I don’t celebrate Lunar New Year, myself. My family doesn’t go through the rituals. We do serve food that’s meant to symbolize long life and prosperity, though. And having lived in Singapore for a number of years when I was a kid, I’ve attended a few New Year parties. What’s that, you say? Lots of yummy food? Count me in!

And, of course, I have to wear red for good luck.

a-england Perceval. A festive red.

Before I go on, can I just say that a post devoted to a-england is long overdue? I discovered this brand last year thanks to blogs like Polish Police and Ommorphia Beauty Bar, and what a happy find it was. An inspired and inspiring collection with a good selection of colors, awesome formula, not a bad price, and a local seller (Digital Traincase).

I have five shades from The Mythicals collection and am lusting after the new Legends collection. Sadly, I won’t be able to afford it until way, way after my trip to Taiwan in March. This gives me more time to use and enjoy the polish I own and haven’t worn yet.

a-Perceval is a Knight of the Round Table who embarks on a quest to find the Holy Grail. He is one of only three knights to find the Grail and see it uncovered. The other two are Galahad, the perfect knight and hero of the Grail story, and Bors, the only one who lives to return to Camelot and tell the tale of finding the Grail. Perceval is said to become a hermit and die soon after completing the quest. In one book I read in fifth grade, Lancelot also manages to find the site of the Holy Grail. But his heart isn’t pure and he is not allowed to see the cup uncovered.

The polish inspired by the knight is a deep and very pigmented shade of shimmery red. It’s dark and bright at the same time, if that makes sense. Almost brooding in certain lighting, which adds to the complexity of the polish. The bottle shows hints of gold but you don’t see it on the nail.

Bright white light brings out Perceval’s strong ruby tone.

Like most bright polish I own, I like Perceval best under sunlight. It turns a resplendent, fiery red, like a finely cut ruby or a dragon’s heart.

This is the second time I’ve worn Perceval; the first time was New Year 2012. Hey, if it actually brings me good luck this year, that’d be awesome. The formula is thick and buttery, and can probably provide full cover in one coat. Application is super easy, with hardly any spills.

My only complaint is that it seems to show tip wear more quickly than my other a-england shades — two days compared to Avalon’s five. But it stood up to a couple of hours of chopping onions and mushroom for risotto last New Year’s Eve. No chips. I have yet to chip an a-england polish.

Perceval can be purchased on a-england‘s website for GBP9. The site offers free shipping worldwide. In the Philippines, it’s available at Digital Traincase for PHP650.

Last edited 25 January 2012: Added link to a-england’s website, which I forgot to do last night. -_-;;;

And that’s really too bad. Because this baby is beautiful.

Tony Moly Nail Polish Diamond. This is DIO3 Rose Diamond.

I bought this ages ago (mid-June, maybe?) on my first foray into the Tony Moly flagship store in Megamall. At the time, I was lusting after OPI Rally Pretty Pink. I spotted this shiny, sparkly bottle and had to take it home with me.

The Nail Polish Diamond series has five colors. Rose Diamond is a mid-toned pink with superfine coppery rose and gold shimmer suspended in its base. According to Tony Moly’s website, the polish contains real diamond. No wonder it’s expensive. PHP298 for a 10ml bottle. Not that I’m complaining.

Three coats gave me a crazy, sparkly finish. The surface is smooth despite the insane amount of shimmer. Think butter LONDON Victoriana. The formula is pretty good. You just need to give the bottle a good shake before applying because the shimmer settles at the bottom during storage.

The finish reflects sunlight brilliantly. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures under sunlight, and I don’t think I’ll be able to capture it accurately anyway. This is an awesome polish to wear to a fancy dress party, like a traditional wedding or something. Rose Diamond complements jewelry perfectly.

Update, 20 January 2012: I spotted a couple of bottles at SM Makati last night. The correct price is PHP298, not PHP328 as previously stated.

China Glaze For Audrey.

Inspired by Audrey Hepburn and the vibrant blue of Tiffany & Co., For Audrey is a muted medium turquoise creme shade. Not as bright as Orly Frisky but still effortlessly pretty.

I love turquoise, but the polish shades I buy tend to look the same or so similar that I can do without one or the other. After declaring Orly Frisky my absolute favorite turquoise (poor Orly Gumdrop lay neglected in a corner), I told myself I would not buy another turquoise creme.

I first spotted For Audrey at the bazaar where I bought China Glaze Strawberry Fields and Color Club Wild At Heart. At the time, I hadn’t worn Gumdrop and hadn’t bought Frisky yet. I thought I didn’t need another turquoise creme when I had a perfectly good one sitting at home. So I passed on For Audrey. But I put it on my wish list in case I decided later on that I needed it after all.

A few months later, I spotted a China Glaze shelf at Landmark in Makati. It carried the core collection plus Crackle Glaze. And sitting in a corner on the  bottom shelf is a lone bottle of For Audrey.

It was too pretty not to take home. And it looks happier in my collection than it did in Landmark’s shelf.

I wore For Audrey for a full week and it stayed perfect and pretty. It withstood repeated hand washing, constant typing, rummaging through my bag and digging for lotion, spare change and Starbucks promo cards. Minimal tip wear. No chips at all. This one’s a keeper.

China Glaze is available at Landmark for about PHP350. (I am a dork and forgot the exact price.)

Limited edition MAC Wonder Woman nail polish.

They had long sold out at the MAC stores, I had no idea where to get them online without having to shell out half a month’s paycheck. And, to be honest, I wasn’t even looking for them. They were just sitting innocently on a shelf next to a row of designer perfume, and when I passed by, they called to me.

This one said, “Obey Me.”

So, in the Spirit of Truth, I did.

I grabbed them. They were expensive. MAC nail polish retails for PHP695 a pop; add another PHP305 and you’ve got the bazaar selling price. I figured, limited edition, no longer in stores, nowhere else to get them but ebay, blah blah blah. My credit card protested. But, as I said in a previous post, Wonder Woman is more awesome than you and me.

And she really is.

This is Obey Me, a vivid candy apple red.

The shade has strong blue undertones and looks darker in the bottle than it does on the nail. It’s quite wearable. I own very few reds, and this is easily my favorite.

Obey Me is surprisingly flattering to my skin tone. It doesn’t give my fingers an odd reddish cast.

Unfortunately, my daylight/indoor shots are crappy because I shot them in the late afternoon. I shall take better pictures the next time I wear this shade.

Here’s Spirit of Truth, a navy blue creme.

Like Obey Me, Spirit of Truth looks darker in the bottle. I love dark blue shades, and I adore how this looks on me. It’s an absolutely gorgeous color.

It’s a perfect pedicure shade but I can see myself rocking it on my fingers for weeks and weeks.

I also see so many layering possibilities — perhaps Lippmann Today Was A Fairy Tale, OPI Silver Shatter or Sephora by OPI Celibacy Club?

The formula is nice, thin and very easy to apply. The spills were mostly due to my inability to control the brush as well as I needed to — chunky bottle caps and tiny fingers do not get along. But I can work with MAC’s bottle cap better than NARS’.

Overall, I really love this superpowered duo, from the color and formula to the entire packaging. It makes me want to fire up my invisible jet and chase after bad guys.

Images of broken light
Which dance before me like a million eyes
They call me on and on
Across the universe

— John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “Across The Universe”

I like Fiona Apple’s version, which appears on the Pleasantville soundtrack. And Siobahn Magnus’, which she performed on American Idol.

Oh, and Deborah Lippmann’s.

This gorgeous bottle of glitter has been on my wish list for a while. As I wrote in last week’s post, I’ve been hesitating from buying glitter polish because I hate having to remove it. But when I was planning my outfit for the office Christmas party, I decided I just had to have glitter on my nails.

I didn’t end up wearing Across The Universe to the Christmas party. But I love it anyway.

Across The Universe has tiny blue glitter and larger blue and green hexagon glitter suspended in a sheer dark navy blue base. The base is very sheer at one coat. I didn’t want to wear three layers of glitter polish just for opacity and take two hours to remove it later. So I used creme polish.

Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe with Zoya Cynthia

Zoya Cynthia has the perfect dark peacock blue base to set off all that gorgeous glitter. I used two coats of Cynthia and one coat of Across The Universe.

The little pinpricks of blue and the sequins look subdued under a white lamp.

It’s like the light of the stars and planets are slowly being swallowed by the thick darkness of space.

The dark base of Across The Universe all but blackens Cynthia’s deep blue. I’m not complaining. The darkened base contrasts nicely with the glitter and the sequins.

I love that the dark base doesn’t eat up the glitter and you still get lots of sparkle even in indirect light.

Sunlight intensifies the glitter. I took this picture by the window when the bright morning sun was shining. My nails and the bottle perfectly capture the view from the cockpit just before the Millenium Falcon enters hyperspace.

I got a lot of overlapping sequin pieces because I just brushed on the polish. Next time I wear this, I’ll use multiple strokes to distribute the sequins more evenly.

Though the glitter looks chunky in the bottle, when applied on the nail, the surface is relatively smooth. I ended up using two coats of top coat. Orly Glosser dried my polish to a bumpy finish, probably because the coats underneath weren’t as dry as they should be. I used Orly Sec ‘n Dry to even out the bumpy spots, and I got an extremely smooth, extremely shiny nail surface.

Deborah Lippmann nail polish is available at Rustan’s The Beauty Source. Across The Universe is PHP825.