Left to right: Captive Goddess, Incense Burner, Jane Morris, Proserpine
Coverage: 2 coats for all, could get away with 1
Drying time: Approx 1 minute
Finish: Holographic, shiny, no streaks
Hardwearing: To be tested
I thought the Elizabeth & Mary collection was amazing. You haven’t seen anything until you see this collection. I was a little underwhelmed when I got a sneak preview of the bottles (except by Incense Burner, I’ve spent 2 months lusting after it!) but once I got the finished items… Wow. These polishes truly shine in sunlight, they have such incredible holographic shimmers and such a huge range of colours within them. And then just when you think you can’t be surprised by them anymore you spot them in a different light and they’re completely different again. Even in shadow they look fantastic. Luckily the day I received them we had brilliant sunshine so I’ve managed to get shots in both direct sunlight and shade for you.
They have the usual amazing formula that all A England polishes possess and will be dry within 1 minute if applied thinly. Mostly you can get away with 1 coat as well although I do find Incense Burner seems more prone to streak and have sheer patches than the others. I’ve applied 2 coats in all the below pictures as it just builds up the holographic effects and prevents any see-through patches. I’m also not wearing any top coat so you can see the finish of the polish itself.
The collection has been inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s famous painting of Proserpine, give it a google and spot where each colour comes from! I apologise in advance for my terrible descriptions of the colours; there are so many in these polishes it’s truly difficult to accurately describe them.
All polishes will be available on shop.polishedpevil.com once we have the release date.
Warning: picture heavy – click for larger photos
Captive Goddess in shadow
Incredible electric shimmer with the start of the rainbow coming out in this daylight shot
“Captive Goddess” is a gorgeous pale hue that makes me think of “Hurt No Living Things”. It’s an electric/ice blue which has a fabulous pink/purple sheen to it when in shadow. The instant you get this under direct sunlight though it truly blazes with every colour from the rainbow and turns into more of a silver base. The electric blue will still flash through though.
Look at the shine even in shadow!
Rainbow sparkles flare up in direct sunlight
Bottle in the shade showing the deep brown
Pop the bottle in the sunlight and it becomes a rich mass of shimmer that lives up to its name.
“Incense Burner” is my absolute favourite, I have no clue why but I am obsessed with this one. I could sit and stare at it for hours. A England is lacking in brown polish, the closest being “Briarwood” so to have a true brown is fantastic and one this special is just perfect. The base is a deep chocolate brown with a slight burgundy hint to it and at times even a slight aubergine in there. The instant you get it into the sunlight it lights up with a ton of gold, green and orange sparkles to give a wonderful dark bronze feel. On the nail the green tends not to come out very often, more the gold and orange but in the bottle the green and gold definitely take preference.
In the shade this is still a highly shiny polish that is perfect when you want a dark shade without going black
Look at the wonderful golden shimmer in the sunlight
Jane Morris looks quite brooding when in shade
And in the sunlight you get the rainbow seen on the left but far more purple
“Jane Morris” is Adina’s favourite which doesn’t surprise me as it is the purple of the collection 😉 This polish is based on the lady that Rossetti used to model his Proserpine on and from reading her story it fits perfectly. It’s more of two extremes than the other polishes – on the one hand you have it in the shade; dark, moody almost a steely grey with the slightest hint of purple, then in bright sunlight it behaves very much like “Captive Goddess” and flares into every colour of the rainbow, though still with a very purple overtone.
Again in the shade she’s back to her moody self. Still with a fantastic shine though
Once again pop her into daylight and her mood lightens
Proserpine in the shade, looking very Saint George
In sunlight Proserpine stll has the rainbow holographic properties of the others but it seems far more subtle
Finally we have “Proserpine” which reminds me a lot of “Saint George” but with a slightly more blue tone to the base. This one behaves somewhat in the middle of the pack as far as the shimmer goes; it has more than “Incense Burner” but is more restrained than the other two. That’s not to say it doesn’t dazzle you with how it changes but it is far less in your face about it. If “Incense Burner” wasn’t so amazing this would be my favourite of the collection because it’s teal/green and I’m a sucker for these. This is the one you can easily get away with 1 coat for as well, it is definitely the thickest formula of them all.
Again in the shade it looks incredibly shiny, these polishes have a fantastic finish to them. You can really tell here that the shade is a bluer, colder tone than Saint George
Delicate holographic shimmer brought out by direct sunlight
So there you go, I hope you love this collection as much as I do. I’ve done a quick watermarble with them today as I couldn’t decide which to wear first so I’ll post that manicure in the next few days – they marble quite well although it took me a couple of attempts. Please comment on your favourites and feel free to add your own pictures on our Facebook page, I can’t get enough of these! I took 143 pictures of them in order to try and get something that truly shows their beauty and still feel I’ve failed. Oops!
Pevil's Place 
I’m a massive fan of a-england – it’s the only brand of polish I buy now. I’ve ordered three of the new colours, but held off on Jane Morris because it looks a lot like Ascalon in the pictures I’ve seen. What do you think?
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Hi Louise, that hadn’t actually occurred to me. I’ll do a quick comparison tonight and post it so you can see. Thanks! Glad to see another fan, I’m pretty much A England only myself, other than Barry M for the brighter nail art colours 🙂
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Ok comparison done! In this picture Ascalon is always on the left, Jane Morris on the right. Top is in natural room light, bottom is in (what’s left) of direct sunlight this evening. Look very similar in the bottle and in sunlight but in normal room light on the nail you can see Jane is a steelier, darker grey base. I think in “proper” daylight rather than this dusk I have now it would be more different as she tends to go very purple (as you can see from the daylight bottle shot in the article).
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Thank you so much for doing these comparison pictures (and getting them up so quickly!). I think for the moment Ascalon, Lady of the Lake and Sleeping Palace are enough to fulfil my purple-ish holo needs – my next acquisition will probably be a red (or two).
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No problem, I like comparing (and have fallen into the dupe trap far too often!) Adina does seem to have a thing for purples so not surprising. I need to do a tally and see just how many there are in the A England range!
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I love A England and need to pick up some more. Your nails look amazing – I think Captive Goddess is my favourite!
Nic x
StrawberryBlondeBeauty
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Thanks so much Nic, I think A England makes anyones nails look amazing to be honest! Captive Goddess is a beauty, my 2nd fave behind Incense Burner.
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