Honestly speaking, a nail polish ban or abstinence is truly impossible with news like this — A England's new Autumn-Winter 2012 Collection!

I have spoken about A England in earlier entries and mentioned how smittened I am with their polishes. Thus far all the polishes I have tried have a track record of being easy to apply, achieves an opaque finish with little effort, glossy, wears well and of course are stunning.

As you can see, I have a very good impression about this polish brand that only has 2 collections out — The Mythicals and The Legends.

You can read my earlier mentions for more details but I am just here to throw my hands up and say, "new collection!!!!"

The Autumn-Winter 2012 collection, 'Gothic Beauties', features 5 black-based polishes speckled with shimmer particles ranging from a green to blue, red, purple and also a pewter like mix.

From swatches that are already available online, this collection appears a little subdued compared to their previous holo-fied polishes but yet hey are still pretty all the same.

Here are some swatches from apolishaddict.com to explain what I mean but head over to her entry to see it all!

Jane Eyre

Dorian Gray

Tess D'Urbervilles

There are also more swatches on Lucystash and Fashion Polish.

I definitely have to get my hands on Dorian Gray because of how lovely it appears to be. That aside, I am still deciding upon the rest but thankfully unlike The Legend collection, I don't feel compelled to purchase the whole set, making it painfully difficult to limit myself.

Are you spying anything from this A-England AW 2012 Collection?

Gothic Beauties can already be purchased from A-England's website or perhaps Mei Mei Signatures (local site) at a later date.

Thanks for reading!

Instead of 'saving the best (of the batch) for last' as I always do, I've decided to toss that aside. Whenever I save anything for last, I always end up forgetting about it by being infatuated with a million other new things.

But back to this lovely deep emerald green. While I was contemplative about the other colors in A-England's The Legend collection (because I loved them all but don't need them all), I knew I HAD to get my hands on Saint George.

Below are swatches I took, with flash, the night they were painted. Flash shots tend to emphasize on the shimmer and holo shades making them more distinct than it looks in person.

Saint George has a deep emerald base, a truly gorgeous shade, and it's shot through with green, teal and some gold shimmer. In person, the shimmer flecks aren't as obvious as the photos and the shade sits at this beautiful deep emerald from a distance. I know I keep repeating 'deep emerald' but honestly even without the holo effect, I am still in love with the base color (but I still love the holo too, heh).

And here are shots in daylight which are a lot more true to what you will see in person. Sadly I chipped the nail on my index finger and had to file it down and live with that bald spot.

*small voice: deeeeeeep emerald!*

The light blue shimmers are a lot less obvious in person and I didn't notice how concentrated or present they were till I inspected the flash pictures.

One last photo and I am done with this mini nail polish fangirl moment.

These shots were with trusty Seche Vite topcoat over. While Saint George had a decent glossiness to it, I wanted more to truly emphasize the glimmer and holographic effect.

A-England is available for purchase through their website or Mei Mei Signatures (local e-store).

On a side-note, I caught Hunger Games and amidst the whole negative take on it, I was actually quite entertained through the show. Enough for me to be interested in reading the books that is. Or perhaps because I went in with all that negativity in mind to expect nothing, so perhaps it's a case of expectations?

Regardless, I have found or rather lugged home a new 'toy'. Sad to say while I love this shade, i wouldn't be having this on for very long.

Until then, thanks for reading!

After being introduced to the brand A-England through the form of Lady of the Lake, I can safely say that I am very mesmerized with A-England as a whole. The polishes are unique and beautiful with superb quality in both pigmentation and glossiness.

Thus, I was stoked when I learnt that A-England was putting out a second collection – The Legends. I had to do all I can to prevent myself from snapping up the entire collection. Which leads me to explain the odd segmenting in the title.

I was all ready to splurge on a couple of shades for myself but ended up not forking out a single cent for it. It was a combination of Mei Mei Signatures providing one bottle as a press sample (like with the previous collection) and boyfriend picking up the tab on the rest as part of my Valentines Day gift. Yes, we do pick up the tab for something the other already has in mind because, it's more practical?

While purchasing all 7 shades would be perfect, I think I did a good job with self control and limited myself to just 3.

This new A-England Collection, The Legend, is actually centered around a story during the medieval era. Each polish plays it's own part to depict a certain character be it living or inanimate. I doubt I can relay it as well, so do check out Fashion Polish for the story.

The shades I picked up are Princess Sabra, Dragon and Saint George, of which happen to the be three main characters in this story. The next crucial 'character' would be Ascalon, which I had a hard time debating over and gave up in the end.

Kas had provided swatches of Ascalon here and so did Evonne, with her haul.

Here's a shot of the individual bottles.

Saint George is a lovely deep emerald-blue that I feel is absolutely regal! The depth of the color in itself is gorgeous and the bits of shimmer within add that extra spark. I think this is honestly one of the prettiest shades in this collection.

Dragon is everything I thought the name would be, a mid-tone green that shifts gold when it hits the light. It's almost like the idea of dragon scales glistening and throwing a golden sheen in sun, very pretty! I think that this is also one of the more popular shades in the collection as I was told I had grabbed the very last one.

Last but not least, Princess Sabra, the shade on my nails right now. The boyfriend had raised an eyebrow at this selection as he had seen the other shades and was puzzled on why I would chose this muted 'boring' shade over the other bright and bling choices but... I had my reasons.

One very frivolous reason is, this polish ha s a sub-text 'Tristam's Eyes' listed above the name. Apparently this shade reminds Adina (creator of A-England) of her cat Tristam's eyes. It does have that yellow-green tinge you seen in cats' eyes and... the feline-ness tugged at my heart strings.

I'm weak when it comes to anything feline related.

That aside, it is a beautiful neutral tone, fairly neutral compared to the other two that is. One coat would be sufficient though the nail bed does peek through slightly. I went for 2 coats, or rather 1 1/2 because I simply draped a thin layer over portions where the nail bed was visible.

Like the first time, I chose to forgo a top coat because the polish dries well on it's own and is glossy enough as is.

Under dim light this takes on a sage-olive tone; under bright light or the sun the sparkles come to life, reflecting gold, teal and lime green to give the color an instant lift.

This is under sunlight:

And with flash for a closer look at the shimmer particles.

I definitely do not have a shade like this in my stash so while it is a neutral-ish tone, it's still unique to me. In fact, I feel all A-England shades are unique in my stash and that is probably the reason why I am so drawn to the entire collection.

I have rambled on enough but I think A-England is surely one brand to look into be it if you have mountains of polishes or are just starting out. I hope they can continue to produce unique, gorgeous and high quality polishes in this very saturated market!

You can purchase A-England directly from the UK site, at £9.00 (~S$18) with free international shipping. Alternatively, if you reside in Singapore, you can purchase it from local e-seller Mei Mei Signatures at S$18 per bottle and a quicker delivery period.

Have you purchased or are spying anything from this collection?

Thanks for reading!

Disclosure:
1 bottle was provided for review consideration, the rest were purchased.

Along with the SueSa polish package from Mei Mei Signatures, I had also received an
A-England one to try out.

When asked to pick my color I searched up a little about the brand and there were so many gorgeous shades (Merlin, Tristam, Guinevere, Galahad) but in the end I settled for Lady of the Lake. Taking it one at a time ;)

One thing particularly interesting about A-England is how the brand has both a gothic (or rather medieval goth) and regal charm to it. It's main/first collection, The Mythicals, was centered around a King Arthur theme, hence the very olden-inspired names. I almost feel like I need to use a Sans Serif font to match the mood.

As described on A-England, Lady of the Lake is a...

Dusky purple with rainbow glimmer and glow.

If I could add my thoughts to the description I would probably lengthen it by saying the holographic (rainbow) glitter bits are strewn in the polish and seem suspended within the purple shade, adding amazing depth to the color. When swatched it doesn't look like the glitter is just 'sitting on the surface' and appears to have a gloss coat over.

This is how 1 coat of the product would apply. It's generally quite even and good but the nail bed is still visible.

1 coat of Lady of the Lake

2 coats would get you an opaque finish and the best part is the polish is glossy enough on it's own that I didn't need to use a topcoat for that extra shine.

The following swatch images were taken without my trusty Seche Vite Topcoat over.

Dusky purple is probably a good way to describe it but it seems like a 'Royal Purple' as well.

In dim lighting or if you aren't focusing on looking at the glitter up-close, it appears as a purple with silver-ish sparkles (somewhat like the above shots).

It tends to glow a pinkish-gold tone when it hits the sun along with some blue thrown in. The green, red and other tones aren't too obvious unless you use flash.

With flash, it's quite a different story as the shimmer particles burst to life with color.

Like the whole brand idea, this polish looks perfectly regal with it's shimmer and royal purple. I'm still hooked on how glossy it is on it's own without Seche Vite's topcoat.

You can find A-England polishes on the local online nail store, Mei Mei Signatures (click here), at S$18.00. It retails on A-England's official site for £9.00 and with the exchange rate now, that works out to be about ~S$18.30 (free international shipping).

Since the price is about there, it's a good option to order from Mei Mei Signatures if you are located within Singapore. It also means a quicker time to get your hands on them.

Thanks for reading!

Disclosure:
Products were provided to me for review consideration.
I am not affiliated to them and all opinions expressed are my own.