Officially described as an imperial red holo, the color of Shall Be My Queen is a bright medium-toned variation of crimson with intense rosy overtones and aspects of flame, something along the lines of Crayola's razzmatazz. The rosy overtones exert varying degrees of influence on the appearance of the polish depending upon viewing circumstances, going from a brilliant rose pink in the sun to a glowing lava-esque electric crimson under incandescent light. Abundant finely-milled holographic pigment creates a velvety visual texture in bright ambient light and produces a gorgeous prismatic bloom in the sun, a misty spectrum of rainbow colors that travels up and down the nail with the light.
Application was fabulous. The consistency of Shall Be My Queen is fluid and full-bodied with a medium viscosity and a creamy, self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent, with wearably opaque coverage available in one coat. Cleanup is straightforward with a little bit of pigment travel and trace staining. Shall Be My Queen dries naturally in good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat does not appear to limit the holographic properties of the polish in any way.
Photos show two coats of Shall Be My Queen over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, Edward Burne-Jones (1884). You can see how Adina pulled inspiration for the color of this polish from the pleats of the king's tunic and his crimson-handled lance in the painting. |
To me, this is an unusually bright shade for an A-England polish. There's a certain subtlety and composure to many of Adina's creations that gives them a sense of reserve. Not so here! Shall Be My Queen is is eager and passionate. It shares its radiant rosy quality with Rose Bower from the Burne-Jones Dream collection, but it is even brighter and bolder here, mixing with the red to produce almost an electric raspberry hue. Stunning!
love,
Liz
Thank you for this! I'm an AE collector so am planning to buy this (and the rest of the new collection), but wasn't overly enthused as I just don't do hot pinks. Your photos have reassured me that there's more going on here than that. Have to say though that the rest of the collection looks like more my kind of thing! x
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, my dear! It wasn't until I swatched it myself that I could see that this actually is a red, not a pink, albeit with a very rosy lean. I think that the effect must be due in some part to the silvery holographic pigment mixing with such a cool shade of red. It does come across very pink in photos, but in person not nearly as much.
DeleteAnd we both know that there is always more to Adina's creations than what can be gathered from photos!
I've been going back & forth between your review of this, Shall Be My Queen, and Rose Bower, attempting to chose which one is going to be coming home with me, LOL! Thank you for mentioning (above) that this actually does show more *red* in person, because that may well be the deciding factor for me....Off to get another keek at Rose Bower....
ReplyDeleteIf you're only going to get one of the two, you really can't go wrong with either of them and I'm sure you'll be happy with the polish regardless! Shall Be My Queen is the more unusual for an a-england due to the brightness of the color. It's more overtly pink than Rose Bower, and for me came off as slightly shrill in comparision. But that's only because Adina's colors tend to be much more measured and grounded than most makers. If you were to wear them side by side, this one would probably stand out more.
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