a England Beauty Never Fails and Excalibur nail design

 a England is one of my long term favourite brands. They are always of the highest quality and there is a uniqueness to the brand. Today I'm wearing Beauty Never Fails a gorgeous forest green with olive and gold shimmer. My accent nail and the polish under the striping tape design is a England Excalibur. I painted some nail studs with Beauty Never Fails to match.

I know not everyone is a green fan and even less are olive fans but the added gold really makes this polish totally gorgeous!!

AN Monday theme - Tape Mani - a England holos

For this week's theme of a tape mani I decided to do a mosaic with some of the gorgeous a England holo colours. On my index and pinkie is Lady of the Lake. On my middle and ring fingers I used Encore Margot as a base. I waited until it dried fully before using tape to section parts of the nail. I didn't have a plan, I just placed them randomly. I then filled them in with Lady of the Lake, Tristam, Princess Tears, Sleeping Palace and Dancing with Nureyev. As soon as I'd painted the last gap I used tweezers to carefully remove the tape and topcoated the design. They are all so gorgeous on their own and together they look so pretty. 

Hope you're enjoying the Easter break, Tx.

Ann - Nailovelogy http://nailovelogy.blogspot.com/

Astrid - @lovessweetas

Briana - @briemmara

Christinemay - @xtinemayyy or Nails at 2am http://nailsat2am.blogspot.com/

Elissa -@tenlittlenubs and Ten Little Nubs http://tenlittlenubs.blogspot.com/

Erin Wu -  @erinzi and Erin Zi’s Nails http://www.erinzi.com/

Holly - @nails_by_holly

Jennifer @jennlojko

Julia - Fancy Nails and Cups of Tea http://fancynailsandcupsoftea.blogspot.com/

Kate - Pimped Out Nails http://pimpedoutnails.blogspot.com/

Kelly - @kellyskolors and Kelly's Kolors! http://www.kellyskolors.com/

Lily Jinks - @lilyandjinks

Loz - Polish Patterns http://polishpatterns.blogspot.com/

Tracy - @oliviajade19

Naomi - @nadeekay and Nananaisnails http://nananaisnails.blogspot.com/

Nicki - @celestialcosmetics

Relle - @lazylacquerista or Lazy Lacquerista http://www.lazylacquerista.com/

Sarah Claire - @shattermeclaire or Shatter me Claire http://shattermeclaire.blogspot.com/

Sylvie - @smudgedpolish

Tammy - @ohmygoshpolish

Tammy G -@lightlylacquered and Lightly Lacquered www.lightlylacquered.com

Tara - @lokislacquer or Loki’s Lacquer http://www.lokislacquer.com/

Tash Birch - @tashisdead

Theresa - @itsallaboutpolish or It's All About the Polish http://www.itsallaboutthepolish.com

Valentine's Day

It's already Valentine's Day here. I wanted a simple look with a subtle homage to Valentine's Day. I adore the red polish which is a England Perceval. My middle finger is a England Merlin, and the stripes are Zoya Trixie and Kelly. The stripes were done with striping tape and the heart was made by punching a love heart into washi tape then placing the tape on the nail and painting over the shape.

Hope you have a wonderful day and are spoilt by your Valentine, Tx.

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy birthday to me :). I love a good cupcake mani but decided I wanted a more elegant mani for my birthday. As Bellissima by EmilydeMolly is my favourite polish at the moment it had to be featured. I then used a England Merlin on my pinkie and OPI Rumple's Wiggin on my pointer and middle nails. I used a light coat of Northern Lights hologram top coat over Rumple's Wiggin, it didn't photograph well but adds a nice little sparkle. I even used my szarkowski crystal as decoration, must be a special day to break them out :) 

I'm off to enjoy my day, hope yours is fabulous too, Tx

Body Image Awareness Week Skittlette

Today brings a close to body image awareness week so I thought I would do one more look. Hopefully this week has helped someone, just made one person aware that no matter their size, weight does not define you. We are all so much more than what a set of scales tells us.

For this look I used a England Elaine on my pinkie and index finger. It was a lot darker than it looked in the bottle but it is a fantastic dark purple creme. Application was a breeze. For my middle finger I used one coat of China Glaze Passion and topped it off with China Glaze I'm not Lion. My ring finger has a England Galahad as a base colour. I then sectioned off triangles with striping tape and filled in the triangles with a England Elaines, OPI You're such a Budapest and China Glaze Passion. It was fiddly but I love the finished product so it was worth the angst.

I'm not delighted that Tony Abbott is now our prime minister but I am super happy the election and all regarded propaganda is over. I'm deeply saddened that we now have a leader who follows the media hype and thinks that turning back the boats is ok. It's a sad day to be an Australian concerned with humanitarian issues. Apart from that we had a gorgeous spring day, the weather combined with spending time with my boys always puts a smile on my face :)

Have a relaxing Sunday, Tx

a England Perceval

Another a England beauty to show you today this stunning red ia Perceval. It is gorgeous and has a beautiful metallic finish. It is up there with my favourite red nail polishes of all time. It applied like a dream and caused no staining. I used a Pueen plate to stamp the lace rose design and my trusty butter London Union Jack Black for the black. I'm so in love with this look, it's girly and vampy at the same time :).

Well it's another dreary rainy day here, I really am over the rain and my backyard looks like a swimming pool. Only a few days until spring is here!! Enjoy your Friday, Tx.

a England Galahad and the moonbeams..

I'm so in love with a England and so pleased that this amazing brand is now so readily available in Australia. I may have been buying up a little lot :). Today I have the super amazing Galahad, a gorgeous creme finish in a soft dusty teal. It applied like a dream and is just the prettiest colour. I own quite a few teals but the soft dusty leanings of this colour make it unique to my collection. I used and the moonbeams... on my pinkie and I love it :). It's nice to have the pinkie as an accent nail for a change. It took 4 light coats to reach opaqueness. I then stamped my ring finger using a pueen plate and China Glaze Passion. I loved this look but luckily there were more a Englands waiting in my untried pile that I wasn't too sad to take it off. It's definitely going to be having a lot of use in the future. If you haven't tried a England you really should, the formula on every polish I've tried so far is just perfect!

So I haven't totally lost my mind, though I'm feeling so tired it's a possibility. For some reason blogger didn't publish my full post yesterday so it read ridiculously. I'll go back and fix it now, grrr at blogger. Have a fab Thursday, for some crazy reason Thursday is my favourite weekday, I think it's mainly because tomorrow is Friday so the promise of the weekend starts looming today :). Take care, Tx

a England - Rose Bower

This polish is from the new Burnes - Jones collection, named Rose Bower this is one of the pretties berry red holos I've ever seen. It is truly stunning, the perfect cross of red and pink making a gorgeous berry red. The holo isn't as strong as others but still enough to make you go wow when the sunlight hits your nails. I used two coats and it was a breeze to apply. You really need this in your collection as it stunning and unique to any other red holos I've seen.

Hope your week is going well, Tx

a England - Tess D'Urbervilles

Tess D'Urbervilles is from the a England gothic beauties collection. All the polishes in this collection are dark and mysterious and in Tess D'Urberville it really works. The green is a real green, not leading to teal or blue but a gorgeous forest green. It is the perfect winter colour and the green shimmers in the light. It had perfect application and I love the blackened green look.

We're past hump day - hope your week is going well, Tx

Best Twinsie Nails

Today I have my first best twinsie to share. Best Twinsies are when you and a friend work with the same colours and same ideas and create a mani. I did mine with my friend Natalia from Cats n Nails. We used my favourite green and one of her favourites purple. Then we stamped with gold. It's a lot of fun and I love how they look. The green is a England St george and my purple is Zoya Suri. I stamped with China Glaze passion and a Nail Craze plate.

Have a great Thursday, Tx

Ascalon is a gorgeous light grey holo by A England. I wanted to fancy it up a little so I did an alternate accent finger and scotch tape to mark off sections to paint in the contrasting colours. It kind of came out as I had it in my head, but not as exact as I wanted it too. It's still been an awesome look for a rare sunny winter's day and I love the depth of the holo in A England. It radiates rainbows whenever it hits the sun. For the black I used Orly Liquid Vinyl.

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend! Tx

a England She Walks With Beauty and Rainbow Honey Whimsical

Sorry I've been sick and slack on posting and I've missed a challenge day. I also didn't get around to taking photos of the bottles of these ones which I really wanted to as Rainbow Honey Whimsical is just gorgeous. It is a metallic gold green with tiny pink shimmery pieces, that have been lost with She Walks With Beauty. 

She Walks With Beauty deserves a bottle shot too, so girly, soft and feminine. I do love this look and it's a very 'me' mani, something I could wear for a long time.

2 coats of Whimsical - a little on the thick side and did show brush strokes so I will add thinner next time. I can easily forgive it as it is just so so pretty.

1 coat - She walks with Beauty - just gorgeous, applied perfectly with no glitter placement needed at all.

Enjoy and check back for bottle shots :)

Wavy Nails

An escape from Valentine's nails, though I think they may be my favourite to do. 

Base colour - a England Iselut

Holo - Color Club - Cloud Nine

Tips - a England Guinevere

It was a middle of the night manicure and I was trying out craft scissors on tape to see what designs would work. It's not a complete win but I like it enough to keep it on awhile. The a Englands were gorgeous to work with, great application!