As you can see, I chopped off my nails again. I worked a couple of days at the shop, and my nails suffered for it. :) This is not really a complaint (augh, First World Problems!), as I don’t mind. I like dark colors for short nails, and I have more than a few vamptastic shades waiting to be used. This time, I went for a-england Lancelot.
Oh, Lancelot. Lancelot, Lancelot, Lancelot. I always kind of detested the character/legend/ideology on general principle (I prefer the knights who didn’t fall), but this is one gorgeous polish. It’s not actually black, but the darkest red I’ve yet tried. I topped it off with Pretty & Polished Heist, a very scattered and tiny gold flake topcoat, more for taste than for a strong effect.
Please excuse the rattiness of my cuticles and general goriness of my hands. I experienced a lot of papercuts, cat scratches and bites, and a variety of other finger traumas. This apology will persist for the next few days. Now (a week+ after this mani was done), they’re starting to heal up, so after this round of ZORMG MY HANDS! things should get better.
Lancelot, like every other a-england polish I’ve tried, is pretty much perfect. This is one coat. It’s fantastic.
This was my best attempt at showing the true color. Look at the bottle and at the edges of my ring finger and you will have a decent idea of what it looks like; it’s a deep blackened red, almost like certain stages of dried blood. You will also see what a cat hair looks like. Oh, Nona…
I admit it; I stalk Pretty & Polished on Etsy, and when I see they’re open, I buy a couple of minis. Heist had a couple of envelope buddies you will see later.
And there’s the bottle shot, as well as the best impression of what it looks like when bright lights aren’t giving it a washed-out look. Peep at the heavily shaded pinky. It was fairly thin, required two coats to have much effect, and could probably have used a bit of shaking before application. It looks more spangled in the bottle than on the nail. My initial idea was to use it as an accent nail, but the flakes were so delicate and sparse that I decided to just splash it everywhere.
I purchased Lancelot direct from a-england’s website, but they are also available at Llarowe and Ninja Polish. Heist came from Pretty & Polished on Etsy, though a select number of her polishes (including, as of 9/15, Heist) also make it to Llarowe.
Tomorrow’s post: This manicure at two days with an incredibly beautiful new topcoat from Lilacquer. Ah, it’s so pretty…!
Vanitas Rex 