a england Dragon

And here's my St. Patrick's Day manicure (it's still before midnight on PST)! No amazing nail art or anything, but I did pick out a pretty amazing polish to wear in general. This is Dragon, one of the polishes from the new Legend Collection from a england. In this collection, Adina (the creator of a england), was inspired by the legend of St. George and the Dragon and created a collection of seven polishes based on this theme. I have five of the seven polishes and have already worn one (which you'll see soon), so Dragon is the first one you're seeing here.

This was my first exposure to St. George and the Dragon when I was a child:

(Image from Amazon)

Has anyone else read this book? If not, I highly recommend it. Obviously, this is a children's book, but the illustrations are gorgeous. I don't think it follows the legend exactly, at least as Adina has recounted it in her polishes-- the princess in the book is named Una, not Sabra, for one; but I think in general the story remains the same. 

The descriptions for the all the polishes were provided by Eugenia Ragas of ommorphia beauty bar. Dragon is described thusly: "Like sunlight glinting off his iridescent mossy green scales, the fearsome Dragon lays basking arrogantly, awaiting his due." Given that Dragon is a holographic polish, this is a pretty apt description, and you'll be able to see this in my photos below, I hope! The formula on Dragon was excellent, though I would recommend not overloading your brush because you can end up with pigment streaks. Dragon is pretty much a one coater, but I used two to make sure I had complete coverage.

Luckily there was some sun today (after a really weird snow shower in parts of Seattle this morning), so I have a ton of pictures of Dragon in the sunlight because it's so so pretty!

Artificial light with flash:

Artificial light:

Natural light - shade:

You lose the holo effect in the shade, but Dragon is still a great shade of green.

Natural light - sun:

This is a stunning polish, isn't it?  Even though this isn't a coveted linear holo, the scattered holo effect is gorgeous and wonderful. I love the rainbow of colors that show up in the green base. To me, I am reminded of a lizard's skin, which is probably the idea. I mean, what else can I say? This polish is awesome and beautiful.

My first real exposure to dragons was through the late, great Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series. I wanted to show you this beautiful piece of artwork by Michael Whelan because his artwork was an intimate influence in how I imagined dragons and this particular piece (from the cover of Dragonflight) seems to be capture by this polish, even though that wasn't the intention:

(Image from www.pern.nl)

While obviously not the same, Dragon brought this image to mind when I was starting to write this post and I love that, because these books have a special place in my heart.

Dragon is currently for sale for £9 on the a england website or for $12 from Llarowe (though it is currently sold out there).