A to Z of Polish - D is for Dollish Polish

Hi Goddesses

Wow, it seems a long time ago that I started this series.  I really hoped to be steaming through it, but each post takes soooo long to put together .... yup, that's my excuse.

So, brands that begin with D .... Dior - don't own any, Different Dimension - new indie maker, polishes look sensational, Dandy Nails - don't own any ..... but I DO own lots of Dollish Polish :)

Dollish was perhaps the first indie brand I feel hard for, and it's still a brand I have a lot of affection for.  All of Dolly's polishes are top quality, and if you're looking for an indie brand to try, she's a great starting place.   Her polishes apply perfectly, and whilst she does make a lot of glitterbombs, she does other types of polishes too.

In ye olde days, Dollish Polish used to sell on Etsy, and now she's moved to BigCartel, Overall Beauty and Llarowe.   She releases themed collections which have a whiff of nostalgia to them, and she has a genuine eye for what makes great colour combinations.

I can honestly say I have never been disappointed with a Dollish.  Sure, there have been some that once I've worn them I decided they "weren't me", but every single one has been made with quality and creativity.  

Here are some from the Crumpet vault -

Nice Scrunchie, Heather - pure 50s perfection

We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat - blue + copper = sublime

I'm A Material Girl - pink girliness

Random Dancing - my favourite glitter of all time

Hip Hop Hippity Hop - pure sweet girliness

Putting On The Ritzzzz - a black and white glitter that's as good as any glitter out there

Zombie Flesh - green perfection

Deadly Nightshade - purple and green gorey awesomeness

I still have a few more Dollishes I've not managed to wear yet - jeez, I think I could do 365 Days of Untrieds .... sooooo naughty.

Enjoy xx :)

A to Z of Polish - B is for Barry M

Hi Goddesses

Firstly, thank you.  There was a FANTASTIC response to last week's first post in this series, and I'm delighted that so many of you are looking forward to future instalments.  I'm going to try and make it a weekly thing, but as you can imagine, quite a lot of work goes into a post like this, so maybe you'll see it 2 weeks out of 3, or 3 out of 4, but it will be regular .. ish :)

There are some great brands beginning with B - Barielle, Butter London, Bettina and Barry.  And his M.   Ideally, I didn't want to do another British polish this week, but I have too many of the other brands that are unswatched lol.   So here we go with some Barry and his M deliciousness.  Just a word of caution - some of these polishes were swatched a year ago, and why I took the photos against a background of naff pink curtains I do not know.  Please forgive ......

Barry M Cosmetics was created in London, Great Britain in 1982 by Barry Mero. In the early 80's Barry had a number of retail outlets around London selling beauty and cosmetic products. The fashion was for dramatic, outrageous make-up. However he found that no one was producing the exciting and vivid colours that his customers required. So in June 1982 he decided to put together the Barry M Cosmetic range.

The Barry M name soon became a cult name in the field of colour cosmetics and in those days if you were a new romantic, punk or gothic the chances are you would have been using Barry M to make your statement!

One of Barry's unsung strengths is the quality of his nail "paints" as he calls them.  They really are quite durable.  Now, these days I rarely leave a polish on long enough to find out how long it lasts, but in my previous life, this was definitely the most chip-resistant polish I found.

I thought the first thing I should do is photograph them all.  I don't own EVERY single Barry M, but I do own most of them.  I decided I didn't need some of his older glitters and such, but other than that, if he's released it, it's here.  My Cobalt Blue seems to be hiding, but other that that, the Gang's all here:)

l to r - Blue Moon, Cyan Blue, Blueberry Ice Cream, Turquoise, Navy

l to r - Mint Green, Lime Green, Spring Green, Emerald Green, Racing Green

l to r - Lemon Ice Cream, Block Orange,Coral, Peach Melba, Tangerine, Yellow

l to r - Shocking Pink, Bright Pink, Magenta Glitter, Strawberry Ice Cream

l to r - Berry Ice Cream, Vivid, Purple, Indigo, Bright Purple

l to r, some of this summer's newbies - Denim, Teal, xxx Glitter, Chameleon Nail Paint in Blue

more of this summer's Newbies, Barry has been very busy! - Black glitter, Silver Multi Glitter and Jewel Britannia

Cappucino and Nude

this is all the "ice cream" polishes grouped together - Mint Green, Strawberry Ice Cream, Lemon Ice Cream, Peach Melba, Berry Ice Cream, Blueberry Ice Cream

this summer's Retro Collex in red, purple, blue and pink


Aw, I love Barry - there's something so cheerful about those colours!  Aren't they lovely?  So what makes Barry M so special?  In the UK, it's an average priced "drugstore" brand.  However, what it does have is creativity, quality, and an aura of trendiness.  It's the UK brand most of my non-UK readers want to find out more about.   In the UK, I can buy 3 Barrys, sometimes 4, for the full price of 1 OPI or Zoya or Essie.

Let's have a look at them in action - here are some assorted posts I've done over the months featuring Barry and his M, with a link to each one.


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/barry-m-bright-red-and-red-glitter.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/barry-m-blue-moon.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/barry-m-orange-to-yellow-spectrum.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/barry-m-blueberry-ice-cream-clouds.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/barry-and-his-m-grey.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/200th-post-barry-m-camo-skittle.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/200th-post-barry-m-camo-skittle.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/12/barry-m-bright-purple-goes-dotty.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/12/another-blue-barry-and-his-m-bring-you.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/12/barry-and-his-m-had-little-baby-pink.html


http://www.the-crumpet.com/2011/11/barry-m-dusky-mauve-perplex-dupe.html


And at the end of it all, which are my favourites ?  Well, I have several.  I totally blame Block Orange for being the polish that turned my onto oranges and showed me how stunning they could be. All the blues are stunning - each and every one.  Oh and the stamping polishes - gold, silver and lilac foil.  Peerless, absolutely peerless.


And do you know what excites me now?  My new camera can photograph Indigo!!!  Yup, so I can finally show you it when I'm wearing it :)

I'm not going to go into it here, but his other make-up is great too.  His eyeshadow glitter pots are fab, loads of people love his lipsticks ... me, I won't use any other eyeliner than this, The Wink, THE perfect eyeliner.

I hope you've enjoyed - which are your favourites ? xx :)

A to Z of Polish - A is for a-England

Hi Goddesses

..... and welcome to a new series for the blog - the A to Z of Polishes.  It's like a polish alphabet!  We're going to go through the alphabet brand by brand, and see what's out there in the Polish World.  Why ?  Well partly because there are new brands popping up all the time, but also because in this fast paced world, we rarely stop and just give thanks, so this is me, giving thanks.

We start today with the letter A (oooh, that was like Sesame Street lol) and there are several brands that start with A -

* a-England

* Accessorize

* American Apparel

* Catherine Arley

* All That Glitters (Etsy)

We're going to start our walk down Alphabet Street with one of my very favourite polish brands, a-England.  Created by Italian fashion designer and admitted anglophile, Adina Bodana, a-England has so far released 2 collections, full of sumptuous colours and delicious textures.  It feels like a luxury brand, albeit at a reasonable price.

So why do I love a-England?  The colours.  Oh and the holos.  The depth and intensity of Adina's creations are truly stunning, and she is one of the few polish makers who has perfected a "reliable" holo, that doesn't just give an amateurish bend to the light, but captures it, embeds it and then refires it back at you.   Her polishes are so intense they *almost* overpower the senses.  Almost.

For me it all started with this beauty, Lady of The Lake, a sublime purple holo.

I remember the night I posted this (here) and the reaction it got.  At that time, a-England wasn't quite as well known as it is now; ah, a simpler time, before the Legend Collection, when even Adina herself had the time to comment on your photo :)

Ok, lets embark on our visual buffet, starting first with the Mythical Collection, which was the first collection a-England released.  I don't own all the colours of this collection, but you can check them all out on a-England's website, here.

My second big lemming was Tristam, and actually, maybe he is to blame for my new love of blue.  Before this, I don't think I had ever wanted a blue polish before.  This is very much the twin brother of LOTL, both beautiful in their intensity and aglow with scattered holo.

And then I saw Galahad, and another blue love was born, and begotten and worn :)  A dreamy, but subdued, turquoise.

I also fell hard for Guinevere, a serene lilac, which you can see here.

A lot of this collection was silver and ethereal, colours which aren't really very Crumpety, but this one most certainly is - the divine Perceval, a rich, electric red which smoulders with vibrancy.

Then there's Avalon, a delicious fiery purple, full of molten blues and inner lunar complications.

When Adina told me at the end of last year that she was releasing a new collection based on the Legend of Saint George, my heart skipped a beat.   For me, Saint George means dragon - red, orange, fire! - and yet all of that spectrum is absent from the Collection.  I think the strop I went into at this point blinded me to the true beauty of the collection for a LONG time, but now, a few months on, even I applaud the artistry of these polishes, even if, for me, it focussed to much on the greener side of life.

My personal stand out is Order of the Garter.  An intense, bright, shimmer-laden blue, this is special.  I love this blue so much.  It glows with an inner fire - dazzling.

The 2 most famous polishes from this Collection of course are Dragon and Saint George.   The Dragon here is green (sadly) not red (sadly), but stunning nevertheless.  It's the pure colour of Englishness and grass and fiercely glows with it's holo goodness.

Saint George is darker.  For me, this is still green, albeit dark green, but most people describe this as a teal.  I don't personally get a teal vibe from it, but that could be to do with skin tone.  Again, it's not red lol, but it IS arresting, and makes a perfect companion piece to it's holo brother, Dragon.

A polish more in line with my sensibilities was Ascalon, an indefinable colour which I eventually called Pigeon!  It blurs from grey to lilac and back, and looked beautiful with a matte coat too.

It's often hard to remember that a-England is an indie brand.  It seems to have emerged fully-formed and with no teething pains, and the fact that it feels like such an authentic and well established brand is pure testament to the love Adina's polishes have inspired.   It's also great to see a brand constantly striving for exciting textures and arresting colours - a quality some of the big boys and girls have definitely lost.


I hope you enjoyed our tour of the town of A on our polish map.  If you don't yet own any a-Englands I can heartily recommend them - I honestly don't know of a single person who has bought one and regretted it.

More importantly, thank you Adina, and just because I can't resist, let's end with a glamour shot of Tristam himself, one of the most stunning kitties on the planet.

Enjoy xx :)