it would be around the colours seen in this photo, but it would go to the extremes quite often too. I love how you can get an instant gradient as you are changing temperatures sometimes. The holo in this polish made it just that much more beautiful.

I used 3-4 thin coats for these photos. 3 coats was ample for coverage in real life but the hot pale colour was slightly sheer in my photos so I added an extra coat to some fingers on my right hand.

I'm so glad I got my sticky little mitts on a couple of these polishes and I am looking forward to trying 'Being In The Pink'! I will certainly have to try some more of Katherine's gorgeous creations soon too.

Polished By KPT polishes are available direct from Katherine's Big Cartel shop if you're in the USA. For those international people, check out this 'where to buy' tab.

Anybody Want A Peanut - Dollish Polish

Hey hey!

Quick post today to show you a mani I wore for a freakishly long time last week. I actually wore it twice in a row because I didn't take photos the first time round, but I liked it so much I redid it (though ever so slightly different) and wore it over again. This is another polish from the reasonably recent 'The Princess Bride' collection from Dollish Polish. Every one of the polishes I bought from that collection has been brilliant by the way (see here and here)!

'Anybody Want A Peanut' has a really pretty nude crelly (crème/jelly) base with brown, copper and gold glitters through it. I love the mix of glitters in this. It's such a nice subtle glitter. It looks yummy and always makes me hungry when I look at it! Does that make sense to anyone else? No? Moving on then...
For the accent finger I did a gradient using OPI 'Tickle My France-y' and 'You Don't Know Jacques' and then stamped over it using Barry M 'Gold Foil' and LeaLaC XL-B stamping plate.


'Anybody Want A Peanut' was easy to work with, though naturally it was a little sheer (expected from a crelly base). In saying that, I only used 3 (thick-ish) coats for full opacity, which is very reasonable in my opinion. Overall this is another big win from Dolly for me.

At the time of writing this, 'Anybody Want A Peanut' is still in stock on Dolly's Big Cartel shop, so hop over there and grab it for $10.

We're All Mad Here - Takko Lacquer

This post has been a LONG time coming. Oh boy, I have tried to photograph Takko Lacquer's 'We're All Mad Here' so many times, but it is a gorgeous little ratbag to photograph accurately. Anyway, here we go, finally with the post.

The beauty of 'We're All Mad Here' is ridiculous. Such a complex polish. That's why it's taken me so long to put up photographs.

'We're All Mad Here' is an intense royal blue/blurple that is so saturated and eye-catching. In these photos, you can see VNL (visible nail line), but in real life you couldn't. The shimmer is similar to what is in 'Kiss The Sky', so it has that gorgeous shift from red through to yellow and green. You can sort of see the green shift in my middle finger in the bottom photo.

This close-up shows the flakes that really make this polish magical. They are what makes 'We're All Mad Here' so unique and just plain spectacular.


'We're All Mad Here' has a lovely formula to work with. It is fairly thick, but dries really fast. I used 4 coats here because of my camera picking up VNL, but I think if I wasn't taking photos 3 coats would be enough. The slight sheerness of the blue is what allows the flakes to be so visible and also gives the polish that jelly sandwich appearance where the flakes look as if they're floating.


Takko lacquer is available from a few different places now. Keep an eye out for when Sheryl restocks her shop, otherwise you may be able to find Takko Lacquers at Llarowe, Mei Mei's Signature and Edgy Polish. Also Sheryl has just released her new collection. Take a look at her inspiration boards on the Takko Lacquer blog and you may start seeing a couple of them pop up around here shortly ;)

Sleeping Palace - a-england

Hi Hi!!

How are we all? I have another a-england polish from the 'Burne-Jones Dream' collection tonight and it is a cracker, so I am not going to chat, instead... let's look at pretty polish ay?

Seriously? I can't even.. I don't even know where to start with this beauty. 'Sleeping Palace' is a most beautifully sophisticated aubergine holo and with that slightly blackened edge that I love.

The holo effect in 'Sleeping Palace' is absolutely perfect. The soft rainbow effect is so, so pretty against the purple. You can see that scattered but linear look on my top 2 fingers in this bottom picture.

Formula - magical. One coat again was extremely opaque, but as usual I expect to paint a second one so my first coat wasn't overly neat. I've made my love for this collection obvious in the posts for the other polishes in this collection (here, here and here), but I really have to say that Adina has knocked it out of the park with this collection! I love them all, but especially 'Sleeping Palace' and 'Briarwood'. I will have pics of the last polish in the collection up shortly and it is just as gorgeous as the rest.

a-england polishes can be purchased from a lot of places around the world. Unfortunately, you can only order direct from them if you are in the UK, but be sure to check out their list of worldwide distributors to find a place close to where you live.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Kismet - Color Club

Holy moly, where does time go?! I forgot to post yesterday! Well tonight I have a couple of pics of Color Club 'Kismet'. Depending on how long you've been following me, you may or may not know that my middle name is in fact Kismet (much to my friends' amusement when I was younger). Due to its meaning, which I love, I also have Kismet tattooed on my wrist, so naturally I HAD to have this polish and I finally got it a few weeks back (see this Color Club 'Halo Hues' mani).

I love it. We all should know by now that holos are my weakness in life (along with multichromes). I love ALL THE HOLOS! 'Kismet' is a really pretty soft gold that is really wearable. It appears to almost have a slight olive/green cast to it that I really like.

Formula was really easy with 'Kismet' too. I used 2 coats with a regular base coat and these pictures are also with top coat (as you can see the holo effect is still outrageously brilliant).

Until next time... x

Have Fun Storming The Castle - Dollish Polish (+ a Gradient)

Hi folks!

I have a little post for you today featuring another of the Dollish Polish Princess Bride polishes. Today, I have 'Have Fun Storming The Castle' to show you...

I love 'Have Fun Storming The Castle', it's quite unique in my fairly extensive indie collection. I like the grey/beige milky base. Can you believe that this is my first polish with large circles in though? I decided to pair this polish with a bit of a gradient to go with the burgundy hexes that are in it. For the gradient I used OPI 'Manicurist of Seville' and 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' with Lime Crime 'Lavendairy'.


The formula of 'Have Fun Storming The Castle' was easy to work with and this is showing 3 coats over a white base. I don't think you need a base because it actually builds up quite easily. The only issue is that the larger glitter pieces didn't come out too readily. I did have to fish for my one large circle on my index finger. This doesn't bother me, but I know it might bother some people. Overall I love the mix of colours and shapes of glitter.


At the time of writing this, 'Have Fun Storming The Castle' is still in stock on Dolly's Big Cartel shop, so hop over there and grab it for $10.

Briarwood - a-england

Holy moly! I put this polish on last night and couldn't wait to post it, so I quickly cropped the photos tonight and it has jumped to the front of the post queue. This is a-england 'Briarwood' from the recent 'Burne-Jones Dream' collection.

I knew from the minute I saw the collection that this one would be my favourite and I was not wrong. This polish is simply beautiful, I cannot even begin to explain... So, just look at the pictures of this brooding beauty (which don't capture anywhere near the full glory by the way).

What I didn't expect was the beautiful rusty brown colour that predominates. In the bottle I thought it would be much redder most of the time, but add the curve of a nail and the red is what catches the light amongst the rich mahogany colour. As you can probably guess, I am also in love with the blackened edges that occur (I always love that) and the holo makes it even more beautiful, really bringing out this luxurious polish.


And the icing on the velvety chocolate mud cake... 1 coat for full opacity! ONE! I used a second coat to make my cuticle edge neater, but as far as opacity goes it was entirely redundant. Adina, you are a woman after my heart with this beauty!

a-england polishes can be purchased from a lot of places around the world. Unfortunately, you can only order direct from them if you are in the UK, but be sure to check out their list of worldwide distributors to find a place close to where you live.

This product was provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

For more information, see my disclosure policy.