Application could have gone much better and it is entirely my own fault. After several days of layering multiple coats of multichrome flakies I was unprepared for the finesse required to get the best possible look out of Virgin Queen. Next time I'll know what to expect! The irony is that it's not a finicky polish at all. The consistency is fluid, creamy and dense, with a velvety self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent, with wearable coverage in one coat, but two is better for most even opacity. It is not difficult to manipulate but will show brush strokes, a rarity amongst A-England lacquers. The best way I found to minimize this is to use moderate to thin coats and a light, even touch. Unfortunately, I figured this out too far into the manicure to save it from what I consider to be an uneven brushstrokey look. Sigh. Virgin Queen dries naturally to a smooth satiny finish. Topcoat adds gloss and perks up the holo pigment and the golden shimmers in the polish.
Photos show two coats of Virgin Queen over treatment and basecoat with a disappointingly bubbly topcoat of Seche Vite. I've included plenty of pics in both direct and indirect light so that you can see the full range of this unusual lacquer.
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| A-England Virgin Queen |
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| A-England Virgin Queen |
Virgin Queen is an honorific of Elizabeth I, so called because she never married. Speculation about who she would marry began at the start of her reign in 1558 and constituted a key element in her foreign policy. By 1570, senior government figures privately accepted that she would never marry. Her unmarried status inspired a cult of virginity. In poetry and portraiture, she was depicted as a virgin or a goddess or both. Putting a positive spin on her marital status, Elizabeth insisted she was married to her kingdom and subjects, under divine protection. In 1599, she spoke of "all my husbands, my good people."
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| Elizabeth as the Virgin Queen. The Siena Sieve Portrait, Metsys the Younger, 1583, with an allegorical overlay that depicts Elizabeth as Tuccia, a Vestal Virgin, who proved her chastity by carrying a sieve full of water from the Tiber River to the Temple of Vesta without spilling a drop. Elizabeth is surrounded by symbols of empire, including a column and a globe, iconography that would appear again and again in her portraiture of the 1580s and 1590s. The medallions on the pillar to the left of the queen illustrate the story of Dido and Aeneas, ancestor of Brutus, suggesting that like Aeneas, Elizabeth's destiny is to reject marriage and found an empire. |
In an alchemy of metaphor and creativity, The Virgin Queen designation is reflected in the paradoxical nature of this polish. Although Elizabeth maintained a status that depicted herself as virtuous and devoted to her role as sovereign, she was also in love with one man, Robert Dudley, for the majority of her adult life. He died in 1588. After Elizabeth's own death, a note from him was found among her most personal belongings, marked "his last letter" in her handwriting.
I have to say that I was completely taken by surprise with this polish. A mix of metallic colors, Virgin Queen is at once as soft as candlelight and as complex as illumination itself. It has been a surprise favorite with many polish bloggers, and I think that must be due in part to the infinite attraction of its indefinable qualities. This is not a polish to be judged by blog descriptions and macro photography. It's one you'll have to try for yourself.
love,
Liz
I've been wondering if you might review this!! When mine came in the mail, I thought of two people: my auntie, and you. It is so gorgeous on you- and "soft undertones in early dawn colors like pale rose and lilac"? Ahh, the poetry; I'm going to have to dig this out. :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't end up posting this because I, too, had disappointing application issues! You said it; this polish applies beautifully, velvety smooth and opaque, and yet it was almost like it was setting more quickly than I was painting, but then was a little slow to dry completely, as some metallic finishes can be? Regardless, my surface ended up all dinged up and wonky, and I was too busy and tired to retry in November :/ My thought is that this polish does demand some unique degree of finesse.
Also, I've been really loving your little historical clips with all of the Elizabeth & Mary polishes. I used to read sooo many novels about the Tudors (before I went to college, and when I had eyeball energy for recreational reading), but you've been appraising me of all kinds of new facts!! Truly fabulous work, as ever.
Aw, thanks Marisa! Honestly, most of what I've posted about Elizabeth and Mary has come straight from Wikipedia, I just picked out the parts that seemed to have the most bearing on interpreting the polishes. But I appreciate the compliment and I'm glad these things are interesting to you, too!
DeleteI think this may be one of those polishes where it either strikes you or it doesn't. It may have passed us by! I'm going to let it rest for a while and give it another go in the future and see how it strikes me then. I've done that with a number of polishes that surprised me the second go round.