Nail Polish

I love mint green as a colour. And I LOVE mint green on other peoples’ nails. But on my nails? It gives the illusion of my skin being lobster pink and generally clashes completely and looks dreadful. Which is a sad day for me. But, Marks and Spencer Jade has come along and alleviated all my mint green-related woes. This lovely sagey green creme looks bright and almost pastel enough to be perfect for Spring, yet causes no problems with skin tone and clashing. I reckon this is a great green for all skin tones.

Pretty cute. I like this way more than I thought I would! It was one of those curiosity-purchases, but I am so glad I have it! I wore this for 2 days straight and still wasn’t sick of it, which is saying a lot, for me. Perfect creme finish, no streaking, bliss!

Application:

Jade is definitely opaque at 2 coats, although the photos show 3 as my brittle nails have reared their ugly head and have been peeling which resulted in a chip off my middle finger :(. The polish dries quickly, and did not streak, not once! It dried to a high shine, so you won’t need a topcoat unless you want it to last for a while.

Would you guys like a comparison of this one and Barry M Mint Green? Just to prove the difference. I’m reluctant to put this one in my ‘already-blogged’ pile of polishes, I think I may wear it a few more times before that! I’m surprised how much I love it – I’m not usually this taken with cremes.

The Marks and Spencer ‘nail colour’ range retails at a measly £3, which I think, for the quality of it, is a super duper bargain, like Barry M. Not only this but all Marks and Spencer polishes are cruelty-free, and BUAV Approved.

What do you think? Have you suffered at the hands of mint green nail polish? Does this look like something you’d try?

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Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

So here (at last) is the mysterious Magnetic Violet. This one seems to have eluded the stands of Superdrug and Boots since the release of the magnetics, but I finally managed to get my hands on it! I found mine in Superdrug.

Magnetic Violet in person looks like velvet with the 3D finish, in fact, with the pattern of the magnet, it looks like coontails for nails!

This is soo pretty. The pictures really honestly don’t do it justice – get it on your nails and you’ll see what I mean!! I think the base colour of Magnetic Violet is actually pretty similar to Boots 17 Magnetic Purple and Nails Inc. House of Parliament, but that’s a good thing, as the Barry M one is cheaper than both of them! Also the pattern of the magnet is unique – it’s uniform stripes, which actually looks pretty awesome, like you have a really steady hand for nail art 😉

Application:

The photos show 2 coats. 1 coat was a little thin so I left that to dry then added the second coat and magnetised away! I’m getting the hang of magnetising, there seems to be a knack to getting the whole nail involved without blobbing the magnet fully onto the polish. Magnetic Violet dried very shiny, so no topcoat needed (and if you do decide to apply a topcoat, use a thin watery one rather than a thick one which will pull the magnetic particles with it, thus ruining the effect!). I don’t really have much more to say on it, other than it dries quickly.

If you don’t already know how to magnetise your magnetic polish, the lid (with the magnet on and a curved lip to give you an idea of how close to put the magnet) detaches leaving a normal Barry M bottle and brush. You apply 2 coats of polish, then as soon as you’ve applied the second coat to one nail, you hover the magnet over the nail for a few seconds, then repeat for all 10 nails.

And if you don’t like magnetic polish, it still makes a very pretty purple shimmer polish!

What do you think of this one? I like it a whole lot more than I thought I would! I still don’t know which I prefer out of Barry M Magnetic Blue and Magnetic Violet. Have you tried the magnetics range? The only one I haven’t tried yet is the red, and I’m increasingly tempted! These will set you back a mere £4.99, and you can get them from most Boots, Superdrug or the Barry M website (along with another two new nail paints in ‘Cappucino’ and ‘Nude’ – titled the ‘Classics’!) .

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Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

I’m slowly getting my way through these new Barry M’s, so gorgeous that I don’t actually want to take them off my nails!! So far I have reviewed Denim, Copper and Teal. Today I have for you Silvery Lilac, which leaves just Black Multi-Glitter to do!

Silvery Lilac is a very gorgeous whimsical kind of polish, much like OPI Not Like The Movies (see comparison at the end of this post!). I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

As you can see, this is no ordinary silver duochrome… Silvery Lilac seems to alternate in different lights between a silvery-grey, a pinky-purple shimmer and a green shimmer, whilst also having the effect of a duochrome in that it looks different depending on the angle you look at it. Dare I call it, a mythical multichrome? It seems to me to be a silvery-grey base, packed with green and pinky-purple shimmer as well as some silver micro-glitter, which adds to the sparkle. Silvery Lilac is beautifully shiny, too, the only reason I put topcoat on was because I accidentally added fingerprints to my nails and didn’t think it was all that nice! Silvery Lilac makes me think of unicorns and beautiful pastel colours and My Little Pony. Lol.

Application:

The photos show 3 coats, although quite honestly it was pretty much opaque at 2. The polish is quite thick, but it doesn’t seem to affect it’s drying time, it actually dried fairly quickly. It does make applying thin coats a little tricky though. It dries to a high shine, so no topcoat necessary.

I did initially think that this one would be very similar to OPI Not Like The Movies. It is similar… but they definitely aren’t dupes. Not Like The Movies errs on the side of frost (it’s more brushstrokey), is a lot more sheer, a lot paler and has much more pink shimmer than Silvery Lilac, whose shimmer is distinctly more purple and base is a lot deeper. Not to mention Silvery Lilac is much more opaque (can you tell which one I prefer?)

Index and ring fingers: OPI Not Like The Movies, 3 coats. Middle and pinkie fingers: Barry M Silvery Lilac, 3 coats.

(Sorry this is the best photo I could get, the sun had gone down by this point, I will do a better one in the near future!)

What do you think? Is Silvery Lilac unique enough for you? Which do you prefer – Not Like The Movies or Silvery Lilac? For me, Barry M wins hands down on price, colour payoff, colour itself and finish. Sooo pretty!

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Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Hellooo lovelies!

Teal is yet another of the lovely new releases from Barry M… I must apologise in advance, firstly for my yucky short nails (somehow I got over-enthusiastic with the nail file – oops!) and secondly because this polish was very very difficult to capture on this yucky grey rainy day! As such my photos are of ashamedly poor quality, yuck yuck yuck. I plan to redo them in the near future but I thought I would try and show you anyway!

The last two pictures I put on small because they are just ridiculously blurry, but they do give an accurate representation of the colour and finish of Teal (sorry!). Teal is a gorgeous bright blue shimmer polish. I think the base colour and shimmer colour must be very very close as this polish is such a solid turquoisey-blue. Personally I’d say it is more turquoise or cyan than teal but I’m just being fussy!

Just a heads up: don’t be fooled by the hint of purple duochrome you may see in the bottle, I can assure you it totally disappears on the nail.

Application:

The pictures all show 3 coats, although most of my nails were opaque at 2 coats. The polish applied well – it errs ever so slightly on the edge of being brushstrokey but just make sure you paint in one direction – brushstrokes don’t really show! Teal dried quickly and lasted 2 heavy duty days without topcoat with no tipwear whatsoever. The small bubbles you might see in my photos is because I was rather heavy-handed in applying the polish late at night, and ended up with quite thick coats which caused the bubbling, it is honestly user-error rather than a fault with the polish as I’ve worn this twice now and didn’t have a problem when I applied it more carefully.

What do you think of this stunning blue? It’s so vibrant, I think it would look absolutely amazing on both fingers and toes! If you didn’t like the green in Boots 17 Peacock but did love the blue, Barry M Teal is for you! It’s just such a pure metallic, I feel like the highstreet market has been missing this shade of shimmer for a while in favour of the green/blue duochrome. Very happy with this one. Oh and in certain lights, it looks like you’ve dipped your nails in liquid turquoise, amazing!!

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Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Is it just me or have all the cosmetics companies gone into overdrive where nail polish is concerned? I was way overexcited about Revlon’s 80th Anniversary collection, then suddenly there are so many new polishes about my bank account has run dry and I’ve only dipped a toe into the wonderful colourful world of new polish!

Today we have Sparkling, a VERY beautiful pink glitter topcoat. This one is another Deborah Lippmann dupe from Revlon, much like Revlon Facets of Fuchsia was a dupe of ‘Bad Romance’, Sparkling is a dupe (or very similar to) Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening (picture from Scrangie).

Is it a true dupe? Judikins from Judixo has posted a wonderful comparison of Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening and Revlon Sparkling – I’ll leave you to decide for yourselves whether it is close enough to be called a dupe, I think it is so my lemming is satisfied!

Sparkling is a gorgeous soft salmony-pink glitter topcoat, consisting of large pink hexagonal glitter pieces and many smaller pink hexagonal glitter pieces. The polish also flashed holographic under false lighting but I can’t place where that comes from, lol! It’s very very pretty though. It gives a very flattering pink-tone to your nails, and makes your fingers look more tanned than they are! (What more could you want, lol).

Application:

Like most glitters, Sparkling dried quickly. This allowed me to apply 4 coats (as seen in the final 4 photos) to get it to a semi-opaque finish. It’s one of those polishes that probably wouldn’t make it to a totally opaque finish without about 10 coats so I thought I’d leave it at 4 – my nail line and much of my nail was visible through the polish, though it’s one of those glitters that’s so reflective the nail beneath is hidden. It’s very much destined to be a topcoat. Speaking of which, the finish of Sparkling was very smooth, I can only presume because of the ratio of clear polish to glitter, but it’s definitely of a lovely quality. I don’t think you will need a topcoat for this one.

EDIT: The lovely Melana pointed out I didn’t mention removal – at 1-2 coats Sparkling was quite easy to remove, only a little scrubbing required, while at 3-4 coats it was about average glitter removal (i.e. lots of soaking & scrubbing needed!)

What do you think of this? I’m so glad to have bought it, it’s so very dainty and pretty and just adds that bit of pizzazz to your average manicure. I think it will look gorgeous over black.

Sorry for not posting more Barry M nail paints – I had one of those moments where you get a bit enthusiastic with the nail file and my nails are no more – I just can’t think that my stubby little nubbins will do the new polishes justice so I’ve resorted to my backlog of photos… hope you don’t mind!!

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Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.