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 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.