Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Magnetic and Web Effect Review

This evening I have frantically been wrapping up items I've sold on ebay. I have terrible hoarding tendencies and so from time to time, having a good purge makes me feel a little bit better! I like thinking that things I don't want yet hold on to, neglecting them, can go to a better home where they will actually be used/worn with a bit of love and care. I will ship these out tomorrow after work along with finding a present for a belated birthday like the terrible sister-in-law that I am...

This will be a three in one review of the nail polishes I showed you a few days ago. I've had time to try them all out now so can offer you my verdict. First up is the magnetic nail paint in Magnetic Sparkle Gold.

 Love this, just LOVE it. I've recently found a whole new love for glittery sparkly nails which, after childhood, I didn't think would happen again, yet here we are...

This is also available in red stripes which I think would look very festive for when the big C word comes around which I won't say now because it's still October! I'm sure you're all over the hype of magnetic nails now but I'm still keen on it. I don't think it's been done to death like certain nail crazes, aka shatter effect nails. Which brings me on to...

Web Effects nail paint? Not really Barry M. It's a croc effect at best. It's OK, as long as you do it over a light colour which might I add MUST not be dry when you do it! Over black, which I thought would be cool for Halloween, it looks horrendous, but here I did it over gold and it looks OK. I can't really say much more about it because I'm just a bit let down by Barry M here. I suppose I could rock this look on Halloween, and when it's passed, this can be my giraffe nail look.

And finally, Gelly Hi-Shine, oooh the Gelly's! I was quite excited about this range. I wanted a pastel purple and do really like this soft lavender shade called Prickly Pear. It is ridiculously shiny too so it lives up to its name. Apart from this one, the colours in the range aren't anything I don't really already have some variation of, apart from maybe the tealy type colour. My main criticism however, is not the limited choice of shades, but in the Hi-Shine on this polish. I don't really think it's worth marketing it as a new effect and selling it for £1 more than the regular nail paints. The overall effect isn't anything you couldn't recreate with a decent top coat which I tend to put on over my nail polish anyway. The only benefit I could see is that you can get away with just two coats of this and no top coat which I would find quite handy if I was going away and didn't want to pack lots of bottles of nail polish. Apart from that, I'm happy sticking with topcoat!

Barry M New Nail Paints, Autumn 2012

It's no secret I'm a little bit completely obsessed with Barry M Nail Paints. I have a ridiculous tally of them now. I was curious to try out the new Gelly Hi Shine in particular, I loved the effect of the magnetic nail paint I bought awhile back so I also picked up a pretty sparkly one! With any two Barry M purchases you currently get a free Effects Nail Paint. Curiosity got the better of me and I opted for the orange web effect. Obviously in anticipation of Halloween, this is a bit of a twist on the crackle and croc effects. I think I'm going to try this over a gold polish so I'm not too overly Halloween themed!

Left to right: Prickly Pear, Magnetic Sparkle Gold, and Web Effects.

Right now I'm wearing Prickly Pear. I love pastel purple shades and the high shine this one has on it, my nails are very preened and glossy, I definitely didn't need a top coat. Pictures of all 3 nail paints to come...

Has anyone tried the latest Barry M, what are your thoughts?

Barry M Chameleon Nail Paint

Barry M really do spoil us with their range of nail effects and I'm not going to lie, I want to try every single one of them. The chameleon nail paints have been around for a few weeks, I first discovered them in Topshop, Oxford Circus before I saw them elsewhere, and was quick to snap up this colour, the blue/purple effect.

I was also very quick to try this product out once I was home, going into it a little blindly as I hadn't seen the promo pictures or knew anything about it. First experience of this nail paint - not a good one. I whacked the blue paint all over my nails, great shade I thought. Then came the magic of applying a top coat... All I can is, it was disappointing. The hint of blue that I thought would remain had been replaced by an irridescent purple shade. It was nice in itself but not what I would call a true chameleon effect where the two separate colours are clearly seen in different lights. So I was a bit let down, and left this nail paint in my bag of what has become a funeral pyre for unwanted nail polishes. Until...

I saw how this product had been used on the model's nails in the promo picture, and suddenly I was digging through that pyre once more to recreate the look. It's very simple, you start the same, with a coat of the chameleon on top, except this time, not over the whole nail, put partially covering the nail, just down the centre. This way you get the base colour and the secondary colour both showing on your nails, voila!

This is probably the easiest effect to create, although if you're very creative and have a steady hand, you could create much fancier effects. I wasn't feeling particularly fancy and I think this still looks very effective. 

Barry M Nail Paint - Dusky Mauve

Following on from my previous post about duochrome nail polishes I wanted to mention Barry M's latest offering, Dusky Mauve. I've only just been able to get my hands on this though I think it' been around a while now. In the bottle it seemed very appealing to me, I love beigey/grey/brown shades and this one was a mauve mixed with a hint of brown as it catches the light. Once it's painted on my nails it seems a little different to in the bottle, it still looks different colours in different lights like most duochromes, but doesn't seem to vary much in natural daylight. Apparently though, this is an exact dupe for Chanel's Paradoxical nail polish which I can't judge because sadly I don't own any Chanel nail polishes. There are some nail polishes that are universally appealing and everybody loves them. I think this is the Marmite of the nail polish world and I can understand why some might write a negative review of it, but I personally really like it. I'm paler now than I usually am after getting through a winter with no sunshine, but colour is returning to my skin. This is a good thing because if I was any paler this would just look murky and disgusting against my skin tone. I can just about get away with it now but I think this will be one I drag out in the summer time. It's actually nice to find a dark polish I associate with Summer as I usually gravitate towards lights and brights. So if you've already bought this and you're not convinced it's for you, it might be worth holding onto a bit longer.

NOTD Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream

Sorry about the shoddy lighting. This is my latest helping of Barry M, Strawberry Ice Cream. It's a gorgeous pastel pink colour. I love the pastel collection from Barry M, it was definitely lacking amongst all the bright shades that were on offer. These are true Barry M pastels though, because they're still bright, they're not like a faded colour that you would expect from a pastel. They're pretty though, and if you're like me and don't own any pastel or even any light pinks, (I know, shock horror!) then this is a perfect start. I don't know how I've not owned any shades like this before. It's too pretty.

FOTD using UNE Foundation and Sleek Jewels palette and NOTD 1/9/2010

It feels like England is clinging on to Summer now with a little burst of sunshine, even though technically it's September, we're now officially Autumn. This time of year usually means finding transitional makeup, makeup that's suitable for both seasons. For me, that usally means finding rich, plummy, golden colours, at least for my eyeshadow. A palette I find perfect for those rich, beautiful colours is the Jewels palette by Sleek, so I dug that one out and will show you a quick FOTD.I used the champagne gold colour all over the lid, it's a perfect wash colour, and probably one of only two colours I can use all over the lid. Then for the crease I picked out the plum/purple shade, and used the silver on the inner corner. Still a pretty neutral look, but the purple livens it up a little. Sleek is fantastic for their pigmented eyeshadows, they look so multi-dimensional once applied, so much depth to the colour. The only problem is finding a palette with an entire range of colours that I can wear. I wish they would bring out a neutrals palette, like the Urban Decay Naked palette, it would be pretty near perfection in a £5 palette. Close up of the eyes - I used Sleek Jewels, No. 7 Amazing Eyes eyeliner, (I found another liquid liner that actually compares to my HG Loreal Superliner!) it was given to me by my Mum since she couldn't apply it, and it's surprisngly very good, and I'd say pretty fool-proof too, if you're a shaky-hand-eyeliner-applier as I am.

Other products I used

EYES: Bourjois 1001 Lashes mascara, topped with Rimmel Volume Flash the Max mascara; Eyeshadows primed with TFSI;

FACE: Une Skin Glow Foundation in G06 (Love this, review to come soon); Rimmel Clarifying Powder, MAC Refined Golden bronzer.

LIPS: Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick in Rose Pearl.

And not to leave my nails out, since I really love this colour, I painted them in Barry M's Racing Green, which is truly a gorgeous colour in it's own right, it reminds me of old Jaguars, not just the colour but the finish aswell. I decided to turn it matte out of curiousity, and it turned out pretty good. It's a slightly irridescent colour, and you can still see the other dimensions to this colour, just in matte form. I'm going to be sporting this a lot through Autumn I think. I prefer dark colours for my nails so I'm not going to miss the summer pastel shades too much.

What are your favourite colours for autumn?

NOTD Matte Barry M Shocking Pink

Whenever I look at Barry M, I always gravitate to the shades that are probably the most obscure and unusual, the purples, the blues, the greens...I overlook the more normal colours. I'm sure I could find a hot pink shade like this by most cosmetic brands. Truth be told though, there aren't many brands of nail polish that please me as much as Barry M in terms of quality and value for money. It's the most long lasting nail polish I've tried and that's comparing it with brands such as OPI and YSL, and this is cheap as chips, almost. So rather than reserving Barry M for times when I want to pick up a new, outlandish shade, I'm going to make a point of picking up more every day, easy to find colours, so this one, Shocking Pink, was a start. It's not neon and nothing you haven't seen before, just a good quality hot pink shade. I've noticed a lot of hype around matte shades lately and realise they are making a bit of a comeback. I wasn't about to go out and buy a load of matte shades, instead I found this rather amazing, (well it amazes me!) product from Rimmel called Matte Finish, Mattifying Topcoat. Does exactly what it says, and worked even better than I expected it to. I thought it might need a couple of layers to become completely matte, or that it might somehow change the colour I'd already painted, but it did neither of these. It's literally just a quick one coat paint job and it dries incredibly quick. It turns even a very glossy finish like Barry M's Shocking Pink into a completely matte finish.It's always a good idea to use a topcoat to make your polish last longer, so now I can use this in place of my normal topcoat and get even longer wear out of my nails with a matte finish. I'm very impressed so far, I've actually been wearing this for about 4 or 5 days now, and there is only signs of chipping on the corner of a few nails. I'm going to redo them today, because I feel like a change, but I could get away with probably another couple of days if I wanted.

I like that this topcoat is a true matte finish aswell, it doesn't have that semi-matte, more of a satin finish, it's a pretty straight, flat matte!

So for around £4.95 this is a great value nail polish if you want to update your nail look. Definitely more purse-friendly than buying a whole bunch of new matte shades which you probably won't get to finish the bottle of, and you have the added bonus of being able to transform any shade you own.

Barry M Nail Paint in Lemon Ice Cream

I went back to Superdrug for another installment of Barry M about a week or two ago. From time to time Superdrug do offers on Barry M, and again they were offering two Nail Paints for £5. It's hard to resist since there's always more than one colour I want to buy. Still a fan of the pastel shades, I thought Lemon Ice Cream was a perfect summer shade. Yellow is never an easy colour to wear, but the pastel tone makes it a little more wearable and less garish. The picture above is probably a little lighter than real life which is a shame because this is the exact colour I hoped for. Like I've experienced before with Barry M Nail Paints, the final colour pay-off is a little darker than the bottle. I'm not sure why this is, in the picture I'd only used two coats, maybe I needed more? But I thought that would surely make it darker, I'd like to maybe try this over a coat of white polish to make it more of a pastel shade. Confusion aside, this is still a lovely colour, I think Summertime is the perfect excuse to be a bit more experimental with colour, and yellow is one of those instantly lift-you-up kind of colours.

If you're not convinced about yellow finger nails, you can always give it a go on your toes.

Make-up Product of the Month: May - Barry M Nail Paint Mushroom

I don't have to explain what's good about Barry M, I'm sure you already know. Great quality nail varnish, it's long lasting and good value for money. Alongside that, there is a vast array of colours to choose from, and now added to that collection there is a (much needed) choice of pastel colours. The most popular are probably the pastel pink and purple shades, they are gorgeous in person. But I was drawn to this dirty shade of griege! I don't know what it is about these shades, but I seriously love them! This one is called Mushroom, which I don't think is a particularly accurate description, the colour is more of a greyish, slightly taupe shade. The other pastel colours are named after ice cream, this would probably fit in as the chocolate ice cream of the bunch (at least in the bottle...).It really doesn't come out the same as the colour in the bottle which is more brown toned. That's ok though, I'm happy with the result, I don't own any shades in this family so this is a good start. I love the finish of this nail varnish. It's super shiny and glossy and a good formulation because I applied two coats of this yesterday and no sign of chipping yet. Another winner from Barry M.

Makeup Product of the month: December - Barry M Nail Paint, Racing Green

It’s not ideal, but since I forgot to bring my camera cable, I have had to make do with a stock photograph, apologies for that. I’ve chosen Barry M’s Racing Green Nail Paint (number 299) as this month’s make-up product of the month. I did blog about this product a while back, I bought it a while back, originally just to match my army girl outfit for my friend’s hen do. I didn’t own any green nail varnish, and had no reason to, green nails were, in my opinion, kind of ugly. Anyway, in search of a wearable green shade to complete my outfit, I reached for Barry M, knowing they offer the best range of different shades, almost every colour you could think of. There were some pretty vibrant, loud shades of green to choose from, but I went for Racing Green as it appeared the most wearable. I’d describe it as a classic, royal green. I’ve been sporting it a lot lately because it’s also a very festive colour, perfect for this time of year, as deep, dark colours always work in the winter. It's dark enough so that the colour isn't so in-your-face green.

This is one of the original, older nail paints, but the formulation is just as brilliant as the new ones. With a top coat this will easily last for 3 days chip free.

I'd just like to wish all my followers a very Happy Christmas, hope everyone's enjoying the holidays!

xXx

Make-up Product of the Month: November - Barry M Blusher

I’ve just discovered Barry M’s latest addition to their range, the collection of blushes. I went for the most neutral, earthy, inoffensive shade, number 6. These blushers are seriously pigmented hence why I started off with a safe colour choice. I was really attracted to the vibrant pink shade, (number 2 or 3 I think) which is comparable to MAC’s Dolly Mix. After trying this out I’m definitely going to return and try out some other shades. Aside from the one I bought, the rest are a lot bolder, along with the Dolly Mix dupe there is one that reminds me of NARS’s Taj Mahal. I’ve never experimented with orange toned blushers but I think the price of Barry M definitely allows for trying out new colours without feeling like I’ve wasted money if I don’t like it.

(blusher without flash)

The perfectly pigmented, matte blusher is highly sought after, and this ticks both boxes. I personally love a bit of shimmer in my blush, but for a more natural day time look, matte is more preferable. So if you are on the hunt for a really pigmented blusher but could do without the shimmer that often comes along with it, then these are worth a look.

The blushers are £4.40 each, a bargain for 7g of product and especially good value for money because these blushers tend to stay put all day without the need for reapplying. I also don’t need a lot of product as a single wash of colour I find is enough.

100 followers giveaway announcement

Thankyou to everybody who entered my giveaway. I assigned all the entrants a number and used www.random.org to select a winner. Congratulations to Erica, you're the winner! I have emailed you so I'll get your prizes sent out to you soon. Thanks again to everyone who follows my blog, I hope to hold another contest some time soon.

100 Followers Giveaway!

Hurray! I’ve reached 100 followers now and decided I really want to do a giveaway as a way of saying thank you to everybody who’s followed. It really means a lot that people take the time to read what I write so wanted to give something back! It’s really simple to enter, the only condition is that you are a follower of my blog. You can also leave a mention of my competition with a link on your own blog if you would like, but it's not compulsory.

Here are the prizes, (each of your choice!):
1x Barry M Nail Paint
1x Barry M Dazzle Dust
1x GOSH eyeliner
1x Sleek Eyeshadow Palette

I will post the prizes anywhere in the world, so this is a good opportunity if you live outside of the UK to get your hands on some great UK brands, but if you're under 18 please get parental permission. Just leave me a comment below to tell me you want to be entered. Contest closes at 10pm GMT on Tuesday 10th November.

A few little things...

Just wanted to share with you a few things I've bought in the last week or so. I love this floral top from New Look, it's a long length so looks great over leggings, though I've noticed a few people wearing this as a dress! I'm wearing it over tights for the purpose of the photo, but ordinarily would wear this over black leggings. Floral prints have been everywhere I know, but I thought this print was so cute I had to jump on the bandwagon. The outfit on the left is from Topshop. I bought a black high waisted skirt and this gorgeous pink cropped camisole top, it's kinda hard to explain what it is but I fell in love as soon as I saw it! I tried it on with the skirt and really liked the two together. Apologies for the snooty looking pose, I had it on self timer on my shelf, and I was looking down at it.In the picture I'm wearing it over a pink vest top, but as it's sheer, you can wear it with a different coloured top underneath for a different twist on the same outfit. This is good for me to be able to mix an outfit up as I get bored easily! Hopefully you'll be able to enlarge these photos to see the beading embellishments on this top. It's lovely detailing, one of the reasons Topshop is amongst my favourite high street shops. It came with a packet of spare beads which will be useful, I've already had to sew on one of the bead clusters as it got caught!

A few things I purchased in Superdrug today.

1001 lashes mascara which I admit I bought because of the sleek white packaging! I've only used this over mascara as a top coat so can't write a proper review on this yet, but what I can gather is this is a good mascara. It has a twisted brush which really felt like it was separating and coating my lashes really well.

A bottle of Batiste because I forgot to bring any with me and I can't live without it! This is in a travel size bottle which will be very handy. I also brought a travel size bottle of Palmer's Cocoa Butter because I needed something to really moisturise my legs as they'll be making a very rare appearance tomorrow night with my costume (I'm the sort of person to never get my bare legs out!).

Since the theme tomorrow is army girls, or "combat chick" as it says on the costume packaging, I bought Barry M's Racing Green nail paint. It's a very deep, dark green, which I thought was the most flattering out of their green collection, and they have the biggest green collection over any other brand I've seen I might add! Thanks for reading, have a fabulous weekend!

Make-up Product of the Month - July: More Barry M Nail Paints

Because I loved the first two I bought, yesterday I went back for more! I bought Grey and Cyan Blue (293&294) and compared to all the other drugstore colours, these are very unique, I wish more brands would sell more adventurous colours like these. The blues especially by Barry M are very striking. This post is cheating slightly because the idea behind Product of the Month posts is that I’ve had chance to try out the product a few times during the month. To be quite honest I haven’t purchased much this month (times are hard), and nothing really standout enough to call product of the month. I know I bought this only yesterday, but I love it and think it deserves a mention. Blue can be quite a dodgy colour to wear on your nails, you really want to avoid looking like you’ve been out in the cold too long. Because these colours are so vibrant and glossy it’s very unlikely to look like that, and I love how much coverage is achieved from just one coat. The other colour I got was Grey, again I like this for being so unusual, I get really bored of the same safe pinks, peaches and reds and I really feel like your nails are the one place you can try outlandish colours, literally every colour of the rainbow! Also in this picture is yet another Batiste shampoo because I am obsessed with this stuff. Lately I’ve been washing my hair every day so I’ve not really been using it, but when it’s not this warm, I tend to wash every other day, and this is nice to just freshen up on those days I don’t wash. This one’s in Diva which I kind of feel is packaged wrongly because it looks like it should have glitter in it. Then the fragrance of it is “heady oriental” which I don’t really think goes with the Diva theme, but it smells good all the same. I tried it out and I think they’ve actually improved on their original formula because this left my head a lot less chalky than the other cans. Not that it was much of a problem before, just a quick brush, et voila, nice fresh hair.

GOSH Eyeliner Review and Barry M Nail Paints (+visit to Monkey Forest!)

I’ve been using the Bourjois eyeliner for quite a while now, think I’m just finishing off my third one so wanted to try something else. I like this eyeliner because it’s incredibly long lasting and doesn’t smudge. The texture is also pretty versatile and I’m able to use it both on my waterline and underneath my lash line. Most eyeliners tend to be better suited to one job or the other. I also like this eyeliner because it’s a twist up, and contains a built in sharpener, it's great for touching up throughout the day, I line my top lid too but it's liquid so never needs touching up. I have a tendency to find my holy grail makeup item then decide actually I want to try other things...just in case. Superdrug still has some offers on including a lot of 3 for 2s, and currently GOSH is included in this offer. I also feel more attracted to the GOSH stand as it’s more appealing and colourful and seems to change more than Bourjois. So with this offer I decided to try a few different colours, I think GOSH offer the best range on different coloured eyeliners.

The two types of eyeliner are the “Velvet Touch” and the “Let’s Twist” liners. I got a Twist liner in carbon black and mink grey, which is more interesting than it sounds. Grey is a great alternative to black, it’s much softer and less harsh looking than black which makes it more suitable for the day time. It’s not a bland grey either, it’s bordering on khaki territory which makes it more interesting. The colour I got in the Velvet Touch liner was 001 Blue Moon which is a gorgeous bright teal colour. I’m planning to wear it underneath my lash line with a neutral eyeshadow colour just to liven it up a little bit. It will also work really well with Barry M’s Dazzle Dust in Teal if I’m brave enough to wear that much colour (I’m not).

I didn’t realise it at the time but the packaging of the Let’s Twist liners are identical to the Bourjois Liner Stylo. And I really mean identical not just similar! The lids fit one another and the bits in the bottom can be swapped and fit perfectly and they’re both made in Germany. I was a little bit disappointed to begin with because the GOSH ones cost an extra £1 and I figured if the packaging is identical then the product probably is too. I’m pleased to say the product is not exactly the same. The GOSH one is actually much better than Bourjois. It’s a great consistency that I can carry on using for both the waterline and lower lashline but it’s also much more pigmented and as you can see from the pictures, it’s a true black not a washy black. The only downside of these liners compared to the Bourjois ones is they don’t come with a built in sharpener. Although the bottom of the pencil is identical and has a removable part, there’s nothing actually in it, they’re basically just there to show the colour. Below top to bottom is: GOSH carbon black liner, the Bourjois black liner, GOSH mink grey and GOSH Blue Moon.I bought two of the most recently released nail paints, there’s a few more in the collection but I preferred these two. I’m wearing the orange on my toes right now called Block Orange (number 301), it’s a great summery colour which looks great with metallic gold sandals, I went for a vibrant colour because I’ve been suffering with a cold for the last few days so needed something cheerful to perk me up! I also went for 303 Bright Purple, you have to see this shade in person to see how pretty it is, by far the nicest shade of purple I’ve seen. The nail paints are great quality too, they were two for £5 so I did get two but when I figured it out afterwards I really didn’t save a lot of money! The colour pay off is fantastic though, two coats is plenty to give full coverage with no streaking.
I also bought a collection 2000 Eyebrow Definer in Blonde which I haven’t pictured, it works OK but I won’t be repurchasing because it contains palm oil which I think is an easily avoidable ingredient to include in makeup and I’m trying to be more conscious when buying cosmetics. If anyone knows a good alternative eyebrow definer for blonde eyebrows please let me know!

On a completely different note, I forgot to include these pictures in my last post. When I went back to see my parents last week me and my boyfriend went with my parents to the Monkey Forest at Trentham. Bizarrely I saw that another beauty blogger, Yummy Mummy, had been there recently too, I didn't expect anyone else to know about it. I wish I could say I went there as a treat for a child family member, but it was actually because I wanted to go! My mum has visited before and wanted to go again. It was so much better than I expected, I'm not really too keen on zoos but this place was really close to their natural habitat and the monkeys were not in the slightest bit intimidated by people, they seem really sociable and because they are now endangered it's the safest place for them to be. I think there's another two sanctuarys like this in Europe.I love being close to nature like this, they're so adorable!

I couldn't get over how similar they were to us, this is a family of them, and the Dad's put his arm around Mum!

If you ever get the chance, this is a really lovely place to visit.