Barry M Passionfruit & Confetti Nail Effects



 

(L-R 2 coats of passionfruit; 2 coats of marshmallow over passionfruit)

 

Barry M are probably my all-time favourite brand when it comes to nail polish. They have such a wide range of colours and always seem to be one of the first in line when it comes to bringing out cool 'nail effect' polishes.

 

Passionfruit is a new release from their 'Gelly' nail polish line, which if I'm honest, I wasn't a huge fan of. I found them a lot more gloopy than the regular Barry M polishes, and found they took an absolute age to dry. However, I really liked the colour of Passionfruit, so I put my doubts to one side and I'm really glad I did. It's a beautiful pinky-red colour, which is absolutely perfect for summer and will look amazing with a tan. This isn't gloopy in the slightest, it's really easy to work with, and you can even get away with only applying a single coat, although I tend to apply two just because I'm fussy! It dries to a really high-shine finish, and I found it lasted a good 3/4 days without chipping.

 

The Confetti Nail Effects line is also a new release, and I wasn't sure if I'd like the effect at first, but again this one has pleasantly surprised me. I think it gives a really cool effect to the nail, without being too 'in your face'. It dries amazingly fast, although you will need to apply a couple of layers of topcoat if you want to achieve a smooth finish over this. I have the shade 'Marshmallow' which is a pink bar 'confetti' suspended in a clear base. I think this is the most subtle one of the range - other colours include: Dolly Mixture - a blue, peach and yellow confetti, Liquorice - black and white confetti, Bubblegum - blue and white confetti, and Sour Apple - blue and yellow confetti.

 

These are both £3.99 and available from Boots and Superdrug. 



Barry M Nail Art Pens

I had been wanting to try some nail art pens for ages, but somehow had never got round to purchasing any. However when I saw that Barry M, my absolute favourite high street nail polish brand were bringing out these nail art pens, I immediately popped off to Boots in search of some. There are four colours available - black, white, pink and silver. I opted for black and white purely because I thought these would be the 2 I would get the most use out of.

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the rather rubbish "nail art" designs, but in my defence, I haven't had much practice!

 

When you first open these, you have to sort of "pump" the nib on a hard surface to get the polish to come out, but once you've done this, the polish flows smoothly from the tip. The polish inside these is really good quality, it's not too thick so it comes out of the tip in big clumps, but it's thick enough so it has a really good opacity.

 

These are really easy to use, simply hold them like a regular pen and you're on your way. I do find it's extremely difficult to use my right hand with these (I'm left handed), but this obviously comes down to practice!

 

Overall I'm really happy with these - they've given me the perfect opportunity to try out some nail art, they're really good quality, easy to use and affordable! What more could you want?

 

These are available from Boots, Superdrug and www.barrym.com and are priced at £4.99

Barry M Textured Nail Effects

Barry M is my absolute favourite brand for nail polish on the high street. They have such a massive range of colours and they're all of a really high quality. They're also pretty quick when it comes to new trends too - releasing products similar to higher end brands at a fraction of the price.

 

Nails Inc have recently released a concept called "concrete nails", which as the name suggests, creates a finish similar to concrete on your nails (basically, it has a textured finish). Barry M have since released their own collection of extremely similar polishes - the textured nail effects. Barry M's offerings come in four shades - Atlantic Road (blue), Ridley Road (mint green), Station Road (pale yellow) and Kingsland Road (pastel pink), which is the one I have to show you today!

 

 

 

 

 

The photos above show 3 thin coats of "Kingsland Road". As you can see, the finished effect is matte and grainy.

 

In terms of application, this applied pretty much like any normal polish (the effect doesn't begin to show until the polish starts drying). It does have a slightly thinner consistancy than the regular Barry M nail paints, but it doesn't make it difficult to work with at all.

 

 I have only worn this on the nails once, and so I can't really give a fair comment on the staying power, but it lasted roughly 2 days or thereabouts.

 

I do think it's a really cool effect, but I'm just glad Barry M have brought out an affordable version as I couldn't see myself spending £12 on the Nails Inc one! I'm sure the Nails Inc one is probably better quality/longer lasting than this, but as I change my nail polish pretty much every other day, it doesn't matter all that much to me.

 

The Textured Nail Effects are priced at £3.99 each and are available from Boots and Superdrug.



W7 Nail Polish in Mosaic

I had been eyeing up the Nails Inc 'Sprinkle' polishes for a while, but I just wasn't sure if I'd get enough use out of them to justify spending £11 on one. However, while I was looking through a website called Nail Polish Direct the other day, these W7 polishes caught my eye. After googling them, I found this one was a pretty good match to Nails Inc 'Pudding Lane', so at £1.95 and free delivery, I had to get one!

 

 

 

(L-R 1 coat of Mosaic over Barry M Turquoise, 3 coats of Mosaic)

 

The polish has quite a sheer blue base, and so it takes roughly 3/4 coats to make it opaque. You can obviously layer it over a similar blue colour like I did with the Barry M Turquoise, but I personally prefer the effect it gives when you layer it up alone.

 

The finish of this is quite matte, and the glitter particles feel quite rough once it's dry. Despite using 3 or 4 coats, it dries really quickly, which is great as it means you're not waiting around for it to dry!

 

In terms of lasting power, it's not the greatest. However this doesn't bother me much as I change my polish quite regularly anyway, but if you like a polish to stay on for a week or so then this won't be for you, as I find it only lasts around 2 days.

 

I do like the effect this polish gives, but I am glad I didn't splash out on the Nails Inc one as I'm just not sure I will wear it all that often. That being said, for £1.95 it's a complete bargain, and there's also two other colours which give a similar effect.

 

I'm not sure if you can buy W7 on the high street. I got mine from www.nailpolishdirect.co.uk and I would 100% recommend them. I chose the free delivery option and my order arrived the very next day! Impressive.

Nails of the Day // Barry M

I love painting my nails. I know not everyone enjoys it as it can sometimes be a massive pain waiting for it to dry etc, but when I have the time, it is one of those tasks I really enjoy.

 

Today I had some time on my hands, and decided I would experiment with some scotch tape - I have tried before but it didn't end well!

 

(apologies for the picture quality - there's literally no natural lighting at the min!)

 

The colours I used were both by Barry M - 272 'Shocking Pink' and 293 'Grey'. The tape I used was Scotch tape as I've found it's less sticky than normal sellotape so it doesn't seem to pull your nail polish off as much!

 

I was going to do a sort of "half and half" effect on every nail, but decided that was too time consuming so just did it on both my ring fingers.

 

I painted my nails with 2 coats of Shocking Pink, and waited for it to completely dry. Then I stuck a small peice of tape on my finger so that the bottom of the nail was covered and the tip was showing. I then painted the Grey over the ring finger nail, and waited until that was completely dry before removing the tape.

 

This was what I ended up with!

 

 

 

I know it's not the neatest manicure ever, but I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

 

I think I will try this again with different colours to see what works together :)



Festive Red Nails

I  barely ever wear red nail polish except for this time of year. I don't know what it is about them, I just am not a fan of red nails unless it's Christmas. So naturally, I pretty much constantly have red nails over the festive season. These are my three favourite red shades that I find myself reaching for more often than not.

 

 

 

L-R Barry M 'Raspberry', Barry M 'Bright Red', Maybelline Express Finish 'Cherry'

 

Barry M 'Raspberry' is, as the name suggests, a true raspberry colour. It's perfect for Christmas as it's slightly deeper than a traditional red, so to me, it feels slightly more sophisticated.

 

Barry M 'Bright Red' is a traditional true red colour. It's the shade I think of when someone says 'red'.

 

Barry M is my all-time favourite nail polish brand, and these two colours are absolutely perfect for Christmas.

 

Maybelline Express Finish in 'Cherry' is in between Bright Red and Raspberry. It's deeper than Bright Red, but not as dark as Raspberry. This one is such a lovely colour, and it dries in super quick time as well. It also lasts for quite a while, which is always good!

 



Models Own Northern Lights Review & Swatch

This is definitely my new favourite nail polish. I have had this pretty much since the moment Models Own brought out the Wonderland Collection as I immediately knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it. I used to avoid using glitter polishes as I hated how much of a pain they were to remove - I still hate how much of a pain they are to remove, but the prettiness of them outweighs that!

 

Anyway so Northern Lights is a pink coloured, holographic glitter polish. The glitter particles are all the same, small size. I actually thought this would be quite a sheer coverage, and imagined it being almost a topcoat, but in fact it's quite dense, and I think it would cover most of your base colour if you were to use it as a topcoat!

Without flash.

With flash.

 

Without flash.

 

With flash.

 

Out of focus shot so you can see all the colours!

 

I think this polish is absolutely stunning. The swatches above show 3 coats, which is perfect for full opacity. In natural light, it just looks like a simple pink glitter which is lovely, but it really comes to life in the sunlight. When the sun hits it, you get a whole rainbow of colours!

 

As is usual with Models Own, the polish is really good quality and has a nice consistency. I find the Models Own glitters have a thicker consistency than their normal polishes, but they are by no means difficult to work with. This also dries really quickly as well which is a bonus!

 

If you prefer a smooth finish it does take around 2 coats of topcoat to do so, and with a topcoat I find there is minimal chipping, even after a few days. I think this wears really well for a glitter polish.

 

The only bad thing I can find to say about this is that it STINKS. It smells like nail polish (obv) but it's really, really strong! I find this with all Models Own polishes, I don't know why, but even that doesn't put me off them!

 

This is £5.00 and available from Boots or direct from www.modelsownit.com 

 

 

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

I have seen so many reviews for this that I thought it was about time I tried it out myself. I'm also trying a new way of setting out my pictures so let me know what you think!

 

 

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri is a topcoat for your nails, which claims to dry any nail polish colour within 30 seconds, and prevent it from chipping for up to 10 days. I paint my nails quite often but I absolutely hate waiting for them to dry! However, with this, my nails are touch dry extremely quickly. I wouldn't say it was 30 seconds, I tend to leave them for about 2 minutes, but to me, 2 minutes is better than waiting half an hour before you can do anything without fear of smudging your nails!

 

As I said, I paint my nails quite often, and so it's rare I would have a colour on my nails for 10 days. When I use this topcoat, my nails do tend to stay chip-free for the amount of time I have the colour on my nails, but I haven't tested to see if it helps keep them chip-free for 10 days so I can't comment on that claim!

 

There's not much else to say about this really. If you're looking for a top coat which dries y0ur nails quickly then I really recommend this.

 

This is available from Boots (£5.99) and Superdrug (£4.99).

 

xx

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Prickly Pear

Along with the seven new glitter polishes Barry M brought out recently, they also introduced a new line of nail paints - the Gelly Hi-Shine range. This range is basically just a range of nail paints which have a wet-look, high-shine finish.

 

There are nine colours to choose from, ranging from very light, subtle colours to bold and bright colours. I picked up Prickly Pear, which is a lilac shade - very pretty and easy to wear.

 

 

 

The bottles are distinguished from the regular Barry M range by their silver cap instead of the usual black one.

 

Without flash

 

With flash

 

The top picture is more accurate in terms of color! The swatch is of three coats, as the polish is extremely sheer after just one/two! This is a gorgeous colour, and although it's more suited to summer, I can still see myself reaching for it in the very near future.

 

Also, they are extremely shiny even without a top coat, which obviously is the main claim of the range! I haven't actually worn this on my nails yet, so I can't comment on wear time etc, but judging by the usual Barry M nail paints, they should stay put for quite a while!

 

These are £3.99 nd available from www.barrym.com, Superdrug and Boots.

xx

Barry M Aqua Glitter

Hey everyone!

This isn't actually a particularly new release from Barry M anymore, but it is however one of my favourite glitter polishes, which I wanted to share with you all.

 

 

Aqua Glitter is what it says on the bottle really. It's the most perfect aqua shade - other blue glitters I have tried have never been just the right shade of blue that I wanted, until I picked up this one. It is aqua microglitter and bigger pieces of aqua glitter in a clear base.

 

 

The pictures above show 2 coats of Aqua Glitter over 1 coat of Modes Own Top Turquoise. Aqua Glitter is opaque by itself in about 4 coats, but I prefer to layer it over a similar base colour as I hate waiting so long for my nails to dry. Using just 2 coats, the polish dries fully in about 5-10 minutes.

 

In terms of lasting power, this tends to last about 3 days before chipping, which isn't a problem for me as I change my nails quite often, but if you want something long-lasting then this isn't it.

 

The pictures don't really show just how sparkly it is in real life - I always get people commenting on my nails when I wear this.

 

A major plus point for me is that although it's a glitter polish, it comes off so easily! The only reason I don't wear glitter polish all the time is because of how difficult it can be to remove. This, however, comes off almost as easily as any ordinary non-glitter polish!

 

Have any of you tried this shade?

xx



Barry M Amethyst Glitter & Rose Quartz Glitter

Hey everyone!

I've always loved glitter polishes, but rarely wore them because they are such a pain to remove! However, Barry M have recently brought out 7(?- I think, correct me if I'm wrong!) new glitter nail paints, and as soon as I saw them, I knew I had to get a couple! I have been a massive Barry M fan for about 3 years now, and probably own most of the standard nail colours from them (which is quite bad I know!), so I was really happy to see they had brought out some new glitter paints!

 

The two colours I picked up were Amethyst Glitter & Rose Quartz Glitter.

 

amethyst glitter

 

rose quartz glitter

 

Amethyst glitter is full of different coloured glitter pieces, all of which are the same size. The colours include blue, green, purple, gold and pink. I actually think this is a really nice polish for Christmas - I don't know why it just makes me feel Christmassy when I look at it!

 

Rose Quartz glitter is holographic microglitter in a clear base, with bigger hexagonal pieces of baby pink glitter.

 

L-R amethyst glitter, rose quartz glitter

 

The swatches above show 3 coats of each polish. As you can see, 3 coats of amethyst glitter pretty much covers the entire nail, whereas 3 coats of rose quartz glitter is still quite sparse. For this reason, I use rose quartz as a top coat on top of a different base colour - I find it looks really good over a pink or nude colour! I use amethyst glitter on it's own as I think it looks better this way rather than using a single coat over a different coloured base coat. The glitter does onlty need 1 layer of top coat to make it smooth too, which is a plus point!

 

In terms of longevity, I find that both of these lasted around 3-4 days before I felt they chipped enough for me to want to take them off, which I didn't think was too bad for glitter polishes!

 

Application of both these polishes is good, and they are super fast drying too.

 

The other colours are also amazing, and I'm having to resist the urge to buy them all!

 

The Barry M polishes are available from Boots, Superdrug (they don't appear to be on their websites yet though - they are however in store)  and online at www.barrym.com for £2.99 each.

 

xx



ElegantTouch Rapid Dry for Nails

Hey everyone,

Today I am going to do a review of a product I have a love/hate relationship with:

 

 

 

This is a spray which you spray onto your nails after you have painted them. It claims to "touch dry polish in 60 seconds". It also contains vitamin E to condition the cuticles.

 

The reason I have a love/hate relationship with this product is because I do like it - it dries polish really quickly, something which I love because I'm impatient and hate waiting for my nails to dry. However, this leaves a really greasy residue on your fingers, and I cannot stand anything greasy! I want to wash my hands immediately after, but if you do this, you will smudge your nail polish! But if you wait about 2 minutes and then wash your hands, your nail polish should be fine and you can get rid of the greasiness :)

 

I know they greasiness isn't the end of the world, but it is something I could do without. That being said, this is a really good product if you can see past that - it does exactly what it's meant to do and you will have no more waiting round for your nails to dry, or risk smudging them as you try and do things :)

 

Has anyone tried this?

xx

My Barry M Nail Paint Collection

Hey everyone,

Today I thought I'd share with you all my collection of Barry M Nail Paints :) These nail polishes are what first got me into nail painting, and over the past 3 years or so, I have built up quite a sizeable collection. I have swatched them all to show you too :).

 

Disclaimer; this is in no way me bragging or showing off, simply me showing you my collection, to hopefully give you a better idea of the colours and the formula.

 

L-R denim, aqua glitter, teal, cobalt blue, blue glitter, cyan blue, blueberry ice cream, blue moon

 

 

L-R retro nail paint in purple, navy, indigo, lilac foil, chameleon nail effects in purple, instant nail effects in purple, vivid purple, bright purple, berry ice cream

 

 

L-R raspberry, bright red, block orange, coral, fuschia, shocking pink, pink flamingo, bright pink, peach melba

 

 

L-R spring green, mint green, silver foil, silver multi glitter, silver glitter, black multi glitter, silvery lilac, grey, dusky mauve, cappuccino

 

 

L-R 3 in 1 basecoat topcoat and nail hardener, croc nail effects in black, instant nail effects in black, magnetic nail paint in dark silver

 

 

SWATCHES :)

 

L-R denim, aqua glitter, teal, cobalt blue, blue glitter

 

L-R blue glitter, cyan blue, blueberry ice cream, blue moon

 

L-R retro nail paint in purple, navy, indigo, lilac foil, chameleon nail effects in purple

 

L-R instant nail effects in purple over bright pink, vivid purple, bright purple, berry ice cream

 

L-R raspberry, bright red, block orange, coral, fuschia

 

L-R fuschia, shocking pink, pink flamingo, bright pink, peach melba

L-R spring green, mint green, silver foil, silver multi glitter, silver glitter


L-R silver glitter, black multi glitter, silvery lilac, grey, dusky mauve, cappuccino
 

L-R croc nail effects in black over bright pink (fail), instant nail effects in black over bright pink, magnetic nail paint in dark silver (also a fail).

 

 

I love Barry M nail paints. They are by far my favourite high street nail polish brand. They're cheap and they have such a wide range of colours.

 

I'm just going to throw this out there - there are a couple of them I don't actually like too much. The instant nail effects (the crackle ones) I don't like, but this is personal preference as I don't really favour the cracked look. The croc nail effects as you can see just doesn't work for me, I don't know if it's me doing it wrong but I have never been able to get them to work. The magnetic nail paint is pretty much the same - I've never been able to make it work.

 

As for the colours, I do actually like all the shades, and the majority of them have amazing forumlas which only need 2 coats and dry quickly. The exceptions to this are mint green, which is a shame because I like the colour but it takes forever and a day to dry, blue moon which you need about 6 coats of to tel you're wearing nail polish, and peach melba, which may come as a surprise as loads of people love this shade, but I find that it takes an absolute age to dry and also doesn't really compliment my skin tone, so I don't tend to reach for it much. That being said, I love every other colour, the forumlas are amazing and they last for a good 4/5 days without chipping. They're well worth the £2.99 :)

 

xx