a-england Moments With Virginia: My Picks Swatch & Review

It’s my first nail polish review of 2021 and it’s none other than a constant favorite, a-england! If all goes to plan, it is going to be very a-england-y on the blog this year. I am going to be starting a color comparison project that I hope will be helpful for some. However, today we are looking at one of the four new collections a-england dropped on us at the end of 2020. It is based on works by Virginia Woolf and, I have to admit, I haven’t read much of her work. I had to read A Room of One’s Own for either a lit or geography class (cannot remember) but that’s it. I do have several of the books that inspired these polishes on my enormous to-read list, hopefully I will get around to those at some point. But I definitely got around to trying the polishes first. I am the proud owner of six of the seven new shades, the seventh being a light pink called Shakespeare’s Sister. I’m not a fan of pink, but definitely am a fan of these rich jewel shades. So perfect, there are colors here I would wear all year round!

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Hand & Nail Empties: July-December 2020

I haven’t done an empties post for a bit… since this time last year in fact! I did end up tossing all the stuff I saved during January-June of last year, but I still had all the stuff from July-December, so we’re going to just do one massive post! I want to get back to doing quarterly empties so I can do more in-depth reviews on the stuff I used up, but for now we’re going to try to breeze through these or else we will be here for a thousand years (the key word is “try” – you know I’m wordy)! For a lot of the things I have used before, like Bath & Body Works hand soaps or the Baroness X Acetone Antidotes, I’m just going to review the scent and not the formula; I’ve re-purchased these a lot and clearly like them!

MDJ Creations Smooth Finish Fast Dry Top Coat: reviewed previously

a-england The Ridgeway Ridge Filler: This is my favorite ridge-filling base coat hands down. First of all, it’s clear and not that weird nude opaque color that peeks out from the edges of your mani if you don’t cover your nail perfectly. The formula is awesome and stays awesome, I barely had to use any thinner. I already have repurchased it!

Holo Taco Glossy Taco: I really do not like this top coat. Yes, it does dry fast but it gets gloopy super quickly and it just applies weird. It does self-level, but it looks super uneven until that point. I had to use so much thinner to get through this, would never repurchase.

a-england Poe’s Tale: Swatch & Review

Hello everyone! I had a completely different intro written out, but now that my country is going through its umpteenth reckoning with racial injustice, I thought that I should unequivocally state: Black lives matter. And, all lives do not matter until black lives matter. I am white and I am unfortunately not an encyclopedia of anti-racist resources. However, I have found one cool thing that everyone with internet access should be able to do! If you are either like me and are facing analysis paralysis with the large number of organizations out there that could use financial aid or if you, you know, are struggling financially because OH RIGHT, we’re also going through a global pandemic, then you should go to this video on YouTube. Don’t click through any of the ads, watch the video fully. All the revenue generated is going to the organizations listed in the notes. There are lots of helpful tips in the comments section to help get maximum monetization out of the video! Please stay safe and don’t stay silent (truth to power!) and let’s treat our fellow humans with all the empathy and compassion we have.

With today’s post, I am finally caught up with all the recent a-england collections! Watch them drop a new one the day I publish this… anyhoo, we are talking about the Poe’s Tale quartet, inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven. I assume that everyone reading this knows who Poe is, if you made through school without being exposed to any of his work I would be shocked (at least, in the Western world). We have four mostly darker shades and, surprise surprise, they all have amazing formulas! You know I’m going to waffle on about all these polishes, so I’ll shut up here so we can get to the polish.

a-england Tales From the Tower: Swatch & Review

Happy 100 blog posts to me! Yep, there have been 100 posts of me gushing about nail polish on the internet, but it doesn’t feel like enough. I still have so much polish to talk about, so don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily! Today I have a full a-england collection to show you. It’s well in to spring now so of course it is perfect timing to talk about a collection that came out during the fall… I’m sure I have at least one reader in the Southern Hemisphere, yeah?

As soon as I saw the Tales from the Tower collection last year, it was an instant need. I adore all the base colors here and also adore the inspiration, having been to the Tower of London and because the Tower looms so large in medieval British history (an obsession of mine). This collection is a continuation of the pure excellence a-england gave to us with the British Subcultures collection. I have all eight polishes here, so you know there’s going to be a lot of pictures, let’s go!

a-england British Subcultures: My Picks Swatch & Review

I have had my swatches of this collection sitting around, collecting dust for months. This post was supposed to go up before all the OPI madness, but I predictably fell behind. Luckily, a-england fans on Instagram chose this collection as one of two a-england collections featured this month. I thought finally getting this post up would be the perfect way to participate. The British Subcultures collection is based on a variety of youth movements/fashions in recent British history. I highly recommend reading about the inspiration/story behind each polish on a-england’s website (especially for polish #2 in this post, you will see why). I will link to each polish descriptor as we go through the colors. I pulled out my faux leather jacket for all the direct lighting photos. Leather jackets seem to fit into the styling of a number of these subcultures! This collection is mostly made of flaming holos, though they did sneak one of their usual ethereal holos in too. I will be honest with you all: I freaking love this collection, so there is going to be some serious gushing. a-england polishes always make me go a little crazy, they are just so perfect for me.