A England Sleeping Palace

Well, this one is just absolutely beautiful. Although I think Saint George is my most favourite A England, and possibly even my most favourite polish, Sleeping Palace may well be coming a close second!
Sleeping Palace is one of A England's new Burne-Jones Dream collection. This is made up of 5 polishes and the shades are based on paintings by Edward Burne-Jones, who was a designer and painter. I have also just found out that he worked closely with William Morris.
As I did architecture at University I am obviously familiar with (and love) the works of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, but had never heard of Byrne-Jones. Maybe my love of this style and era explains why the shades in this collection attract me so much and I think, having tried this one, I MUST have them all!!!
Sleeping Palace is a dusky purple with a holographic shimmer, it is extremely wearable as a beautiful muted shade, but then as it catches the light the holo shimmer is just gorgeous!
I wore this yesterday to meet some lovely friends in London, and I was proud to have such a wonderful polish on my nails. The sun shone and they looked just stunning.
Coverage was great, one coat was almost enough but I did two just to be sure. They are wearing well, and if possible I am loving it more and more, watch out Saint George - you might not still be my number one!!
I took a few pics with flash when I first applied it and then a few more when the sun came out.

A England Sleeping Palace - flash photo

 

Sunshine pics

  

 Some garden pics, with my beautiful Japanese Maple and Sambuca Negra

 

 

 and finally, with my William Morris curtains! (how could I not, having discovered the connection!)

Sleeping Palace with William Morris in the sun

Sleeping Palace with William Morris in the shade

Mavala Bronze Green

Just a quick post here about a polish that has sat in my box for such a long time. I bought  a set of 3 Mavalas when I first started getting into polishes but I am not sure I ever actually wore this one.
Mavala Bronze Green is a lovely sage green cream with a subtle bronze shimmer.
This went on really nicely, first coat was a bit streaky but it was perfect on the second coat. I love these sort of shades, I find them very easy to wear.
Wear was good too, it stood up to a PTA lunch which is always a bit of a challenge for my nails :) and I feel a bit guilty for leaving this one untried for so long.

  

 

Seven Deadly Sins

I was tagged by the lovely Melissa to do this blog post, and I had already seen a few similar posts so struggling a bit to find someone new to tag!!

Anyway, here we go with my confessions ...

1. GREED: What is your most expensive beauty item?

Single most expensive item would be my Liz Earle Superskin concentrate in the jumbo size £40.50

In terms of cost per ml, my OPI DS Reflection mini is my most expensive polish.

2. WRATH: Which beauty item do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Blusher, it does not matter how many Bare Minerals shows I watch, I can never get it right, never quite enough and then all of a sudden there it is, too much! So I look pale and pasty and then a tiny sweep of the brush, instant Aunt Sally :(

3. GLUTTONY: What brand makes up the biggest chunk of your make up collection?

Bare Minerals, without a doubt. I do not use anything else on my face apart from an Avon eyebrow pencil and and an Avon lipliner.

4. SLOTH: What product do you neglect to use due to laziness?

Mineral Veil, even though I know I should and that my makeup will look better if I do.

5. PRIDE: Which beauty product gives you the most confidence?

Now I am torn, mascara or nail varnish. I could skip all my other makeup but not mascara, but would I want bare nails? No!! Think it has to be mascara though (and gloves to hide my hands!!)

6. LUST: Which item is at the top of your beauty wish list?

Something that will do a better job of hiding my wrinkles, they are getting worse by the day and they bother me a lot, even more than the yellow nails!

7. ENVY: What make up product / look looks great on others but not on yourself?

Oh where to start! Very short elfin style hairstyles, bright nails and lips, blusher (again!!), square nails – love them but can’t knit or sew with them, so I have to be oval! Too much envy, probably my worst sin!

Now tagging the following fellow addicts :) apologies if you've already been tagged

Cath

Gillian

Becca

OPI Vesper

Well, this is stunning! I am completely in love with it. Anyone who reads my blog will know I am a bit of a Liquid Sand fan, and this one does not disappoint! I love purple, I love darks and I love Liquid Sand, so there we go!
OPI Vesper is one of the Bond Girls Collection, there are six of them but being dark, this is the one that tempted me the most. It is more glittery than What Wizardy is this? from the Oz Collection, but less glittery than the Maria Carey Liquid Sands, reviewed here, here and here. Vesper is a deep aubergine colour, with black glitter. It has not picked up at all in the pictures, but in poor lighting in my study I can clearly see the light catching it. I have used 3 coats here to get get full opacity as the base colour is quite sheer, and even then it is lighter around the edge of the nail. I think when I use this again I will put a dark base underneath, a dark purple or a red black - sure I can find one hanging around in my collection :)

OPI Vesper

 

A England Holy Grail, Dragon and She Walks in Beauty

It's the last day of Indie week on All Things Nails, and I have 2 untried A Englands so I thought I'd try something I've seen done by Lucy and Anna

I did a base coat using A England Holy Grail ( this is the older Holy Grail, which is more gold, there is now a new version which is more bronze). This painted on beautifully but is absolutely not my colour on its own, so it will be used under glitters and for my occasional forays into nail art!!

A England Holy Grail

 

What I wanted to try is called a "ruffian", which is bit like a half moon mani but the base part of the second coat is curved in the same way as the base of the nail itself, you just start painting from higher up. I probably haven't described it very well. I painted the whole nail in Holy Grail, and then I added  a coat of A England Dragon, in exactly the same way as I would normally paint my nails but starting about 2mm further up the nail.

I think this would probably have worked better with 2 more similar shades, maybe Princess Sabra with Dragon but you don't know if you don't try! Dragon is a beautiful olive green with  a lovely subtle holographic shimmer, which of course my camera can't see! I will certainly be using this green again soon, it's just gorgeous!

A England Holy Grail and Dragon

 

I then had to have a little play, so sticking with A England I have added a glitter gradient using She Walks in Beauty. This is a combination of pink hexagons of glitter in a gold shimmery base, which I thought would help soften the contrast between Holy Grail and Dragon. I think it was worth trying and it is much prettier in real life, the camera has either ignored the shimmer or made it look too solid: it is much softer to the naked eye. The last couple of shots capture it quite well.

A England She Walks in Beauty gradient

  

 

  

China Glaze Some Like it Haute, with A England Bridal Veil

One of my favourite types of mani is the glitter gradient, which I first saw on a post by Lucy of Lucy's Stash. I have done this one using China Glaze Some Like it Haute over A England Bridal Veil. Some Like it Haute is a beautiful well packed glitter, which I consider to be grey. It is a mix of tiny silver/grey micro-glitters and larger holographic particles in a clear base and it is super sparkly. I have a applied a thin brush stroke across the base of the nail, then wiped the brush on the bottle and then returned to the nail to drag the glitter up towards the tip. It's a bit hit and miss for me whether this technique works but it worked quite well with this glitter, it is well packed but not so dense that you can't get that gradient look.
It has quite a rough finish and I used 3 coats of top coat. I'm afraid as with the  Bridal Veil pictures, the shots don't really do it justice. The silver/grey glitter is very pretty and goes well with the shimmery black of the Bridal Veil, and the holographic particles pick up all sorts of colours. Despite the sunshine this afternoon, I failed to pick that up in  my pictures.

China Glaze Some Like it Haute

 

 

A England Bridal Veil

Well today I have a beautiful and frustrating polish for you! This is Gem of the Month on the A England website so it's selling at a special price, so after much dithering I ordered it. It arrived on Monday and Tuesday was my wedding anniversary so I thought it fitting to wear it. It's also Indie week on the Facebook group and these lovely A Englands are the nearest thing I have to an Indie.
This is a lovely black with a subtle holographic shimmer, very easy to apply, great coverage in 2 coats and extremely beautiful, especially in the sun. I love that it is subtle:- wild crazy holo's look lovely but are not for me, but it is very tricky to photograph - hence lots of pics, and frustration!
For the record, I was unsure whether to get this in case it was dupe for the back Glittergal that I have. Strangely, in the bottle the Glittergal looks very holo, but on the nail they look almost identical. I imagine if we had a very sunny day I'd have been able to tell the difference and then would definitely prefer Bridal Veil.
I'm also a bit sad as it occured to me that it's such a shame I didn't know about beautiful nail varnishes when I got married, maybe there weren't any :(
My mum would have had a blue fit if I'd got married with black nails, but I did have to take a few pics with my wedding dress, I've included a couple at the end of this post. I'd have loved to have worn something like this on my special day.

A England Bridal Veil