A England Briarwood with Dixie Plates Marbled 01 - super vacation nails!

No posts at all in well over a week!  Well, that's because I was on an absolutely fabulous vacation to Italy, and we were so busy the whole time that I didn't get a chance to use the whole kit full of nail polish that I'd brought along.

indoor, CF lighting

Picking polish for a vacation is a whole system for me.  You can't go with anything limited edition or otherwise hard to replace, in case something goes wrong with your luggage.  You can't go with anything too sheer or fussy or difficult to clean up, because the entire mani desk and all the standard supplies aren't along for the ride.  End result:  pick something hard-wearing, easy to work with, and readily replaceable if necessary.

A England is an obvious choice.  I'm wearing Briarwood here, a lovely deep scarlet red with a delightfully autumnal brown tint.  Like most of Adina's magic, this is a one-coater if you paint with medium or thick coats, and adding a second is only needed if you do a very thin first coat.  I didn't have time to grab pics before I left, so most of these are taken after more than a week of wear - tips, shine, and color all still look great, just the cuticle grow-out is obvious.

indoor, bright CF lighting

I stamped over Briarwood using Emily de Molly Rose Gold and Dixie Plates Marbled 01.  I had to snap this plate up when I saw some amazing designs with it on one of my fb groups, and it absolutely did not disappoint.  Etching is absolutely perfect, with no problems on pickup for either the broad parts of the marble swirls or the super thin lines in-between.  There's 3 squares of a "stone marble" type design that I've used here, but also 7 squares of a sort of "spray marble" pattern in varying degrees of more open or more dense.  While none of these patterns are designed to interlock when used as layers, they're gorgeous when done that way.  The squares of each design are also rather large, so it's easy to get each nail cohesive but unique with just a couple of the squares.

bright, beautiful Tuscan sunshine!

Rating:  an utterly perfect 5 out of 5 stars all around.  Every time I wear an a England polish, I'm reminded that I'd rather have their interpretation of any one color more than almost anyone else's.  Seriously, more than 10 days of wear here, with no chipping and no dulling of the color.  Amazing.

Where to buy:  check the list of international stockists here.

~Michelle