Imagination In Colour UK Nail Polish Blog

Barry M has released five new nail paints in shades Denim, Copper, Aqua, Black Multi-Glitter and Silvery Lilac. Copper is a beautiful rusty bronze foil polish, which seems to be a bit of a colour-shifter! In some lights it’s a lovely golden-bronze, in others it’s a distinctly coppery-brown colour and sometimes you even get hints of green and pink!

This is a very pretty blend of what seems to be pink and gold shimmer particles/microglitter in a murky brown base colour. This mixture of colours seems to be responsible for the colour-shifting, I can’t work out whether there is more gold than pink or vice versa, but they certainly pull the colour one way or the other depending on the light. I initially thought Copper might be a close match for OPI Warm & Fozzie, but looking at it, Warm & Fozzie seems a lot darker brown than Copper. So if you liked Warm & Fozzie but thought it was too dark for you, Copper will be perfect!

Application:

The photos all show 3 coats of Copper. As can be the case with some foils, the polish pulled some of the coloured shimmer along the nail leaving bald patches, which were fully covered by the 3rd coat. In terms of drying time, Copper dried relatively quickly. It was nice and shiny without topcoat – I always feel that topcoat doesn’t really ‘gel’ with foils, I did slick a quick coat on for the photos though as I had sheetmarks where I applied it right before bed!

What do you guys think of Copper? I think it’s a fab mix of colours, something very unique for the typical UK highstreet brand and I love it! I think this would look fab on toes, and for special occasions it’s very chic.

I had a little accident with my nails and overfiled them so I’m not totally sure whether I’ll be posting the next couple of days, they look rather ugly and stubby and I feel like the lovely Barry M’s deserve better! I’ll see if they grow overnight and decide tomorrow…! Hope you’re all well. Which of the new Barry M polishes have you tried?

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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 am ridiculously over-excited for Barry M’s five new shades: Denim, Copper, Aqua, Black Multi-Glitter and Silvery Lilac, all very gorgeous polishes!

Today I have Denim for you, a lovely blue creme with silver shimmer, which dries matte… yep! It’s also a dupe for Ciaté Regatta – Polished Criminails posted a wonderful Denim vs Regatta comparison post for us all.

 It is a little more matte than the pictures would have you believe, but I found it got shinier as the day wore on. This little lovely is very pretty, very demure and quite sophisticated. If you’re used to neutrals but want to toy with blue this is a good starter – bold yet not too in-your-face.

Application:

I kid you not, this is one coat. This is one of the many reasons I love Barry M – incredible quality for the cost (£2.99). The polish was a little thick but nothing disastrous – it made for an easy one-coat manicure. Denim dried fairly quickly – what I like about mattes is that you can see when it’s dry because you can see the matte effect!  You could put a normal topcoat on it to make it glossy if matte isn’t your thing – I forgot to take photos but it’s very very pretty in gloss too (dare I say prettier?).

All-round lovely polish, perhaps the most conservative of Barry M’s new line. I meant to mention that in releasing these new polishes, Barry M have discontinued Barry M Once Upon A Time and Barry M Silver Cascade – so stock up on eBay while you still can!

Have you tried any of the new line yet? I had to snap them all up the second I saw them – look out for them on le blog in the coming week! Let me know what you think of Denim – is the matte look for you?

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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.

Barry M have released four new magnetic polishes (and 5 new nail paints but that’s for another post!) in the colours black, blue, red and purple. I never really got into the whole magnetic trend because I’m not patient enough to perfect the technique (as you will probably be able to tell from my photos!). I did get two of Boots 17’s magnetic polishes in silver and green and for some unfathomable reason, I am yet to use them. Something about the Barry M polishes got me excited though. Maybe it’s because I’m a huge Barry M fan! In any case, the new Barry M magnetics come with a different magnet on the lid, so each of the colours has its own pattern. Of course you can always swap them round but it’s a good way to get you to buy all four, lol. I picked up ‘Magnetic Blue’ – I was wildly influenced by the model in the photo on the Barry M stand as it looked super duper pretty. Anyway, enough rambling!

I am really rather spectacularly in love with this. For a start, the magnet is in a star-shape, it almost makes a Union Jack! It’s a gorgeous denim blue, quite different from Boots 17 Magnetic Blue  from the lovely Lydia at Lyd’s Blonde Thoughts. The background is a very deep dark blue, while the ‘star’ is a very silvery blue. Magnetic Blue totally makes me think of faded jeans!

I also think it’s kind of like the mysterons’ circles from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, lol! Anyone old enough/sad enough to know what I mean? It’s just a very alien-like, jellyfish-like finish and I LOVE IT! I’ve always been pretty much in awe of jellyfish and finally I can make my nails look like one!

Application:

I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy. The polish is very thick in the first place, which makes neat application difficult. Then there’s the magnet – I found it quite difficult to align it correctly over each nail and as you can probably see, my nails don’t match. I think my nails are a little too curved as well – this effect will look amazing on people with flatter nails! I found that it was difficult to get the magnet to affect the sides of my nail as well as the centre, and often I touched my nail by mistake in trying to make sure I kept it even. By the way, if you get polish on the magnet, don’t panic, just use a cotton wool bud with a tiny amount of nail polish remover and rub it off. The important thing is not to scratch the magnet. Like with a lot of magnetic polishes, there’s a little curved lip on the edge of the magnet for you to rest on your cuticle as you magnetise. Be sure to keep the magnet that distance from your nail because you’ll end up touching the nail and messing up like me otherwise! The magnet is on the top of the cap, which is detachable and removes to reveal a normal Barry M bottle. The pictures show 2 coats of polish – I magnetised it on the second coat, as the first is not quite opaque. Don’t put topcoat on until the polish is totally totally dry – I made this mistake and a lot of the metallic particles came with the brush which blurred the effect. If you do use a topcoat, use a thin, watery topcoat that won’t pull the polish.

What does it look like when it’s not been magnetised? A lovely denim shimmery-frost. Not too brushstrokey, still quite thick.

For curiosity’s sake, I put on a coat of Rimmel Matte topcoat – the effect was very pretty but totally doesn’t translate in this picture! It was somewhat 3 dimensional – very cool!

What do you think of the magnetic trend? Is it one of those novelties that you’d only wear at parties or is it something you’d go for? I’m tempted to try it on my toes, I think it’ll look pretty funky!

Barry M Magnetic polishes retail at £4.99 – currently only available in some Superdrugs and some Boots – when they announce the release of the polishes is when you know they’ll be in your local Superdrug/Boots, and they’ll be online too! In Superdrug there’s a buy 2 Barry M nail polishes and save £1 offer on – with my student discount I think I shaved £5.50 off my receipt!

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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.

Another polish from the Models Own Hedkandi Collection! This is probably the best-named polish I’ve come across, it very much fits the description and is rather thrilling, if you could call a polish thrilling (? Am I just a weirdo? Lol). You might need your sunglasses for this one, it is seriously, SERIOUSLY bright! If you can’t see the neon element, try tilting your laptop screen up an inch or two and you will get an idea of the neon factor! My camera seriously struggled to photo this one, lol.

Hedonist is a bright neon coral colour – you may have to take my word on how seriously neon it is, it’s eye-searingly bright. It also looks a little bit more orange in certain lights. The finish is somewhere between matte/vinyl, but I found my nails seemed to get more shiny on the second day of wear, interestingly enough!

Application:

Not even exaggerating, Hedonist was opaque in 1 coat. The pictures show 2 coats because I had a few application problems in terms of the formula – the polish is very thick which made the brush quite globby resulting in a rather messy application – you are likely to have to clean up after! Is it worth it? YES. You will not regret buying this polish. Hedonist is definitively a neon polish, and as with most neons, it dries matte (although, as I said before, it isn’t a true matte, it’s somewhere between matte and vinyl. The polish also became more shiny with wear). So if you hate matte you will need a top coat! The only other thing is that it will show nail imperfections -see my index finger for reference! If you have ridges on your nails and it bothers you, I’d recommend using a ridge-filler before applying this.

This polish has got me on a bit of a neon-kick, I’m keeping my eyes out for more neons and Models Own has totally won me over on this one. Hedonist will set you back £5, and is available from Boots. Also, most cosmetics are on 3 for 2 in Boots at the moment, so you could even get Hedonist as your ‘free’ 3rd item 😉 I did. I was not convinced by it in the bottle – it doesn’t look neon at all in the bottle, but don’t be fooled! I am definitely way more impressed by Hedonist than I was by Models Own Disco Heaven.

Have you tried Hedonist? If you’re a brights person, I TOTALLY would! It’s such an awesome Summer colour and is such a bizarre colour it will practically go with any outfit!

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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.

 

Splish Splash is one of the recent Spring/Summer 2012 releases from GOSH, which are always Limited Edition but often tend to stick around for an extra season. I’ve been umm-ing and ahh-ing over this polish for a good few weeks now, every time I went into Superdrug I just wasn’t sure I was feeling ‘creme’ enough to buy it. Am I glad I did? YES! This is pretty much the green counterpart for Boots 17 Wave – Splish Splash is the most gorgeous vintage green colour, a very elegant polish which personally I think will look good on any skin tone.

Splish Splash is just so pretty, I really really love it. It has that elegance about it that makes it stand out in my collection of cremes, I’m a huge fan. I don’t really know what shade of green it is, somewhere between green and teal, not quite sure really.

Application:

Splish Splash was pretty much opaque at 1 coat, although the pictures are all 2 coats because I might have accidentally dented my index finger. It dried quickly, and dried to a nice high shine too. I pretty much have no complaints whatsoever about this one! The only thing I did notice was that the polish dries a shade darker than the bottle colour, so beware of that before you buy it! It’s not a huge difference, and like I said, I think this will go with pretty much all skin tones!

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Have you tried any of the other GOSH SS12 polishes? I’m not totally sure about the other two – one is a orangey-brown colour with orange shimmer, and the other looks like a slightly lighter Oh My GOSH Nude Champagne packed with silver shimmer to me! I may well end up picking them up at some point, it’s nice to see that GOSH isn’t just jumping on the trendy shades bandwagon and is actually coming up with new and interesting shades. I did notice that there are only three special edition  polishes this time round, while in the past there have been four. Unless my Superdrugs are just rubbish at stocking up, which is equally possible!

Let me know if you’ve blogged about either of the other two, I’d love to see pictures!

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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.