a england Order of the Garter

Order of the Garter was released by British indie polish maker a england as part of the The Legend collection in early 2012. It is a medium rich royal blue jelly with tone on tone iridescent glass fleck shimmers. The glass flecks produce a scintillating sparkle in the sun and provide a glowing lit from within look to the polish in shade and indirect light. At close range and certain viewing angles, you get to see bits of magenta and purple flashing from them, difficult to capture in a still photo but lending additional complexity and chromatic depth to this marvelous azure polish.

The polish was inspired by the Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, the highest order of chivalry and most prestigious honor (after the Victoria Cross and George Cross) in England and of the United Kingdom. The order's emblem is a garter, which is sort of like a small belt for holding up stockings and socks, with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense (middle French: "shamed be the person who thinks evil of it") in gold lettering.

Jeweled star of the the Order of the Garter, with the blue enameled garter encircling a heraldic depiction of the cross on the shield of St. George, the patron saint of England (source)

Application began a bit trepidatiously, only because this polish goes on so sheerly at first. Being a jelly shimmer, that's pretty much par for the course but based on my previous experiences with a england lacquers I wasn't expecting it. However, Order of the Garter builds rapidly to rich color and opacity in two smooth, user-friendly coats. I added a third coat due to small disasters with two nails, which recovered beautifully, and I think I actually prefer the look of three coats at my current nail length. For shorter nails, two coats would certainly be sufficient. Cleanup is easy and non-staining, and Order of the Garter dries naturally to a smooth shiny finish. The addition of topcoat makes the most of the gorgeous color and the sparkling glass flecks.

Photos show three coats of Order of the Garter over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

a england Order of the Garter

There's a certain amount of moodiness to this variation of royal blue that befits the exclusive heritage of its inspiration and gives it the discriminating sophisticated vibe of a true jewel tone rather than the carefree breezy character typically embodied by bright blues. In dim indoor lighting it reads almost like a dramatic bright navy with a cerulean glow, which reminds me of London blue topaz, the deep sky blue variety of the gemstone. I love blue polish so I'm very pleased with Order of the Garter. It's got me wanting to try more of Adina's shimmers.

love,
Liz

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Human Nature was released by Deborah Lippmann in July 2012 as one-half of the Sookie Sookie duo, itself part of Ms. Lippmann's larger collaboration with the HBO series True Blood, the Forsaken collection. The entire Forsaken collection included a nail polish duo, a nail polish and lippie duo, a trio of mini polishes, a fragrance that was also available in scented candle and reed diffuser forms, a shimmering veil body powder and a body cream. Holy tie-in, batman! 

Described on HSN as a "mortal putty taupe," Human Nature is a pale beige/grey putty creme, a clean-looking unobtrusive neutral greyish tan that to my eye leans slightly toward the cooler end of the tan spectrum. In the bottle it looks to have a touch of pink to it that doesn't show on the nail. Most all tans look muddy on me but not this one! It reminds me of the classic Capezio "character shoe" color, something that would be called fawn or doeskin or chamois if it were house paint. I always wanted a pair of those flesh-toned, suede-soled Capezio t-straps back when I was into ballroom dancing. In a strange way, having Human Nature kind of makes up for that. Its creamy café au lait color makes me really happy!

Application was great. Human Nature has a fluid and creamy consistency with excellent flow over the nail. This is a well-behaved polish, especially for a whitened color, with a user-friendly formula that is devoid of any chalkiness. It wasn't self-leveling enough to hide my ridges on the first coat, which was also a little streaky, but two coats produced lovely, even, opaque coverage. Unfortunately today turned out to be Tiny Fiber Day, host to one those maddening polish sessions where flocks of minute filaments and fibers appear out of nowhere to immerse themselves in your polish and leave their little squiggly impressions beneath it or hang half-embedded off of your free edge. Argh! I ended up adding a third coat in order to present the least filament-challenged look in the photos, but it really wasn't needed otherwise. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Human Nature dries in good time to a glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of Human Nature over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

Deborah Lippmann Human Nature

My pinkage seems to bring out the grey in this polish, which is probably the reason that it actually works on me. It has a mannequin hands feel, but I hesitate to classify it as such because on me it's really not a true fleshtone. But if it had any more red or peach or pink in it than it does, if it even does have pink in it, and it would lose the clean industrial chic quality that makes it so refreshing. Finally, a tan I can wear!

love,
Liz

Zoya Carly

Carly was released by Zoya as part of the Surf collection for summer 2012. Zoya describes Carly as a "very rich, bold, red-toned dark purple with iridescent red and silver metallic shimmer and a dense foil finish." You can't tell from looking at the bottle, where the polish has sort of a meh so-so look, how beautifully it turns out on the nail and Zoya's description is quite apt. Carly is a gorgeous, vibrant medium-dark well-saturated warm plummy purple packed with silvery metallic shimmers that read through the plum-colored base as magenta, adding to the richness and depth of the color. It has a brilliant magenta flash along the axis of light and deepens along the edges to a dark red purple. The shimmers in Carly are quite finely milled as opposed to the flakier shimmers that I usually associate with Zoya's foils. 

Application was great. The consistency is of the sort that Zoya does so well, fluid, creamy and dense, with excellent self-leveling flow over the nail. Pigmentation is outstanding. Carly is a one-coater, although I did two to straighten up some of my lines in the first coat. I had a lot of cleanup to do (it was a shaky hands day), which freed the shimmers to disperse themselves freely about my nail environs, but this wouldn't be a problem for someone applying with a steadier hand than mine. Carly dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish. 

Photos show two coats of Carly over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat. I was wearing a light blue top when I took these, so if you notice some blue reflected by the polish, that's what it is.

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Beauty, eh? This is a great polish in a vivid, striking color with an easy application and a beautiful shimmery finish. What's not to love? I especially like the plummy hue, it's nicely balanced between red and purple without leaning too far into fuchsia territory. It reminds me of the color used in the classic diamond-patterned harlequin costume. Green is the traditional complementary color to purple, but this color also looks great with turquoise, aqua, cerulean and other blue-greens as well. I think it'd be a nice pop with navy too, and yellow. Because it's so well-pigmented, Carly would work well for stamping and other nail art. Just a great polish to have in your collection!

love,
Liz