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Sunday, February 12, 2012

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).

23 comments:

  1. my galahad was grey when I recieved it, no amount of shaking would fix it. I e-mailed them about it and got told that my pc monitor must have made the colour look different. I no longer buy anything from them, no matter how gorgeous they olishes look in swatches now, after been insulted by them. Like I can't tell the difference between slate gray and fairly bright teal :/

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  2. I totally read, "...these don't have balls" in another context ;-)  I was thinking, "I know, Cilucia- I like my polish to have balls too!" and then I realized it's just really early for me to be reading while only half way through my first cup of coffee for the day.  I did chuckle out loud when I realized this.

    As for the polishes, I've been resisting A England because of the 2 things you pointed out: #1, they are more expensive than a "regular" brand, and #2, the colors-with a few exceptions- don't scream out to me.  They are beautiful, don't get me wrong at all, but being a polish hoe, I have tons of 'similiars'.  Saint George has been giving me the 'itch' though, and I think I may indulge myself and order that one.  Pretty swatches and great comparisons!

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  3. If you like purples, Avalon is a good addition. 

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  4. What! that's unbelieveable!! It sounds like this happened to it: 
    http://www.emeraldsparkled.com/2011/07/notd-poseidon.html  - maybe it was the same pigment? I'm worried for this bottle now! Do you have another teal you can compare it to? If I have the same one, I can do a comparison pic as well, and maybe you can send both pictures to show them (if you still care, that is). :( 

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  5. Haha I like talking about polish balls :D It's always good to not have expensive lemmings! I spent just around $100 on this haul, yikes! 

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  6. Wow. Those are some crazy beautiful colours. :) I especially like Guinevere... I think it's probably the most spring-y polish out of these...

    Of course, the holos are a whole different ball game. :D

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  7.  looks just liek the galahad polish. I have several teals that I bought around the same time ( I was on a teal kick, don't judge :P) and they are a fine.

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  8. i love your nails!!!!! all of them look great on you!!

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  9. I need to catch the bug you caught too! All of the polishes looks so lovely on your skin tone! I'm totally drooling over Dragon, Saint George, Lady of the Lake, & Tristam!

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  10. Girl! I am continuously so impressed with your purging skills. Thank you for the lovely swatches, too!

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  11. I just bought Dragon, Saint George and Ascalon. I'll probably get Tristam and Bridal Veil if I like the first three. 

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  12. Hands down st. George is my fav, but i'm a sucker for anything green/blue! 

    P.S. love your blog:)

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  13. Perfect swatches and comparisons

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  14. Gorgeous swatches and great comparisons, as always! I already have Tristam (love!) and King Arthur, a cool dark gunmetal grey that doesn't show brushstrokes and has a bit of hidden shimmer. I've just ordered Saint George, Ascalon and Galahad. I love anything in the teal/turquoise range! I'm hoping that Galahad will satisfy me since the stunning Illamasqua Muse remains hard for me to obtain -- Sephora doesn't ship it to Canada :(

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  15. I suggest you try Avalon! It's amazing and I have yet to see anything remotely dupey... it's a glowing, lit-from-within, electric purple shade...see, I can't even describe it! No picture does it justice....even the mighty scrangie failed to get Avalon to translate to pics. That is how you know a polish is really unique!

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  16. Hi, First time I caught your blog! I looove the side-by-side swatches/comparisons. Some of the brands are a bit rich for my pocketbook, but I splurge for Zoya and Essie, and maybe for OPI. Thanks! 

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  17. I CANNOT get enough of St. George, I would just love to stare at your swatches all day! I think I'll have to bite the bullet and get it.

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  18. If you decide that Dragon is not your color, I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands!

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  19. OMG, I love the glitter ones!!!!!!! They r soooo cool:)) 
    Would u like to follow each other??
    Kisses xxxx

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  20. Yeah, that's how I felt too, so I just went ahead and got it. I feel much better now, LOL.

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  21. I might have to try it now! Thanks for the rec!

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    ReplyDelete