a England Proserpine + Femme Fatale Maze of Mirrors

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A friend sent me an invite to the Cirque Italia - in our area for just a couple of nights, with extremely affordable tix, it sounded like a lite version of Cirque du Soleil - so carnival-festive nails were in order.

indoor, bright CF lighting
Proserpine is a rich, dark teal with a subtle scattered holo - absolutely the lovely formula and finish a England consistently turns out.  It's a good bit more blue, but in the same vein, as my fave Saint George.  One thin coat was almost perfect, but I touched it up here and there with a half coat where needed.  It's nowhere near super holographic, more of a satiny shimmer of rainbow when in bright light.

outdoor, bright afternoon sunlight
The accent nail and the waterfall stripes are Femme Fatale Maze of Mirrors, from her recent carnival-themed Afterlight Gala collection.  It's a gorgeous pale aqua, the watery color of old glass bottles, in a golden shimmering foil finish, sprinkled with holo glitters in small and round sizes.  Maze needed only 3 coats to be fully opaque, and the stripes were a single pass with a very thin striping brush.

indoor, office fluorescent lighting
Maze is so spectacularly blingy that it looks luxe even in drab office lighting or shade - bright sun not required for fabulousness.

window-filtered overcast morning daylight
The glitters spread out easily with no fishing, with the little ones spreading nicely in the thin stripes, and even a few of the slightly larger circles making their way to the stripes too.

outdoor, direct sunlight
Maze's glitters did of course require more effort for removal than Proserpine, but since a good part of the sparkle is the shiny foil finish, it wasn't too bad.

bright window-filtered daylight, bonus background of my awesome multichrome handbag
indoor, bright CF lighting
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars for both, great formulas, super rich sparkle, love all around.

Where to buy:  if you like Mirrors, snap it up soon, as Femme doesn't keep restocking her collections more than a few months.  My fave spots to get them are from Color 4 Nails or now direct from FF's US-based warehouse, which accommodates international shipping too.  a England maintains a list of her stockists here.

~Michelle

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