A England Gothic Beauties Collection : Ophelia (swatches, review, and some Subtle Stamping)

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword,
Th' expectation and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th' observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down!
-Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1

Ophelia is a character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare.  She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius and potential wife of Hamlet. As one of the few female characters in the play, she is used as a contrasting plot device to Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. She is deeply in love with Hamlet, and as he spirals into madness, goes mad herself, killing herself by drowning.

A England's Ophelia is just as dark and beautiful as the character herself. A shimmering purple in a blackened base, Ophelia captures the dark beauty of her namesake perfectly. In most light, Ophelia looks like the deepest, almost black, purple. But when the light hits this girl just right, the purple comes to life, morphing the polish into a sparkling Gothic Beauty.

Pictures do not do this polish justice, this is most definitely a must see for yourself stunner.  My camera just couldn't capture Ophelia's complexity, so I've included a Macro shot at the bottom.

Just beautiful. This polish really makes me wish I had a DSLR! Soon...very soon.

Ophelia is one of my favorites from the Gothic Beauties Collection. In the bottle, Ophelia glows with purple shimmer. On the nail this shimmer is more subdued, leaning toward a blackened purple (certainly she is the darkest color in this collection). As a lover of black polish in all its forms, this is perfection for me. Black with a hint of color? Yes please! It seems that much more mysterious and beautiful to me.  I wore Ophelia on her own for a day, and then added some subtle stamping with Illamasqua Baptiste.

I love the combination of Baptiste with Ophelia. It's very subtle, but IRL you can see a purple glow on the nail that has attracted the attention of most people I've encountered while wearing this. I love the Gothic Beauties alone, but they also make really awesome base colors for stamping. I used Red Angle plate RA-112, the flowery image, since I wanted to stamp but didn't want to cover too much of Ophelia.

Formula:
Ophelia has A England's thick but dreamy formula - buttery, silky, smooth. Thicker than other polishes, yet not gloppy or goopy.

Application:
Due to her thick formula, Ophelia glides onto the nail like liquid silk. No dragging, streaking, balding or glopping here. This polish stays where you put it, requiring little to no clean-up, and no staining left behind. Every swipe of my brush was perfection, and even wrapping my tips was a joy.  Ophelia is a true one coater, however I'm wearing 2 coats for depth.

My only issue was with my top coat, the infamous Seche Vite. As much as I love SV, I've been having issues with bubbling with most of my Indie polish lately, most likely due to their 3 free formula and SV's inability to play nice with those. I simply cannot wait until my bottles of The Knight and The Shield arrive!

The bottom line here is: there is NOTHING like an A England polish. Adina has created the best polish out there, hand down. I am so spoiled by them that I compare every other polish I use to them, and am starting to notice that what I used to think was an excellent formula pales in comparison. I simply cannot wait to see what Adina comes up with next!

You can purchase A England polish at A England's website. They retail for 9GBP (approx $14.00) and ship for free Worldwide.

Do you have a fave A England polish?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Wet N Wild Megalast Poison Ivy

Hello all! I have a couple of posts I want to get up today, since the photos were taken before my most recent length chop (I has a sad...I hate taking down my length, but I hate the weird curling more and it will not go away unless I file them down and start over. Boo!).

First up today is Wet N Wild Megalast in Poison Ivy. This years new releases from Wet n Wild have been fabulous. I love the Megalast line, but had been wishing that there were some darker, more vampy colors. Well, wish granted! I don't know if these are LE or specifically a Halloween release, (they were on a Halloween endcap) but they added a blackened emerald, a metallic cobalt, metallic gold, and a really awesome blurple.

The first of these new babies to catch my eye was Poison Ivy, an aboslutely stunning Blackened Emerald. In certain lighting, it has a bit of purple flash, kind of like Illamasqua Viridian, but not really.  It is a bit on the metallic side, but doesn't have a "true metallic" finish. Either way, this is one of the most gorgeous greens I have ever worn, and I was stopped several times by women wanting to know what polish I was wearing.

Photos all pre-chop. Please take a moment to feel my pain. :(

Oh what little length I had, how I miss you already!

Tell me this is not a breathtaking green! I am in love, and removing this gave me a sad. If you don't have this color, get thee to a Walgreens! It is well worth the $1.99 price tag.

Formula:
Very smooth and silky, no bubbling, dragging, balding, or gooping. Wet N Wild has always been my fave drugstore brand, and formulas like this are part of the reason why.

Application:
Poison Ivy flowed onto the nail smoothly. Consistency was perfect - not too thick, not too thin, and I had no issues with the polish thickening up during use. I'm wearing 2 coats for opacity, and it does need both. PI was a bit streaky on the first coat, but evened out perfectly with the second. I find this to be the norm with blackened hues.

I'm so glad I didn't pass on these, Wet N Wild has really made me happy polish fiend this Halloween. Between these and the Tombstone Fantasy Makers, I am a happy girl!

What do you think of Poison Ivy? Have you picked up any of the new Megalasts?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Ulta Lust in Lace Collection: Let Your Garter Down

Hello Ladies! Happy Wednesday! I keep forgetting that I should be posting Pink on Wednesdays. I haven't been in much of a pink mood lately though. I'm really leaning toward darker colors and the occasional neon. Of course, I'm still behind with my posts. The polish I'm sharing today was one I wore over a week ago! Yikes!

Today I have a lovely blackened blue to share with you. This is Let Your Garter Down from Ulta's Lust in Lace Collection. I found a pack of minis from this collection a looooooong time ago and recently came across them in my stash. They're all blackened polishes, and since I'm in the mood for those, I figured it was worth trying one out.  Let Your Garter Down (LYGD) is a gorgeous blue fleck suspended in a black base. It really is a stunner. I'm always amazed at how much I like Ulta's polishes. They really do have a few gems. I continually pass them over when I'm picking a polish and after wearing one I always swear I won't relegate them to the back of the stash anymore. I should stick to that. :)

Details:
1 coat Seche Recondition
3 coats LYGD
1 coat Seche Vite

I love this polish! I always have been a sucker for a blackened blue, and this girl did not disappoint. I wore this for 4 days and it held up incredibly well. I wasn't expecting much (there I go underestimating Ulta polish again!), but after 4 days of not so gentle wear, I had no chips and just a touch of tip wear. Impressive!

Formula:
LYGD wasn't amazing, but wasn't very problematic. It was a touch runny at first, but did thicken up. It was a touch more sheer than I was expecting, needing all 3 coats for full opacity. It would also look awesome layered over black if you don't like messing with multiple coats.

Application:
As with a lot of blackened polishes, this girl was streaky on the first coat but did even out. After 2 coats it was still a bit patchy, but was perfect after the 3rd coat. It did pool a bit at first since it was a bit runny, but it thickened up fairly fast.

After wearing LYGD I really want to play with the other colors in this collection. Have you seen these polishes at all (I've only seen them in the set of minis and stumbled on them by chance.)?

Thanks for dropping by and as always, Happy Polishing!!

-Kimber

Illamasqua Viridian!

Hello Ladies! I know, I'm still not posting as often as usual, but things are just crazy busy at the moment. Doctor's appointments for all of us, and getting my oldest ready for camp is keeping me busy busy. Hopefully things settle down soon. I could use a rest!

Today I'm sharing Illamasqua Viridian, a blackened teal with an amazing hidden purple shimmer. I can't believe I waited so long for this girl. This is a must have for anyone that loves blackened colors, and I must say...I ADORE blackened colors. They're my very fave.

I know you've all seen this polish many times before, but I wanted to show her in a different light. I tried to capture her darker side, where the purple shines a bit more than usual. I wore her alone for a day, and then added some stamping - I'll be showing you that tomorrow. I wore the stamped mani for almost a week!

Anyway, here is the darker side of Viridian:

Gorgeous! Easily one of my all time faves!

Formula:
I'm not sure if it was my bottle, but this polish was very thick at first. Nothing a touch of thinner couldn't handle though. Otherwise, this girl was flawless.

Application:
After adding a little thinner this girl flowed onto the nail smooth as silk. I had no issues with bubbling or globbing. It does go on a bit streaky on the first coat, but I find that true of most blackened polish. She evened out beautifully on the second coat. The square lid was a bit cumbersome, but worth working with!

I can't rave about Viridian enough. I must add more Illamasqua to my stash. It's definitely worth the $14. Do you have a fave Illamasqua polish? Any colors that I really need to have?

Thanks for dropping by and as always, Happy Polishing!
-Kimber