Saturday 31 August 2013

A-England Lady of the Lake swatch and Autumnal nailart

Autumn is coming! Yay!  And with that comes the darker colours, which I don't wear haha...

However having said that, I do go slightly darker, and incorporate those vampy colours in my nailart rather than painting them as full nails.

So for my first "less than summery" mani of the season, I decided to use A-Englands Lady of the Lake.  It is from their Mythicals Collection, and of course because I live in the lovely Lake District, how could I resist?  I'm surprised I haven't reviewed this before now, as I've had it quite some time, and I have worn it a few times too, strange...

Well never mind, here it is now.  No sunshine, and I did struggle with shadows in my photos today, but that can't be helped.  Here it is outside:
Aengland-lady-of-the-lake-swatch
The formula was ok, a bit thicker than I'm used to, but it lay down to a nice smooth finish.  Because of this, the coats I used were quite thick, so dry time was just medium.  It felt like it would be quite a fast drying polish if I thinned it a bit, but I wasn't in any rush, so I just waited for it to dry.  The brush was co-operative, quite soft, but just right for the formula of the polish.  I didn't need to clean up round my cuticles and as you can see the cuticle line is quite nice and even.

The silver sparkles you see here in the daylight are actually small holographic particles, but out of direct sun they're quite hard to see.  I find this with alot of scattered holos, and it's the reason I usually prefer linear holos for that 'bam' of holo goodness.  However, scattered holos do have their place, and are much more appropriate for places like work, where you can still angle your nails and enjoy them without them being too much in peoples faces.  Also they can be seen as a bit more grown up, but hey, you're as young as you feel that's what I say.  There shouldn't be age restrictions on what polish you can wear no-sirree!

So here it is under the kitchen lights, captured as best I could:
A-england lady of the lake swatch
So then I had to decide what nailart to put over this lovely purple.  There was only one colour that came to mind, which I have used it before in THIS post, and that was Estee Lauders Pure Colour polish in Smashed.

So now I had my combo, what design to do?  Well, I was at a bit of a loss.  So I had a google about and I found one that was perfect on Polish You Pretty and I had to give it a try.  Here's the LINK to their tutorial, totally different colours than mine, but I followed the tut pretty much brush for brush.

I used the polish straight from the brush in the bottle to apply half moons of Smashed on my nails:
two-colour-nail-art
And then on their tutorial, they use a contrasting colour to make dots.  Well, I wasn't sure what colour to use, and while I was deciding, my lovely childhood bestie got in touch.  Her favourite colour is turquoise, and that also goes well with purple, so there we go, decision made!

So, as per the tutorial, I dotted around where the two colours meet, and this is what I got:
purple-and-turquoise-nail-art
The turquoise I used is Maybelline Express Finish in Turquoise Lagoon.  I've used it in the past on my sunflower nailart tutorial HERE as a base, but not as an accent until now.  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche.

Here's another pic:
purple-and-green-nailart
The dots on my other hand (which I did first) were larger, and I don't think they look as good, so I do recommend using a smaller dotter, or a toothpick, if you're going to have a go at this look:
I did then make an effort to capture the holo of Lady of the Lake, and lovely glittery depth of the juicy blackberry colour of Smashed.  I didn't like Smashed as a full nail colour, it's a jelly-like finish, and as such I couldn't get it as opaque as I liked, but I love it layered like this.

Here's the close up:
Purple-nailart
Pretty hey?  Even still I'm frustrated at not being able to capture the sparkliness, but it's close!

Here's the super-closeup:
purple-and-green-nail-art
Hooray!  At last I showed the holo!  I know that Adina, who produces A-England polish, does so with alot of care and attention, and I really wanted to show its true beauty.  Admirably for the creator of a thriving company, she is still taking a hands-on approach with both her customer service and product feedback, and it really shows.

I bought Lady of the Lake from the A-England website LINK which currently only ships to the UK due to Royal Mail postage restrictions, but if you're international you can still order HERE to get your lovely A-England.

As much as I'll miss summer and its long lazy days, I'm happy to see Autumn arrive.  It's my favourite season, with its vibrant colours and crisp mornings.  I'm chosing to ignore the thought of dull rainy days for now!

Are you an Autumn lover like me?

Thanks for reading, and until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

6 comments:

  1. Oh wow! I love the 2 base colours, that shimmery purple is beaut! Must try this tutorial it looks doable definitely - pics are great, don't fret! xx

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    1. Definitely go for it! Make sure you send me a link too, I'd love to see what you come up with! x x x

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  2. It's quite similar to Tristam, the sparkle in that is a bugger to capture with a camera too! Gorgeous nail art, the colours you picked work really well with it x

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    1. I agree, it is very similar to Tristam in that respect, good spot! x x x

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