Polished Casual

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

You Know Your Co-Blogger Loves You When...

This is so epic it deserves its own post. Seriously. So Jessie and I got together over the weekend. She told me my birthday gift had come in, so we decided to make a day out of brunch at Mimi's Cafe (a huge favorite of both of ours!) and custom lip gloss-making! The hubby even tagged along for good measure. :-)

So we order brunch and Jessie gives me my birthday gift wrapped in the cutest monkey wrapping paper I've ever seen...

*dies* My very own Avalon and Tristam!!! I'm literally beaming with excitement over these guys, but it doesn't stop there...

Oh, what do we have here? Awesome Birchbox goodies? Nay...this was something 1,000 times more epic!!!

Let's take a peeksie, shall we?

*dies a thousand deds* O....M....G. My words were literally "NO YOU DID NOT." That's the entire new A-England Legends collection. All of them. Words escape me.

THANK YOU, JESSIE!!!!! You're an amazing co-blogger and friend, and I'm so happy to have you as both! :-D

(Hope you guys aren't tired of this collection yet, 'cause Jessie made me promise to wear them all in a reasonable amount of time. I didn't waste any time, and tried my first one the next day! Stay tuned!)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

A-England Week! Morgan Le Fay

Well in all fairness, I am showing you Morgan Le Fay over Galahad. Morgan Le Fay is a opalescent pearly top coat meant to be worn over other polishes. She gives this silvery white sheen to the polish. If you look closely enough in real life, you can see a small rainbow of colors reflect in the sun. This is a really fun top coat, it would be great for spring. I'm showing 1 coat of Morgan Le Fay over Galahad.

Pretty cool right? I kind of wonder how close it is to Essie Pearl Perfection? I'll have to do a comparison the next time I wear this. Anyway, that brings my A-England Week to a close. How did you like it? Any other theme weeks you would like to see?

And in case you missed it this week, you can get A-England polishes direct from their website with free shipping, or from Llarowe when she has them in stock. They go for $12 a piece.

Friday, February 3, 2012

A-England Week! Galahad

Helloooooooooo gorgeous!!!!! Galahad, I love you, and your mysterious blue dusty ways. You lean a bit turquoise, and only require 1 coat. Your formula is super pigmented and your finish is uber glossy. You are the most amazing creme ever. Let's admire your beauty.

A-England Galahad

In all seriousness, I was very very very happy with Galahad. It's a dusty blue leaning turquoise that goes on like butter and is so pigmented! These pictures are without top coat! Can you believe it? If you are in need of a good dusty turquoise, stop your search now. You can get Galahad today on A-England's website or wait till he comes back in stock on Llarowe for $12.

A-England Week! Avalon

Remember when I showed you Lynnderella's Love Potion No. 99 and didn't tell you what purple I wore it over? Well A-England's Avalon was it. Strangely enough, I'm not crazy about this one. The shimmer in it is pretty special, but this is a very warm-toned purple (even though some of my pictures wouldn't show that). My skin is pretty cool, so this just wasn't as lovely as it should have been. I used 2 coats here. This was actually my first time wearing A-England ever, and I wore it with the base/top coat combo that's been really working for me lately. I start with Barielle Hydrating Ridge Filler with Silk Fiber, then polish, the Barielle Manicure Extender. My nails have been a lot happier lately with less peeling! However this combination would not let Avalon dry. Not matter how long I wanted (we are talking 2 hours). It was dry to the touch, but the slightest nudge would dent this manicure. Hence the glittery top coat!

So the first set is very color inaccurate. It is NOT this blue.

A-England Avalon

This picture shows it the most color accurate, but totally kills the depth of this polish.

A-England Avalon

Finally, a happy medium. This is pretty close to what it looks like in real life. Not as blue, but oh so shimmery!

A-England Avalon

A-England Avalon is part of the first collection A-England produced called the Mythicals and is readily available from Llarowe or A-England's website for around $12. If you love warm-toned purples, definitely picked this one up.

Oh - and sorry I didn't post this yesterday, I was doing my taxes and totally forgot. Oh well. At least I made it (almost) through January!!!!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Stash Swap, Part II: China Glaze Glittering Garland

Remember back in December when I showed you guys Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe? I wasn't too thrilled with it, because for me it leaned a little too blue. I thought China Glaze Glittering Garland may have been a better choice, but I never had the opportunity to pick up a bottle to try. Rach to the rescue!! She just so happened to have Glittering Garland and offered it to me for our stash swap. WIN!

Glittering Garland is super similar to Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. It's a green that falls somewhere between foil and glass-fleck. Probably closer to glass-fleck. This one's less of a pine green and more of an evergreen...green. It's much more yellow, so it's more flattering for warm-toned girls like me. The major difference though is the formula. Glittering Garland is WAY more pigmented, and it only took me two coats (compared to three) to reach full opacity. The application was fantastic, and it went on like a breeze.

(click to enlarge)

YESSSSSSSSSSSS! Much much better! This is exactly what I wanted Meet Me Under the Mistletoe to be! Don't get me wrong, it was lovely, but this one is just much more flattering for my skin tone. And the depth is just amazing. A huge thanks to Rach for having just exactly what I needed! :-)

I'm such a doofus. I totally meant to take my own comparison shots of these two polishes on the nail before I removed it. I don't know what happened. Too many episodes of Stark Trek: The Next Generation or something. I completely forgot. Forgive me! But here's a side-by-side comparison of the two. Glittering Garland on the left, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe on the right.

SO glad I got to try this one! Definitely satisfied my craving! Again, a HUGE thank you to Rach for (again) letting me play in her stash and keep her polishes for a couple of weeks! You're awesome! It's always a blast!

You guys KNOW we've already started to plan Round 3, right? ;-) Can't wait!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A-England Week: Iseult

Ok, time to take a break from all that color and holo and amazingness with a nice pale pink. I actually wore this to a conference I went to as I was giving a demo and wanted to look "professional." Why can't the world see things they way us nail polish lovers do? Nail polish is just another accessories, another piece of jewelry, and I shouldn't have to wear pink or nude or mauve because someone decided boring is professional....

Ok, ok, off my soapbox.

The things that's amazing about Iseult is that she is not at all boring. The pale baby pink has the most beautiful fine shimmer in it that just make this polish dance. I'm surprised how much I love this baby pink. Its soft and delicate and feminine. Like I said, not boring at all. I wonder how this compares to Nicole by OPI's Kim-pletely in love that i just picked up. I know the shimmer will be different but maybe the base color would be the same? The only thing I don't like about Iseult is that it needs 2, sometimes 3 coats. 1 coat is very streaky! If you are careful, 2 will do.

A-England Iseult

Iseult can easily be picked up for around $12 at Llarowe or direct form A-England (free shippping!!!). It came out with A-Englands inaugural Mythicals collection and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. If you are like me and barely have any baby pinks, this may be a good option for you.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A-England Week! The Legends Part 3

I'm super excited to bring you the last of The Legends Collection: Bridal Veil and Order of the Garter! But don't worry, we aren't even half way through A-England Week :) so there is plenty more to come. I figured it would be a pretty good way to round up my month of blogging everyday.

Bridal Veil is up first, and while it's pretty, super pigmented, and applies wonderfully, it's kind of bleh. And I'm saying that in context of the rest of this collection. The black shade is pretty amazing, I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's more charcoal, but the base is better than straight up black. It does have holographic particles in it, but it really just gives it a pretty shimmer. I wouldn't even call this a scattered holo, even though that is what I believe it's trying to be. I think the best this about this is it's 1 coat. I wonder how butter LONDON's The Black Knight? I might have to try that soon.

A-England Bridal Veil

A-England Bridal Veil, regular indoor light

A-England Bridal Veil, regular indoor light with flash

The last of the bunch, Order of the Garter, is VERY different than the rest of The Legends, but I think that makes it even more schedule. If you haven't gone over to Fashion Polish yet to read the story of the names behind this polish, GO! Her post is fantastic, as always. It will give you some insight on why this one is different and special in the collection. Order of the Garter is an amazing bright blue polish packed full of lighter blue/turquoise glass flecks. SWOON! I was really shocked how much I liked this one. I expected to think it was pretty but not special. THIS IS SPECIAL. I promise you. Hopefully my pictures do it justice!

A-England Order of the Garter

These two are currently available for $12 each at Llarowe's website. Or you can order them directly from A-England by email. Hope you enjoyed A-England's The Legends as much as I did. Which is your favorite?