My first a-englands: swatches and comparisons

Yesterday was rough for me! I ended up needing to work from home for about 11 hours, which is totes not my favourite way to spend Saturday.

The one bright spot was that my a-england order from llarowe arrived yesterday!!!

These are my first a-englands. I tried desperately to avoid jumping on the bandwagon, but I still caught the bug *sigh*. You can read my general thoughts at the end.

No topcoat in these pics, but I used Barielle HRF as my base coat.

a-england Guinevere - 2 coats, a medium dusty purple.



Comparison: a-england Guinevere and Essie Bangle Jangle - both 2 coats


Comparison: a-england Guinevere and Zoya Caitlin - both 2 coats


a-england Galahad - 1 coat, very nice formula! Reminds me of SH CSM Fairy Teal, but without stainage.



Comparison: a-england Galahad and Illamasqua Muse - I prefer the colour of Muse, but both are beautiful 1-coaters


a-england Perceval - homg! 2 coats, though it was opaque at 1 (it seemed richer with two coats). I'm guessing this is pretty similar to that Kleancolor metallic red and/or BL Knees Up, but I don't have any of those. So I am happy to have a metallic red like this! Definitely a keeper for me! Reminds me of Zoya Posh with topcoat, but finer shimmer.




a-england Elaine - dark, warmish purple. 1 coater as well!



Comparison: a-england Elaine and Zoya Pinta - Zoya is 2 coats here.


a-england Dragon - 1 coat. A warmish green with holo sparkle and a pretty, golden sheen to it. I'm a little lukewarm on this polish with my skintone. This brush was a little wonky for me, so I had to give it a bit of a haircut.





a-england Saint George - omgahhh. This one is to die for. 1 coat. It's really deep, jewel-toned teal. TOTALLY UP MY ALLEY.





Comparison: a-england Saint George and Speciallita Hits Hera over CND Urban Oasis (1 coat of each) - it looks closer in normal lighting, but the Hits is definitely more holo. The colour is less deep and dreamy XD.


a-england Lady of the Lake - 2 coats. Very pretty dark, grape purple with holo sparkle. This definitely needs two coats for me, a little sheerer, and so I think the holo shows up better




(I already purged Hits Dionisio, otherwise I would have done a comparison!)

Comparison: a-england Lady of the Lake and a-england Tristam - since I tend to get these two confused with one another


a-england Tristam - 2 coats. Dark blue with holo sparkle. Similar in formula to LotL. I like this too; it reminds me of one of the OPI Suede polishes (Ink Suede, I think)






My crazy-eyes, polish-addicted opinion:

• Very lovely formula across all bottles. Of course, other brands also have polishes with great formulas (e.g., Illamasqua Muse), but it's still worth noting how consistently good these are.
• I love the bottles (square/rectangular is my favourite!) and brushes (except Dragon)
• Interesting theme, although I personally don't care much about it as long as the polish is amazing ;)

My reasonable-person opinion:

• These don't seem to have balls! It worries me, because Galahad had streaky pigmentation when I first used it. I shook it up as much as I could, but it would have been easier if these guys were not ball-less.
• The polishes don't add much variety to my stash, colourwise. Most of these don't give me that intense burning feeling I get when I absolutely LOVE a polish.
• Other than the formula, the cremes are not that special.
• If you are expecting holo-rainbows with LotL, Tristam, Dragon, or St. George, I think you will be disappointed.

Overall, I think these fall in my "nice to have", not "need to have" category. My favourites were Perceval and Saint George.

I bought mine at llarowe ($12 each), but you can also get them direct from Adina, the creator of a-england for 9GBP with free international shipping.

Have you taken the plunge and tried this brand? Am I totally missing out on one of their best shades? Tell me so I can buy more (bahahaha).