A-England Cathy
Cathy was released in late September this year by British bijoux polish maker A-England as part of the To Emily Bronte collection for winter 2015. The polishes in this collection are tributes to Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. Cathy gets its name from the character of Catherine Earnshaw, soulmate of Heathcliff, whose spirit is present throughout the novel despite her early death. It is this spirit, "the unhappy tormented female protagonist fluctuating as a ghost after her tragic and premature death," that inspired Adina's creation of the polish, a "ghostly, eerie white grey holo with an illusory flash lilac and of blue."
Cathy is a very pale chromatic grey, sort of a pastel really, a delicate lavender-tinted near-white that to me resembles the web color lavender, known in artistic circumstances as lavender mist. It is generously dosed with finely-milled holographic pigment as well as tiny iridescent flake shimmers in pale icy blue. The holo and shimmer effects are extremely subtle, but in certain lights give the polish an exquisite glistening quality punctuated by discreet flashes of glacier blue, which I wasn't nearly as successful capturing in my photos as I would have liked. Sleek and graceful on the nail, it has an hushed, otherworldly aspect reminiscent of freshly fallen snow at twilight.
Application was a study in trial and error, thanks mostly to my own frailties. The consistency of Cathy is thicker than I expect from A-England, but still fluid and remarkably creamy for a white-based polish. After one nail, though, I got all angsty and worked up about my application skills (or lack thereof) and added some thinner, which made for an easier application but sheered it out quite a bit and I think lessened its propensities to self-level. I ended up applying three coats to completely camouflage my nail ridges with coverage that was evenly opaque. Had I not thinned it, I believe two coats would have been fine. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Cathy dries naturally in good time to a smooth, shiny finish.
Photos show three coats of Cathy over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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To me, this lovely polish feels less representative of Catherine Earnshaw's plaintive
wandering spirit than what I imagine would be her ultimate serenity and peace at being reunited
with Heathcliff upon his death. The holographic pigment gives it a bit of ghostly translucence that adds to its delicate, ethereal character.
love,
Liz
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