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| Proserpine, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874) |
Proserpine was released by British indie polish maker A-England as part of the Rossetti's Goddess collection in early May this year. Namesake of English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 1874 oil painting Proserpine and inspired by the gown depicted in the painting, this polish is a deep well-saturated teal blue bearing abundant dark blue particulate shimmers as well as a modicum of finely-milled holographic pigment. Oh, this color! Profoundly resonant and rich with subtle tonal variations provided by the holographic pigment, it's like the deepwater darkling love child of Atlantic blue and cerulean. It is at its most beautiful in bright indirect light, which elicits a vibrant oceanic teal blue glow along the axis of light with a shadowy shimmering Atlantic blue hue creeping in from the edges. More direct light throws a fine net of infinitesimal golden sparks over the base color. Stunning!
Application was fantastic. The consistency of Proserpine is fluid, smooth and dense, with a silky slip over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Just a luscious, eminently paintable formula, primo A-England! Pigmentation is also excellent, with opaque coverage in a single coat, although I used two for this manicure. Cleanup is easy and straightforward with a little bit of pigment travel as you'd expect from a deeply saturated blue-green, but no residual staining. Proserpine dries naturally in very good time to a slightly shinier finish than its stablemates, but still quite welcoming of a glossy topcoat.
Photos show two coats of Proserpine over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It's once again overcast here today, so I couldn't capture it in direct sun, but the holographic effects in this polish do more to create depth and dimensionality to the base color than to offer what we typically think of as a prismatic display, and as such are equally beautiful in the indirect light of an overcast sky as they would be in full sun. That's my opinion, anyway!
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| A-England Proserpine |
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| A-England Proserpine |
Proserpine has been compared to A-England's Saint George, from The Legend collection, but Proserpine is bluer and darker, with a blackened look that is much more sultry. Looking through color palettes at Colourlovers.com, I found a palette by Ketutar that almost perfectly represents the variations of teal in Proserpine....
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| Ocean's tears, a color palette by Ketutar on Colourlovers.com |
I love the oceanic quality of these colors and their organic relationship to each other, and you can see the same sort of tonal interplay in Proserpine. This is a teal with a tempestuous soul that is dramatic and mysterious on the nail. If desultory teals have left you wanting more from this rich, gorgeous color, perhaps Proserpine has what you seek.
love,
Liz
Perhaps.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you'd like a new teal bath mat -- that can be arranged!
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