Nails of the week: Barry M Lychee and Striplac

Shockingly this is my first nail post of the year and for that you get me talking about two quite different polishes in one post as compensation.

 The first is one that I *borrowed* from my little sister, Barry M’s Hi Shine gell effect polish in the shade Lychee.

Lychee is a light nude shade and although I think this would be better suited for someone with a lighter skin tone than mine, it still works as an every day, subtle colour. The application is slightly tricky, you need two thin coats for the polish to be opaque and there is the potential for streaks because it begins to dry almost immediately.

At this point I've been wearing it for 4 days and I'm still chip free — Barry M are usually good for their wear time anyway but this is particularly impressive.

The gelly polishes cost £3.99, the same price as the regular range and can be found at Boots, Superdrug and online.

On my accent nail there is something different all together. If you follow me on Twitter you would have seen that last week I tweeted an image of Allesandro striplac.

Striplac is similar to Shellac, with two major differences. It is a home system and the polish can be peeled off.

At the event we all had the chance to apply the polish to one nail ourselves. The application was simple, a UV base and top coat was applied in between two layers of polish, curing the polish with a UV light in between each layer.

The polish lasts for up to 10 days at which point the polish is meant to peel at the edges and you can strip it off. I was told that because the polish is coming away from the nails there is no chance of doing damage but that if you tried to peel it off before this point then you could.

I have been wearing the polish for 9 days now and it has just started to come away at the edges.

Striplac comes as a kit including a UV-LED lamp, a red peel off polish, a UV/LED base and top coat, cleansing pads, 4-step file, cuticle pusher and instructions and costs £129. Additional shades of polish cost £15.99.

If you are someone who regularly gets Shellac or any other type of salon nails done you would very quickly get your moneys worth out of this system. It wouldn't be the best option for me but I would definitely choose this over regular Shellac when I next go away purely for how convenient it would be to peel the polish off rather than go back to the salon to remove it.

What's your view on peel off polish? Or will you be sticking to good old Barry M?

Easter inspired nails

Just a quick post to show you my Easter inspired nails this Easter Sunday.

I used Barry M’s matt white shade all over the nails and let them dry completely before using manicure guides to paint parts of my nail in shade lemon icecream. Annoyingly, when pulling away the guides the line did not come away clean so I used silver glitter to cover this.

The finish isn’t as neat as I would have liked and the white shade I own is too streaky, but I like the idea in principal and will hopefully perfect the technique in another post!

Barry M croc effect

Just a quick nail post to show what I have been wearing the last few days on my nails. I decided to go back to the croc effect combining it this time with Barry M’s mushroom underneath.

I have spoken about the application of this previously so there isn’t really too much to add in this post, other than I really like the look when using muted colours underneath.

Next time I sport this look I intend to opt for a neon/bright shade…. any recommendations?

Croc effect nails

Another nail effect from Barry M, this time croc effect!

This works slightly differently to the crackle effect polishes. You apply a thin coat of your base colour polish (I chose Barry M’s gold) and after a minute or two — before the polish dries — apply a layer of the croc effect. The polish takes a longer time to crack and cause the effect, approximately 3 minutes. This meant that I actually looked away and got bored of waiting for it and when I looked back it made it that much more of a surprise to see the finished outcome.

In this case my base colour only showed through very subtly, so I would like to try this again with a darker colour underneath and see to look.

I’m not convinced I like it yet, what do you all think?

Nails of the week: Lilac foil by Barry M

This week was the turn of the lilac foil effect polish from Barry M. This is currently limited edition in Superdrug, and free gift when you spend £6 on any other products.

I am still loving the foil effect and I think it works really well with this shade. Like the gold, it does have a streaky application but this is not obvious from far away. This is my second day of wear, and so far there are no signs of wearing at the tips or chipping so I am pleased.

Let me know below what your favourite nail effect polish is.

Nails of the week - Barry M gold foil

As regular readers can probably tell, I am loving nail effects polishes at the moment. They are such a nice on regular nail polish. The nail foils effect from Barry M have been available for a few months now, and this is actually my sisters, but I had to give it a try.

It is available in both gold and silver shades, but the gold is my favourite. It was quite difficult to picture   but I think my pictures have got the shade almost exactly. It is not a yellow gold, which I think makes it really complimentary to my skin tone. The effect is very striking, not really much like foil in my opinion but I have many compliments on it none-the-less. 

Two coats were needed for an opaque finish, my only complaint is that the finish is streaky however you try to apply. I can only assume this is the formulation. Other than that I am loving it, and I think this is a great colour and effect for the party season coming up.

How are you liking the gold nails?

Nails of the week - Ring finger manicure

I decided to do the ring finger manicure this week, and it turns out it was just in time for the sunshine!

I’ve gone back to Barry M and am using my favourite colour, shocking pink and tangerine on my ring finger. I think these colours complement one another really well and especially since the tangerine shade is a shimmer colour which the pink is not. 

I love how simple yet effective this look is and I have had so many complements this week. Are you liking this trend?

Skittles Nails of the Week

Having had a nail polish break, I decided to come back with the skittles look. I love doing this in the summer when the weather is good, adding to that happy feeling.

Featuring 5 Barry M colours; lemon ice cream, spring green, turquoise, (Boots special edition) lilac and bright pink.

I know the look is not for everyone but I love it, and it doesn’t clash with outfits as much as you might think! 

Nails of the week - Barry M Lemon Ice Cream

You may have spied my nail colour this week in a few of my previous posts. I read somewhere that yellow was the celebrity trend this spring/summer, which prompted me to get out my yellow shade. Generally I have only ever used this on the one nail, when I have gone for the multicoloured look. Admittedly, when I first applied I wasn’t keen, but with the sunshine we have had over the last few days I have grown to love it.

As with all Barry M polishes, the application was easy and 2 coats was sufficient for good coverage. If you are conscious of the nail tip showing (which is more obvious in the photograph), a third coat should deal with that. It has been 4 days of wear so far, and no chips. Unfortunately, the photographs don’t give a great representation of the shade, looking more of a bright yellow than the pastel shade which it is.

It cannot go unnoticed that I love Barry M, I hope that no one is getting tired of seeing their swatches but I just love them! In fact, I delayed posting this, since after a peek around on their website I noticed that they have 3 new nail effects/crackle shades! I think it goes without saying that I NEED to get these. I had been hoping to see if I could find them in stores and include that this weeks post, but I haven’t had the chance to get into town. When they do appear in the shops, you can be sure that will be my next look!

Nails of the week x2 Feeling Blue

In keeping with my peach themed week I decided to go for ‘Apricot Punch' by Rimmel as this weeks nail polish choice.

From the same collection as last weeks cranberry zest, this is also a fruity polish. I love the colour, however, I had so much trouble with this polish that I just can’t find anything good to say about it in terms of finish. First of all it was extremely streaky even with three coats. I patiently waited for coats to dry in between application and even after that and thinking that my nails were dry I managed to smudge two nails and get an imprint on a third. I have never experienced this with a polish before, and cannot think of a reason why since I did wait for it to dry. It is such a shame since it is such a lovely colour but I can’t see myself picking this out of my collection again.

In the end, I decided to go back to Barry M and selected ‘Cyan Blue’, a deep sky blue colour it is just the sort of shade which matches the colour blocking trend this spring/summer. Standard to my experience with other Barry M polishes, two coats was perfect, no streaks and dried without smudging it. I have never worn all blue on my nails before, but I really like it.

I decided to go one step further and make the shade matte, with my matte magic china glaze top coat. Finally with the konad stamping kit and new stencil plate, I added a butterfly to my ring finger in white. I had always tried to repeat the pattern I was going for on each finger, getting frustrated when they weren’t all straight/even, so I really like the effect of having one print on a single finger.

Crackle Nail Polishes

So I know I have featured my Barry M crackle polish twice now, but I really cannot praise these polishes enough. They look so effective and are such a fun way of adding nail art without paying to have it done or fiddling with small brushes, dotting tools etc.

So I was really excited to read that there will be a selection of colours coming soon, my only hope is that Barry M follow and provide me with my cheaper alternative. I am yet to spend £10 on a polish and I don’t intend to in the near future!

http://www.glamour.com/beauty/blogs/girls-in-the-beauty-department/2011/02/an-even-more-colorful-version.html?mbid=twitter_glamourdotcom

Nails of the week - Barry M

Having had interviews last week I opted for a classic french manicure, so this week though I wanted to take advantage of being able to have bold colours and nail designs opting for Barry M’s bright pink polish and nail effects on top. I have featured the nail effects before but it does look that much better over a brighter polish.

I have noticed that my nail effects polish is starting to get a little thick (mostly at the top of the bottle) so I am not sure what I can do to remedy that so as not to affect how it works. I have found to get the best result you need a thin layer of polish being careful not to overlap on the larger nails.

Favourite Barry M Nail Polishes

I don’t think a special offer for Barry M paints has gone by without me taking advantage of it and adding new colours to my collection.

This is by far my favourite brand, I agree totally with the 2010 In Style awards which deemed the nail paints as the best beauty buy in the inexpensive nail polish range. The range of colours is huge and the colours are strong and bold, most of the time if in a hurry you can get away with just the one coat. The polishes last very well too as long as you use a base and top coat to finish it off properly.

So I have picked 5 of my favourites in my collection, generally the ones I go to grab when I can’t decide on anything else and what goes with most outfits (since I do hate a colour clash!)…………….

Going from left to right the colours are:

1. Shocking Pink - My go to colour in the summer for my hand and toe nails, bright and very pretty.

2. Grey — This and mushroom are what I consider to be my neutral no worry colours. I like that it is not a metallic finish and not too dark a grey (I also really like the look of this colour with a matte top coat)

3. Mushroom - actually was disappointed the first time I used this but have grown to love it, I believe they consider it a beige colour. Its very neutral so you don’t have to worry about colour clashes. I have tried this with matte but not sure if that works really.

4. Rasberry- Red with a pink undertone I would say. Its quite a bit brighter than I expected it to be though, I like to use this as an alternative to a standard dark red.

5. Vivid Purple - a metallic (?) colour, beautiful and a darker shade so not (again I think this looks great with a matte topcoat).

I didn’t want to add the nail effects paint to the list since strictly it is not a colour, but it does go on top of all of these colours perfectly if you wanted to add your own 'nail art' (I have shown an example of this in a previous post). I also use that as a cheats way to touch up my look after any chipping etc when I am not ready to remove and re-paint.

I can’t complain at all about the finish of any of the Barry M polishes I have used. For sure I will be adding more of their range to my collection soon as soon as the next offer comes along and who knows maybe an updated favourites in the future!

p.s I have found that some of the paint colours have been a perfect match to fill in scrapes on the bottoms of my heels! Bonus!!

Barry M Nail Effects - Nails Refresh

So I decided I couldn’t have my nails looking all chipped and nasty for the new year but seen as it hadn’t been a week yet since changing my colour I didn’t want to remove it and re-paint and of course this saves time which is a bonus.

I painted Barry M’s nail effects on top of my existing nail polish, which worked really well in covering up the chipped parts of my polish and giving me a edgy nail look along with my silver/black smoky eyes.

I added a top coat to finish it all off which is needed for this since otherwise it leaves a matt looking effect. I was really pleased with the turnout. I love this polish and I hope Barry M have plans for a few more colours soon.

I hope all had a lovely New Years night, and wishing you a happy and successful 2011.