A-England Katherine Parr
I'm still here! Apologies for this most recent absence -- we're on well water here and the pipe that delivers water from the well head froze, so we were without water for four days. Good times... NOT. But our plumber was finally able to get to us yesterday and unfreeze the pipe with a giant heat gun, hooray! Back in business!
Today I have another of A-England's Tudoresque polishes for you, Katherine Parr. Katherine Parr (1512-48) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1543 to 1547 as Henry VIII's sixth and last wife, and the final queen consort of the house of Tudor. She was in her early 30s at the time of her marriage to Henry (her third), older and more mature than his other wives. She outlived him by one year and died of complications following childbirth during her fourth marriage at age 35. Katherine's good sense, moral rectitude, compassion, firm religious
commitment and strong sense of loyalty and devotion have earned her many
admirers among historians.
This polish is officially described as a "lapis lazuli blue scatter holo with a hint of lavender and a subtle pink blush." I'm going to call it a medium-toned sapphire, saturated and very clean, with the finely-grained, plush, velvety visual texture that A-England holos are known for. The holographic effects give it a beautiful dimensional look on the nail, slightly lighter at the center and darker toward the sidewalls, and nuance the base color with subtle hues of violet and indigo. In the sun, there's a delicate, shimmering prismatic flush displaying hints of pink and lavender.
Application was lovely. The consistency of Katherine Parr is fluid, light and creamy with a medium viscosity and a smooth, even, self-leveling glide over the nail, a superb, eminently-paintable formula consistent in quality with A-England's best. Pigmentation is excellent and will deliver wearably opaque coverage in a single coat although I used two like I always do. Cleanup is easy with a skosh of pigment travel. Katherine Parr dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat does not in any way interfere with the holographic properties of this polish.
Photos show two coats of Katherine Parr over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
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| A-England Katherine Parr |
This beautiful blue is evocative of the wisdom, serenity and loyalty of Katherine's character and is also intended to reference the educated, intellectual woman as represented by the 18th century Blue Stocking Society. Blue is the color of the communicator, and as Katherine was largely responsible for reconciling Henry with his daughters Mary and Elizabeth, it is a perfect shade for her.
As for me, well, you know how I feel about blue polish -- always a fave! This one has an especially clean and celestial quality on the nail, just gorgeous. A blue holo from Adina, what's not to love?
xo,
Liz
Goodness, the water situation sounds quite vexing! Glad it's fixed and hope it doesn't recur…
ReplyDeleteSometimes, all you want is a lovely, jewel-toned blue. I'm looking forward to wearing KP when I'm next in the mood. :)
The worst thing about having no running water, besides not being able to wash anything, was lugging gallons of store-bought water to flush the toilets. Hashtag things you take for granted! We'll keep a tap running a thin stream for the duration of this extreme cold to prevent the pipes from refreezing -- hopefully that will work. It's 4 degrees F outside right now, way colder than normal for central NC this time of year. At least the wind has died down -- it's actually very still out there. The temp is supposed to get above freezing tomorrow, woohoo!
DeleteI'm a walking furnace so I don't really mind the cold, but the other two residents are bigtime heat seekers and they are suffering. The furnace is set to 70F and it's running like blazes but even I can still feel the cold in the house.
KP is so pretty! It's the kind of polish that makes you grateful for being able to paint your nails. I only have one to go for Tudoresque, The Most Happy, but I'm pretty sure I know which of them is my favorite: the green, Jane Seymour. How about you? Anne Boleyn? Sir Loyal Heart? Inquiring minds!
I think it has to be Anne Boleyn. The richness Adina achieved with her is incredible.
DeleteYikes, the water situation sounds appalling. We've only had ours go off for a couple of hours at a time, and even that was hard to cope with. Fingers crossed for your pipes!
I loved Anne Boleyn, but Jane Seymour surprised and wowed me in a way I just never expected. My sis loved AB too and admired it so much that I gave my bottle to her. I think I'm going to have to get another to replace it.
DeleteThe pipes have held up and we're finally past the worst of the cold. It got up in the 30s F yesterday and I was walking the dog without a coat -- it actually felt kind of balmy.