Tag Archives: Work Appropriate

Barry M have been seriously spoiling us of late. 7 new polishes (Black Multi Glitter, Cappuccino, Copper, Denim, Nude, Silvery Lilac, Teal) as well as the 4 magnetics… lots to play with!

The Classics (Nude and Cappuccino) are both online-only until June, when they will be available in Boots and Superdrug at £2.99.

First off, it’s sheer. If you don’t like sheer polishes, you won’t like this – it’s one of those nude jellies that never really builds up to an opaque finish. On the plus side, it does even out staining (my nails aren’t too bad but they are certainly a touch too yellow for my liking) – they look a very natural beige-pink tone with 2 coats of Nude, very clean and fresh. Nude will look fab with a tan or darker skin too, it’s got that lovely ‘your-nails-but-better’ quality to it. Personally? I love it. It’s a lovely blend of pink and beige and the closest to ‘natural nail colour’ I’ve yet found in the UK high street. This is something I would consider for a bridal manicure or for in the office, or maybe even in school if you’re careful!

Application:

The photos all show 2 coats. As you can tell, it’s sheer, but buildable. I don’t think it will ever really reach total opacity so if that’s what you look for in a nude, this may not be one for you. Nude dries quickly and has a high-shine finish – no need for topcoat unless it’s longevity you’re going for. Very smooth application, it wasn’t streaky so you can get away with just one coat if you just want a touch of polish.

What do you think? Personally I’m a huge fan of sheer nudes, I really don’t like nude cremes much at all unless my nails are really in a state. I have a little trick for making a nude creme look a bit more sheer and glossy without sacrificing opacity – more on that soon!

x

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.

Hello all 🙂 hope you’re all doing alright?

I’ve never been a huge nude-lover (polish-wise!) largely because there’s something just a bit funny to me about the whole mannequin-hands look – like the nail bed is longer than your finger… huh? Anyway, Ciaté My Fair Lady came free in an August issue of Marie Claire. I wasn’t overly keen on it to begin with due to the aforementioned aversion to nudey nails but it was Ciaté so I wasn’t going to pass it up 😉 And I have to say it’s totally grown on me – probably because it’s so sheer that at 2 coats you can still see the nail line, and it’s slightly more pink than my natural nail colour without being a creme so it looks quite nice… here I am, waffling again. Anyway, hopefully you get my drift!

So I wore ‘My Fair Lady’ for a day and then was still feeling in the nudey nails mood, but I wanted to add just a hint of sparkle. Enter Claire’s Accessories Gold Glitter! Observe:

I absolutely love it. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (mmm tea…) but I kind of feel very sophisticated and polished with it on 😛 I sometimes get a bit tired of brights and darks and feel like my nails need something a lot paler to balance me out, and this did the trick nicely. Don’t get me wrong, My Fair Lady was lovely on its own but this kind of has that extra oomph without being too ‘look-at-me’. It’s kind of subtle but shows that you pay attention to your nails 🙂 and nice and work-appropriate too. More waffling…

So, My Fair Lady applied beautifully, glided on my nails perfectly (the Ciaté brush is a godsend… explained here) and while it’s very sheer, that’s exactly what I want in a nude polish, although I know that most people don’t feel the same way! I’ve worn this before with 4 coats and it still wasn’t totally opaque. It dried quickly too which is good. It’s also not quite nude, it has more yellow and a hint of pink, kind of like the inside of coffee chocolates in Thorntons 😛 I wore 2 coats. Also it lasts well, 2 days later and I still don’t have any tip wear. It covered up/evened out my nasty stainage nicely too 🙂

I have two niggles with the Claire’s Gold Glitter. For these nails, one of the niggles turned out to have a nice effect actually – what I can only presume is supposed to be a clear base has turned a kind of orangey-pink colour in my bottle. It was this way when Andy’s family kindly gave it to me for my birthday, but they also gave me two other Claire’s Glitters which both have clear bases so I think it’s meant to be clear! If I had really cared about preserving the base colour in the look I would have minded, but actually it gave a nice warm peachey glow to my nails so that was actually quite nice :). You can see the difference between My Fair Lady’s bottle colour and the colour of my post-glitter nails in the 2nd photo.

My other niggle is that the glitter doesn’t spread all that evenly but it’s not such a problem as the polish dries super fast so you can just go over it again until you have the desired effect. I actually only used the 1 coat for this look. It does dry a little grainy so it’s worth having a topcoat handy if that bothers you.

All in all I’m very pleased with both polishes as well as the overall look of my nails 🙂

I realise that My Fair Lady obviously is no longer available as it’s not part of Ciaté’s permanent line, but there are a few floating around on eBay here. And pretty much all Claire’s Accessories shops stock the Gold Glitter amongst many other fabulous looking glitters (oh and did you know they sell Justin Bieber’s Nicole By OPI range?! Me neither!).

Hope you’re doing alright my lovelies, I know I promised a giveaway but I now only have 99 followers because 2 people unfollowed and 1 person followed so I feel a bit of a fraud doing a 100 follower giveaway haha so there’s just 1 person to go!

Emma x

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.