a england Dorian Gray
a england is a fabulous bijoux indie polish maker located in the UK. It is owned and run by a woman named Adina Bodana who was born in Milan, Italy and has had a long and glamorous career in fashion and design. Her love of nail polish began when she was a small girl painting her nails with watercolors and it has been a touchstone throughout her life. She is probably most loved by polish enthusiasts for her brilliant formulary skills, creating polishes of the highest quality that are beautiful, elegant, innovative and highly personal.
Dorian Gray is a well-pigmented charcoal grey with subtle ultra fine pale gold microshimmer that gives it a silky metallic look and infuses its flintiness with soft sepia undertones. The color is rich and drapes over the nail like a piece of luxurious silk velvet, deeply elegant in the way only understated beauty can be.
To me, this polish has two distinct personalities that combine and overlap
depending on the light. There's a sleek darkly
glowing charcoal side that appears in low light and at low angles of
vision. Then there's a softer more pewtery side where the complexity of the
shimmer imbues the look with fascinating subtle chromatic nuance. You can see pale gold and lavender and sepia and all shades of grey veiling the gunmetal base color.
Dorian Gray is an expertly formulated polish, as are all of the a england creations that I have experienced, with a creamy fluid consistency that glides onto the surface of the nail like a dream. It's self-leveling capability is such that my usually problematic nail ridges all but disappeared beneath the first coat, hooray! For the photos I applied two coats of Dorian Gray over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
Capturing the subtleties of Dorian Gray with my camera was a struggle and I'm not entirely satisfied that I was able to do it justice. Take a look....
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The feel of Dorian Gray on the nail is formal, dressy, reserved and spare. I think it could certainly become a signature color for someone whose aesthetic embraces those concepts. It has quiet and graceful strength of character, like integrity that is instilled over time through generations. It is a beautiful timeless neutral. And it is DEAD SEXY baby!
I love grey nail polish and this is a uniquely glamorous grey in my collection, a keystone among greys. a england also makes some be-yoo-tee-ful green scattered holos, Miss B. Remind me to show you St. George and Princess Sabra the next time you visit!
love,
Aunt Liz
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