A-England: Avalon, King Arthur, Tristam Swatches & Review

Hey Everyone!

Today I’m extremely thrilled to be able to share three more polishes from the A-England brand with you all. This time I have Avalon, King Arthur and Tristam. If you missed my review on Lady Of The Lake you can view it here. You’ll also find out more detailed information about the A-England brand, the Mythicals collection, and the lady behind it.

All swatches featured in this post are done with Seche Vite top coat and Sally Hansen Nail Quencher base coat unless otherwise stated.

Avalon

Avalon is really quite amazing, and a bit of an enigma. It is a royal purple, yet sometimes casts off a blue-ish hue. It gives the appearance of being duo-chromatic, but if you look closely you will realize that it is a trick of the mind. Avalon is filled with incandescent pink and blue shimmer that dances in the light! It is incredibly hard to capture all of the nuances of Avalon on camera, you honestly have to see this one in person to truly appreciate it. *sigh*

Here is a macro shot to show you the beautiful hidden shimmer in Avalon. The application for this polish was effortless. It is also very pigmented, I could have easily gotten away with one thick coat. I did two thin coats for consistency.

King Arthur

King Arthur is a stellar dark and almost metallic grey, and in certain lighting you can pick up a hidden blue shimmer as well as the silver! I absolutely love this polish. I am all about grey polish in every variation so to have one with this much depth of color is phenomenal! This is three thin coats, though I could have most likely stopped at two.

You can really make out the silver, blue and even a subtle pink shimmer in this photograph. It is such a wonderful mixture that really sets it apart from any other grey polish that I currently own. You can see a tiny brush stroke in this macro shot but this is the only way you will notice it. Even when looking at the full-sized version of the previous picture I cannot make out any brush strokes that are visible to the naked eye.

Tristam

Tristam is a deep rich blue filled with smooth holographic micro-glitter. This one has the scattered holo prismatic effect that I love. Tristam was thicker than King Arthur and Avalon, but it was also extremely pigmented. I achieved full coverage with two coats.

This photo was taken with camera flash on to better show off the holographic effect. You can click the picture to view a larger resolution on my Flickr account. As with all other A-England polishes that I’ve had the pleasure to try, I had zero application issues with this one. Tristam dries quickly to a highly glossy finish. I did not use a top coat for my Tristam swatches at all!

See what I mean? This sucker has an incredibly glossy finish on its own, though I would definitely recommend a top coat to extend the life of your manicure. I usually get at least 5 days out of A-England polishes with no chips and a bare minimum of tip wear.

Final Thoughts:

Well I can certainly say that so far my experience with the four A-England polishes that I own has been nothing short of spectacular. The formula has been spot on, with highly pigmented color payoff and wear time. I love the square shape of the bottles and the firm yet flexible brush type that Adina has chosen for the brand. I honestly cannot name a favorite because I love them all equally! You can tell by the high quality of the product that Adina really is passionate about nail polish, which is something you don’t always see from larger corporations. The free international postage and shipping promotion may be over, but please don’t let that stop you from checking out A-England. From what I can tell, the shipping and handling prices are still quite reasonable.

Purchase Info:

You can take any polish from The Mythicals Collection home by visiting the A-England official website at www.a-england.co.uk, they retail at £9.00 per 13ml bottle of polish and international shipping is offered.

*The products in this post were sent to me for reviewing purposes.