a-england – Queen of Scots

Press Sample

Hello!

I have this morning a polish that I love so very much. I have been wearing this quite a lot since I got it. There's something about navy polish that just always draws me in and 'Queen of Scots' from a-england's Elizabeth and Mary Collection is even more perfect than most every other navy polish I own. See for yourself.

'Queen of Scots' is the epitome of a polish that glows from within. I always see that being written about polishes on blogs and I have polishes that I thought were glowy, but this one is really something else. It is polishes such as this that remind me why a-england is my favourite polish brand.


'Queen of Scots' has a perfect a-england formula. I used 2 coats, but the second was barely needed. This polish doesn't pull and it's good to note that visible brushstrokes were not an issue (as they can be in shimmery polishes such as this).

a-england polishes can be purchased from a lot of places around the world. 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. You can also follow a-england on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to keep up with the latest news from them.

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

For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Zoya - Sunshine

Hello.

I got an amazing package from an amazing friend (thanks so much Mimi!) and I'm very happy to finally have a few more Zoya Pixie Dusts in my possession. Naturally, I had to try one straight away, so here is Zoya 'Sunshine'.

Look at this baby! I love it and I can't wait to try the others now too. This is such a beautiful navy blue, not too dark as to appear black and beautifully saturated. The texture is not overly rough and a bit finer than I expected. I love the added dimension that the silver micro-glitter adds to 'Sunshine'.


'Sunshine' was reasonably easy to apply, but was quite thick. I ended up having to thin it out a little. It's also very opaque and a second coat was barely needed (though the second coat improves the look of the texture).


Thanks for stopping by! Let me know, what are your favourite Pixie Dusts?

Electric Blue - piCture pOlish (and some new Bundle Monster stampin')

Hi hi!

I have a quick post to show you today of a mani that I loved. First of all, lets look at the base I used, which is the absolutely gorgeous 'Electric Blue' by piCture pOlish.

How beautiful and glowy is 'Electric Blue'? I love navy blue polish a lot and it's polishes like this that remind me why. The base colour is really dark, but the blue shimmer shines through so amazingly.

I love how this turned out. I used the new Bundle Monster plate BM-416 with Color Club 'Miss Bliss' on the pinky and ring fingers and then I added 1.5 layers of Dollish Polish 'Say Hello To My Kitty'. I love how well the Color Club 'Halo Hues' stamp. The holo effect seems to amp up so much. The new Bundle Monster set is fantastic! So many wonderful designs. How great is it that you can get this splatter effect with out much clean-up?!

'Electric Blue' was so easy to work with. I used 3 coats for these photos, but depending on how thick your coats are, I'm sure 2 would be enough. 'Say Hello To My Kitty' needs a good tip upside down before using it, but I didn't need to fish anything out for this look. Some of the larger glitters are a little less willing to come out, but no worries for me.

piCture pOlish is available from a whole bunch of places. Make sure you check out the piCture pOlish website, you can order this polish direct from them for $10 AUD or you can have a look at their list of distributors. Dollish Polishes are available from Dolly's Big Cartel shop for $10.

Some of these products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.
For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Polish Days: MAN-icure

My first Polish Days! I'm very excited to have finally joined up with this awesome idea. This months theme is MAN-icure in tribute to Movember. I instantly knew what my MAN-i would have to be, as it is something that I get teased about loving, due to its manly nature (according to my friends). One of my big loves in life is Formula 1, namely Sebastian Vettel.

For those of you that don't know, Vettel is the current world champion, having won the championship for the last two years in a row, so he is car number 1. The 1 on my ring finger is the one on his RB8 (car) this season. The water marble is taken from the Red Bull colours (his team).

This is a quick snap of my Red Bull cap. Unfortunately I got this before Vettel won the championship the first time so it has number 5 on it. Anyway you can see the colours of the team there nicely.

The final MAN-i that you have just seen was actually attempt number two... I originally wanted the bright yellow from the nose cone of the RB8 in the water marble, but it didn't quite work as I had wanted...

As you can see, the colours all sort of muddied together. Much as I don't hate this, I am glad I redid the two nails. I love how the F turned out in the top one anyway.


I used a whole lot of polishes for this MAN-i...
a-england - 'Excalibur' & 'Camelot'
OPI - 'Red Lights Ahead... Where', 'I'm Not Really A Waitress', 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue', 'No Room For The Blues', 'The 'It' Color'
Nicole by OPI - 'Listen To Your Momager'
Sally Hansen - 'White On'
Konad - Special White

If you have any questions about what I used where, please leave a comment and I'd be happy to tell you more :)

For the middle finger I used LeaLaC XL - B stamping plate and for my ring and pinky finger I used striping tape to get all the lines nice and straight.

I had lots of fun doing this MAN-i and it actually served as the perfect distraction to take my mind of the pain in my tummy while I was sick :)

If you want to sign up for the next Polish Days, hop over to Polly Polish for information.

Road House Blues - OPI and another go at stamping!

Oh no! I'm not a happy chappy right now! This often comes as a surprise, even to people who know me really well, but I have a massive love for Formula 1, especially all things Sebastian Vettel. Well, I have just watched him retire from the Valencia Grand Prix and let's just say I am one grumpy lady!

Anyway, on to happier thoughts... Today I've got a simple mani that I have actually loved wearing for the last couple of days.

This is 'Road House Blues' from last years Touring America collection by OPI. 'Road House Blues' is a gorgeous dark indigo crème polish. I love any polish that is at all navy-like and this is certainly one of my favourite crèmes in my whole collection.

You can see in this photo that this polish is certainly not the type that just looks black. I love how inky this colour is. In any sort of bright-ish light, this polish appears very blue.

I decided I wanted to have another little go at stamping but I didn't want to entirely cover up 'Road House Blues', so I thought I'd try the double feature nails that I've seen around a bit lately. I used China Glaze 'Sci-Fi' for the stamping with plate BM 208 (both images are on this plate). I actually just got 'Sci-Fi' recently from Nail Polish Anon's blog sale and it's perfect for stamping, so thanks Michaela!



'Road House Blues' was easy to apply. Two simple coats with no problems at all. As I mentioned earlier 'Sci-Fi' was great for stamping and I like that it's got that purpley tinge to it, giving it a bit of difference from a plain silver polish. I did get pretty impatient and top coated way to quickly so I did smudge everything a bit, but it's really not very noticeable in real life. Overall, I really like how this turned out and I love the double feature. I think I'll definitely be sporting this sort of mani again in the near future.


One more quick thing, I have been awarded an Appreciation Award from the lovely Kelsie from Kelsie's Nail Files! Thank you so much Kelsie!

To be honest, I have no idea what to do with this. I think I'm supposed to pass it on, but I don't think I can choose only a few blogs from the ones that I follow. Basically I love and appreciate every single blog that I follow so that's my choice! I know it's a bit of a cop-out but that's just the truth! Thanks again Kelsie :)

Gradient Nails

So I have my first attempt at proper gradient nails to show you today :) I've always loved the look of gradient nails but I haven't really ever thought I could pull them off. I have dabbled in sponging a bit of glitter on my tips but that's about as far as I've gone. Until....... Sammy from The Nailasaurus posted this amazingly easy to follow tutorial... As un-creative as I think I am, I actually figured maybe I could manage this. So here we go, this is my take on gradient nails...

I wanted to use colours that were very different and do something nice and bright. What better than neon pink and navy. The pink I used is Color Club's 'Warhol' and for the navy, I used OPI's 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue' (one of my favourites!!).

As usual, the neon was near impossible to capture colour-corectly, but this photo is pretty close. 'Warhol' is a super bright, saturated pink. I love the shimmer in 'Yoga-Ta Get This Blue' too.

While I was wearing this mani, I got some SWEET nail mail from Ninja Polish. I ordered Nail-Venturous 'Floam' and 'A Dash of Princess'. Naturally as soon as they arrived, I had to try one of them and surprisingly it was 'A Dash of Princess' that really piqued my interest. Well, I gotta say, I LOVE this polish!

'A Dash of Princess' is absolutely packed with a mix of large and medium hex glitters in pink, white and some sort of pearly ones (see my ring finger tip), as well as little wee pink hex glitters. Love, love, love! I don't know what else to say but just that, I love it!


I'm not even going to start to tell you how I did this because if you haven't already, you should all head straight over to Sammy's blog because she explains it all brilliantly. And while you're there, check out the rest of her blog, she is basically freaking awesome at all things nails, especially when it comes to nail art.
As to the formulas, 'Warhol' is pretty easy to work with. I used two coats and it was ever so slightly see-through at the tip, but that was OK because the navy was going on top. 'Warhol' does dry matte (usual for neons) so top coat is definitely necessary, but to be honest, you'll be needing top coat to smooth out the sponging anyway. 'A Dash of Princess' was also really easy to use. Sometimes these sort of glitters can be a pain, but this is so dense that you get heaps on the brush and it's pretty easy to place the pieces where you want them.
I absolutely loved sporting this look and I definitely will be trying this again. I got so many comments on it too :) Most of all, thanks Sammy for making that tutorial. I love that you've created such a monster with it. Gradient nails are taking over since that post and I love it!