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| The Rose Bower, Edward Burne-Jones, c. 1890. The sleeping beauty lies on her bed surrounded by her slumbering attendants. The rose is seen encircling the drapery in the background. Beneath the painting is an inscription of lines from "For the Briar Rose," a poem by Burne-Jones' friend and colleague William Morris. "Here lies the hoarded love, the key/ To all the treasure that shall be;/ Come fated hand the gift to take/ And smite this sleeping world awake." (source) |
Described by creator Adina as "a true deep rose hue kissed with subtle holographic overtones," Rose Bower is a deep, rich, gleaming shade of crimson-rose that is a slightly darker variation of Crayola's razzmatazz. The color is radiant and intense, a romantic, passionately feminine hue with a luxurious presentation. Holographic effects serve to generate a warm, dimensional prismatic bloom in ambient light that gives the polish that "lit from within" glow, speckling the finish with scattered silvery holographic particles and creating a shimmering, velvety visual texture.
Application was on par with the high-caliber formulations that A-England is known for. The consistency of Rose Bower is fluid, full-bodied and very smooth with a medium viscosity and a plush, self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent, delivering evenly opaque coverage in a single coat, although you'll want a second for richest color and holographic effects. Cleanup is surprisingly easy, with some pigment travel as you might expect but very little trace staining. Rose Bower dries naturally in good time to a smooth, slightly flat finish that benefits from a good topcoat, which maximizes the dimensionality and velvety visual texture of the look.
Photos show two coats of Rose Bower over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
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| A-England Rose Bower |
This is an almost poignantly beautiful red with an opulent look and a bold, high-spirited nature that I find particularly fetching. There's a certain dramatic quality to wearing an intense color like this, it inclines one toward grand gestures. Take any necessary precautions!
A-England lacquers are available from stockists around the globe. Look up your closest source on the list of distributors, here.
love,
Liz
Lovely post! I hope you do a few more AE polishes - they're my favourites :)
ReplyDeleteOh thank you, lasoti! As a matter of fact, I was just contemplating which Ballerina and Russian Soul polishes to purchase -- I have nothing from either collection, which I need to remedy. Any favorites here?
DeleteDancing With Nureyev is indispensable, it's just incredible. From Russian Soul, I don't have the whole collection (yet!) but Katyusha is very unusual and beautiful.
DeleteHooray, I ordered both of those and several more! Thanks for your input! I'll be sure to review your favorites as soon as I get them.
DeleteI lusted after this polish for so long - since it first came out - and I finally got it a couple of months ago. It really is a beauty.
ReplyDeleteMe too, and only just got it! This is such a great collection. It was constantly sold out at Llarowe when it was first released, I had to resort to getting the polishes piecemeal. I still don't have Briar Rose. I'm so glad there are more distributors now!
DeleteI think my favorite from Burne-Jones Dream is Sleeping Palace, although Rose Bower does give it a run for its money.
GAH!! Back & forth, Rose Bower? or Shall Be My Queen? Ca NOT decide, LOL!
ReplyDeleteYour swatches are always so stunning....I end up wanting EVERthing :)
I do this kind of thing too when trying to chose polishes -- equivocation is an exhausting exercise! One thing I can say, and I don't know whether you'll find this helpful, is that if you've been happy with your past a-england purchases and want more of the same kind of satisfaction, go for Rose Bower. If you want an a-england polish that's more "out of the box," go for Shall Be My Queen. Personally, I find Rose Bower to be slightly richer and more resonant, and more classically a-england.
DeleteThe good news is that they are both beautiful, lushly colored, superbly formulated lacquers. Honestly, you can't go wrong with either and a case can definitely be made for getting both (especially if you love pink!) although I can see why you're inclined to get only one. Still, they're definitely different enough to justify owning both.
To me, the major difference between them aside from brightness of color is energy. Shall Be My Queen vibrates higher on the scale than Rose Bower, it is more frenetic, more electric, the way a neon is compared to a non-neon. Not that it IS a neon, you understand, but the caliber of its intensity in comparison to Rose Bower might be qualified this way.
It's kind of like comparing a hummingbird to a kingfisher. You know what I mean?
Either one will take your breath away!