Sorry that my nails look tip-wear-y and crap in this photo, it wasn’t that bad IRL, honest…

3 coats.

This is a strange polish, the first coat is very jellyish and then one coat later it’s almost a creme. Which is a shame because this colour suits being a jelly but hey ho. Anyway, it kind of looks a bit dull as a creme, I think it’s one of those ones which would benefit from a topcoat just to give it a bit of depth.

A lovely lovely colour though, certainly a bright purple, as All Lacquered Up points out very Barney-esque! It certainly draws attention to your nails, it’s a nice balance of being a dark contrast with pale skin like mine while still being bright and eye-catching. (Does that even make sense?)

These pictures are 3 coats, but the polish is opaque in 2 (I only added the third in an attempt to mask the hideous sheet marks that arose whilst I was slumbering – in vain) and has a lovely glossy finish, much like most  of the Barry M Nail Paints. The dry time was typical Barry M – not forever but long enough for you to be getting impatient, though my counterbalance to this is to apply the first very thin coat, and leave it to dry for an hour or so before applying a second thin coat (to avoid the drying/denting issue) The formula was thin and flowed easily, and as usual (for Barry M) brush control was lovely.

How are you all doing? I’m alright, I’ve been slowly killing my brain trying to get my head around chemical equilibria and such menial concepts (sarcasm) (who understands this stuff?!) My incentive to get my revision done was that if I did a lot by lunchtime I would allow myself to nip into town to buy as much nail polish as my heart desired (or rather, as much as my £12 would stretch…) Hope you are all doing good, look out for something peachy and Barry M coming your way shortly 😉 can you guess what it is???

Emma xxx

I saw this post on All Lacquered Up’s blog and felt somewhat inspired to recreate the Katy Perry look 😛 I’ve been doing this ever since I first saw the post but kind of forgot to blog about it each time. I love Katy Perry’s imagery and she always makes me feel inspired, particularly with her nails. I used yesterday’s Rimmel Grey Matter, covered by two coats of Barry M Pink Iridescent. It’s much more sparkley in real life and the glitter reflects holographic rainbow colours 🙂 Hope you like 🙂

 Emma xxx

This is Grey Matter, a lovely pale grey creme – one coat!

I have three Rimmel London 60 Second polishes, two of which I’ve tried and one which I’ve only tried on my toes. The two I have tried on my nails I have encountered severe tip wear each time I’ve worn them – just to warn you, I don’t know if this is a fault with the line or whether I just happened to pick up two bad bottles. Anyway.

I have mixed feelings about this polish. It boasts the “Xpress Brush 1 Sec Application” which is basically a big thick brush. Now I have quite broad nails, so the width of the brush doesn’t affect my application too badly, but I know a lot of people have thinner nails so it’s something to watch out for. The one issue I really have is that it doesn’t allow for neat polishing near the cuticles, as you can probably see, which would be workable but for the fast-dry qualities of this polish, you really have to work fairly fast!

This is a one-coat application, totally opaque, so I’m very happy about that. The polish is a little on the too-quick side of drying time, but I find that if you just use more polish than you would usually use for one coat, it gives you a little extra time. The polish itself dries evenly – it drags a little during application but the key is to just leave it rather than try to cover it over with more polish (which results in bubbling) and it tends to level itself out a fair bit 🙂

It dries with a nice glossy finish. It’s not Barry M glossy, but it’s certainly shiny enough. I really would recommend using a top coat (although I don’t know if this will help – I haven’t tried it) to try to avoid the tip wear problem, or maybe try coating your tips thinly before applying  a second coat.

Hope this helps someone on the hunt for a classic grey. One other thing to bear in mind is try to minimise air exposure to the bottle, as this seems to dry the polish out more quickly, and application certainly gets more difficult as I get to my second hand! I’ve had this polish since last December and it hasn’t dried out though, so you should be okay.

I often pass this polish up as it always seems a little boring to just have grey on my nails, but it is very flattering and pretty.

Hope you are all doing well, keep me posted! Sorry for yet another waffley post, I’m so bad at getting my point across concisely 🙁 extra points to anyone who’s bothered reading this far!

Emma xxx

As you can hopefully see, in some lights the combination looks almost lilac-y 🙂 Please excuse the huge chunk out of my middle nail. It’s because a whole layer of nail has peeled off and polish always seems to have trouble clinging on.

Compared with the original 2True Glossywear Shade 14

As you can probably see from the second photo, Shade 15 is far too sheer to be worn alone. I have no idea why I tried this, but I did, and it looks gorgeous 😀

Dries quickly with a glossy finish, this polish adds a beautiful silvery-blue sheen to the base of Shade 14, which I showed you yesterday. The finish is kind of foily – lots of shimmer.

The polish itself (Shade 15) is basically a lot of pale blue glittery shimmer packed into a very very sheer blue base. Which is lovely, and very buildable, but it really transforms certainly this polish and probably others.

I’m intrigued as to the effect this polish will have on other bases. I also picked up 2 more very sheer 2True polishes, which also give a lovely effect when layered over strong base colours. Hence I think I may do a little series of these layering experiments which may be few and far between but they will happen!

Do you have any layering polishes? Or polishes that are just too sheer to be used alone? If so, let me know, and I’d love to see photos if possible 😀

Emma xxx

I’ve had this one a while but wasn’t really inspired to wear it as I’d never heard of the brand before and I have a couple of similar colours. However yesterday Andy bought me 3 new 2True shades, all of which I discovered are very sheer and so I will be using them for layering. I felt the urge to try this one on and layered with one of the ones I bought it looks gorgeous, so here are a few pre-layer shots 😉 the layered look should be up tomorrow 😀

This is 3 coats, which isn’t a big problem as it dries relatively quickly and somehow doesn’t dent or attain sheet-marks while still in the denty-stage haha. It applies nicely, my only issue is that it does occasionally drag some of the colour along and off the nail so the first 2 coats end up a little patchy, but the third coat evens it out.

A lovely deep blue shimmer, this is a bit lighter than Barry M’s Navy, and has less shimmer. Or maybe the shimmer is just smaller? Well anyway, this polish ends up looking more pearly than shimmery in natural light, more like the final picture (the other two were in sunlight). Otherwise no problems with this polish 🙂 I’ve had no real tipwear despite roughing it on my paper round this morning, which usually is the end for a lot polishes, so so far, so good 😀

The main reason why I love 2True polishes is because of their animal testing policy. It’s the most clear one I’ve yet read, have a look for yourself here.

2True polishes (and I think all of their makeup) retails at £1.99 in Superdrug, and is on permanent offer (as I was informed by Louise) at 3 for £4.99 which is fabulous 😀 As far as I’m aware they’re exclusive to Superdrug.

Look out for my layering posts which will no doubt be up soon 😀 Hope you are all doing good, let me know! 🙂 Emma xxx