New Release: A England — Russian Soul (Summer 2016)

2016-06-072016-06-08 fivezero2 Comments

[Image: a-england.co.uk]

Collection: A England 2016 Summer, Russian Soul

English indie nail polish brand A England has released Russian Soul, a collection of five “holographic shades inspired by Russian music and dance”.

The new shades are:

Kalinka (delicate and iridescent as a rainbow moonstone blended with a lavish holo core)
Katyusha (dramatic and unique flashing of rainbow hues, like a light opal on a precious holographic base)
Natasha’s Dance / War & Peace (black with dark blue undertones and an extraordinary play of holographic shimmer)
Polovetsian Dances (deep intense purple enhanced by the luscious prismatic hologram finish)
Waltz of the Flowers (light blue purple multichrome with hints of lilac and a dazzling hologram effect)

I’m thinking of ordering one or two, hoping they’ll arrive in time for this year’s finale of The Americans (S4), FX’s Cold War spy thriller that I’m completely hooked on!

A England Nail Lacquer is 0.39 fl oz / 11 mL (usually?) and retails for £11.50 (it’s gone up from £9 since last fall) / CA$15.50. In Canada, you can purchase it at Harlow & Co. or Nail Polish Canada (which is where I have bought mine in the past). The polish is free of toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). The company is cruelty-free.

A England is based in London, England.

OPI Russian Collection Wallpapers

2007-10-092015-03-08 fivezeroLeave a comment

OPI has released a series of 20 desktop wallpapers for promotion of their recent Russian collection. The image quality isn’t great (someone at OPI needs to do a better job saving the jpgs) but it’s a nice thought. Three of my faves are pictured below; here is the direct link to OPI’s page (beware, the download all options didn’t work for me when I tried them). [Edit: oops, fixed the link!]

OPI — An Affair in Red Square & Russian Navy (Nail Lacquer) Swatch & Review

2007-09-252017-12-06 fivezero3 Comments

Being a red polish nut, I decided I’d made a mistake in not ordering An Affair in Red Square the first go-round, so I picked this up along with Russian Navy. Both are from OPI’s recently released Russian collection.

In the bottle, AAiRS is a stunning, super-shimmery true-ish red of a medium tone. In all honesty, I am not a huge fan of the foil-y look on nails, so this polish strikes me as being a bit on the garish side; I’m reminded of Revlon’s Get Reddy, which I disliked for the same reason. It’s a lovely polish, but unfortunately it’s not really for me. Rating: 3/5.

Now, Russian Navy is equally stunning in the bottle! It’s a deep, inky blue with blue and purple shimmer, which gives it an indigo cast. It’s pretty damn gorgeous, and different enough from this summer’s OPI Ink from the Night Brights collection. I’ll have to do a comparison swatch of the two of them. Rating: 4/5.

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

2007-08-202015-03-08 fivezeroLeave a comment

I only had time to do swatches for 2 (of 5) of my new OPI Russian collection polishes. Without further ado, here are St. Petersburgundy and Boris & Natasha.

St. Petersburgundy is a medium-deep red creme. It applies beautifully and can actually be worn as a light, nearly-opaque red creme with just one coat. Two coats is a perfect, classy red. I didn’t try three coats, but I wonder whether an extra coat would get you the bottle colour. Despite the polish having “burgundy” in it’s name, I find this to be a reasonably true red: neither too blue nor too orange. Rating: 4/5.

Boris & Natasha is a more unique shade of deep plum with slightly warm (more brown than blue) tones. It is dark with just two coats, and actually darker than the bottle colour. How’s that for inconsistent? Heh. But I love this one, and will be wearing it more often in the cooler months ahead. My photo shows two coats, but I think three coats is ideal for this one to get perfect, even and opaque coverage. It’s not difficult to apply by any means, but three coats achieves more depth, which I think is imporant for a creme finish. Rating: 4.5/5.