Month of A-England: Chevron nails with Galahad and Ascalon

It was about time I used my absolute favourite A-England polish in a manicure for this month. I also wanted to try chevron or reverse french nails, and when I looked through my stash of A-England colours, I realised that not only had I not tried Ascalon at all yet, but it would contrast fantastically with Galahad.

Galahad is a gorgeously creamy creme tealy-blue polish. I adore polishes in the turquoise/teal part of the spectrum and yet Galahad is a colour I haven't come across anywhere else. It's also really hard to capture accurately- I think my second picture, just below, is the closest of my pictures. I used two coats of Galahad here, but it's actually decent enough as a one-coater. Ascalon is a grey-base holographic polish that flashes purple. I used just one coat of this.

Month of A-England: Ophelia and Tess D'Urbervilles

I mentioned in my last post how I normally opt for darker polishes when my nails are short. And as much as I loved wearing something much much lighter for a change, I couldn't resist going back to my preferred dark colours for today's manicure.

A-England has a collection of polishes called Gothic Beauties, and I have two of them- Ophelia and Tess D'Urbervilles. All of the polishes in this collection seem to be gorgeous shimmering colours with a blackened base, and I adore polishes like that. I couldn't decide between the two today, so I decided to go for both at once- Ophelia on three fingers, with Tess on my thumb and ring finger, and then reversed on my other hand. As with all of the dark pigmented A-England polishes I've tried, these were both one coaters! How insane is that?

Ophelia is a blackened base with a beautiful violet shimmer. Tess D'Urbervilles has the same base, but instead of a violet shimmer, it's a gorgeous emerald green. What I love about this is that from a distance and out of the light, my nails appear to be black. But when I look closely I can see that hint of colour. And when the light hits the polish- so shimmery and gorgeous!

Unfortunately, I didn't get around to painting my nails until later in the evening and only got photos under indoor lighting and flash, so I don't think it fully shows off how gorgeous these colours are. I can't wait to see sunlight hitting them tomorrow! And I think I'm definitely sold on the Gothic Beauties collection and I'm going to have to get my hands on the rest of the collection!

Month of A-England: She Walks In Beauty swatch

Today's post is a day late because yesterday was such an overcast day that I wanted to wait until the morning to try and get a picture of this polish in the daylight.

I sat down yesterday to try and decide what manicure I would try, and which A-England polishes I would use. As I looked at She Walks In Beauty, I thought of plenty of ways to use it alongside another colour, perhaps on the tips of nails with a darker colour. Unfortunately I'd filed my nails down a few days ago, so I didn't think that sort of manicure would look as good with shorter nails.

I set the polish aside, but kept glancing back at it- and knew that it would look gorgeous enough on its own. Normally, when my nails are short I lean towards darker colours, so it'd be a lovely change for me.

She Walks In Beauty is a shimmery gold base with rose coloured hexes. Out of the light, it looks like a lovely golden polish. In the light- well, that's when it really starts to sparkle. Here I used two coats. You can still see the VPL, which doesn't bother me, but I suspect with 3 or 4 coats this would be totally opaque.

Month of A-England: jelly sandwich with Iseult and OPI The Living Daylights

I've been wanting to try a layered 'jelly sandwich' type manicure for awhile, but since my preference runs towards darker polishes, I never quite get the sheer and shimmery, matte-ified glitter look I had in my head.

Then the other day when I used Iseult for the first time, I realised that it would work fantastically! I've had OPI The Living Daylights sitting in my collection for awhile, and I knew it'd be perfect for this look.

A-England Iseult and OPI Living Daylights jelly sandwich manicure. Love it!

Month of A-England: Excalibur and Avalon ruffian

For the second of my month of A-England posts, I decided to try a manicure I've never been brave enought to try before- the ruffian. I'm not the neatest of nail painters, and my saving grace is always my trusty clean-up brush. Obviously with a ruffian, my ability to paint in a smooth line would become very obvious, very quickly. Yet I'm really proud of myself and impressed with how this turned out.

Ruffian manicure using Avalon and Excalibur. I love how purple and silver look together!

Month of A-England: Iseult and Elaine dotticure

A few months back, when A-England had that awesome sale (which then turned a bit crazy with shipping restrictions and whatnot) I bought 13 polishes. That might sound crazy but I normally try and make a decently large order when I order polishes from overseas, considering how much shipping can cost, and how long it takes for parcels to arrive here. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

The thing was, I wasn't sure if I was going to like A-England polishes. I'd seen them around and hadn't thought much- although I quickly learnt, once they arrived, that photos do not do any of these polishes justice. Since then, a few more have wriggled their way into my collection, and I realised the other day I have 16 A-England polishes, most of them unused. Clearly there's only one solution to that- One month of blog posts, focussing on A-England polishes, to show off their beauty and how well they work in nail art as well as on their own. So for the next month, every manicure I post about will feature A-England polishes as the main 'ingredient' in each manicure.

To start things off, I grabbed two of the polishes I haven't had a chance to use yet- Iseult and Elaine. And since I'm in a polkadot kind of mood these days, I used a dotting tool to create a dotted french tip.

Nail Art: Easter Egg polka dots

Ah Easter. There's nothing like a long weekend, and while for most of the world Easter gets everyone into the spirit of spring, down here in NZ it signals we're slowly but surely heading towards winter. For me, Easter means a lamb roast for dinner, and maybe a spot of baking.

When I was a kid, it meant chocolate. These days, chocolate doesn't play any role in my life as I'm allergic (something that luckily didn't kick in until my teens) and in particular the little caramel filled eggs with the polka dot foil wrappers. I loved them, more than any chocolate bar themed egg. There was something about them- sweet and gooey and oh-so Easter-y.

So when I sat down to think about how to paint my nails this Easter, they sprung to mind. Most people would choose pastel colours this time of year, but autumn to me is deeper, jewel toned colours, and that fit in nicely.

Yum! Easter egg nails! Almost makes me wish I could eat the caramel eggs I have clutched in my hand here.