Today's nails were Barry M Mediterranean with some more MoYou London stamping. I can't get enough of stamping at the moment!
This is two coats of Barry M Mediterranean, which is a gorgeous pinky gold duochrome with hints of orange in certain lights. It's come out looking very orange in these photos, but it honestly looks more pink in most lights.
Over Mediterranean, I then stamped using Konad black and MoYou London Pro XL 06. I was a bit disappointed with how this stamped in the end - the design hasn't come out clearly on all the nails. I honestly think this is the Konad! When I stamp with Barry M or something else, this never happens, but then when I stamp with Konad it often happens. I know Konad is meant to be designed especially for stamping, but it happens a lot for me!
Oh well, at arm's length, this looks fine, and I do like the overall effect.
I was contacted recently by a brand new British nail varnish company, Vivien Kondor London, and was offered the chance to try out some of their polishes! I love something new, especially if it's a British company, so I jumped at the chance! Vivien Kondor is part of Elegance by London, and is about to launch a really big range of nail polish, which will be for sale on their website and on Amazon. (The colours on the website are still only a rough idea, as it's not finished yet!)
Tonight I have 5 different colours to show you. First up is Shiny Baby Pink. This is two coats, with no topcoat.
Shiny Baby Pink is just that - a pretty pale baby pink, with a metallic finish.
As with most metallics, this does show the brushstrokes a bit, but I don't find them too obvious in this polish. The formula is really nice - this is smooth and buttery, and didn't need any clean up. The brush is good - not too stiff, not too floppy, not too wide (something I find a real issue for my narrow nails with some brands). I think this is really pretty! It's not my usual style - maybe a bit too pink and sweet for my usual taste, but it is pretty.
Next up is Cobalt Blue. This one has a gorgeous jelly-like quality to it.
This is three coats, as it's more sheer than Shiny Baby Pink. This time though I did add topcoat for extra shine.
The formula on this one is really good, and I love the vibrancy of the colour.
Isn't it gorgeous? Because the colour on this is so pigmented, I worried that it might be a stainer, but I'm happy to report that it isn't at all.
Before I took this off though, I thought I'd try one of the other polishes over it. Lilac is quite sheer, so I layered one coat over Cobalt Blue.
Oh wow! Isn't it gorgeous? Lilac transforms Cobalt into a shimmery, duochromey purpley-blue stunner!
I love these two together.
Next up is Lilac on its own. This is three thin coats as it's on the sheer side.
This is another lovely one - this is a shimmery bluey purple. I bet it would look fantastic over black too.
This one has a good formula, but is a touch on the slow side to dry. It's really pretty though!
Next up is one called Neon Gold. This is the one I was most excited about in advance, because I LOVE a gold, and I've never heard of a NEON gold! The company tells me that this one is still being tinkered with, as they don't think Neon Gold is the right name for it at the moment. I have to say, I'd agree with that.
This is two coats of Neon Gold, with no topcoat. Formula is nice, like Shiny Baby Pink. I like this colour a lot. But I don't think it's gold, and it's certainly not neon. It's a bit of an odd colour - a sort of peachy orangey gold, but I'm a fan of orange and of gold, so that's fine with me.
Actually, this totally reminds me of butternut squash!
The company would like some feedback about this one - what do you think? Should they try and make it more gold? More neon? Try a different name? I don't even know what a neon gold would look like - I'm struggling to imagine such a thing!
The last one is imaginatively called Gold Glitter, and I think it's my favourite. It's a straightforward gold glitter, with tiny square pieces in a slightly yellow-tinted base. The glitter is dense, so it's got great coverage.
You could certainly use this as a glitter topper over a coloured base, but I wanted to see what it would be like on its own, whether I could get complete coverage without a base colour.
The answer is yes! The tinted base really helps with this.
The accent nail is 2 coats of Cobalt Blue with one coat of Gold Glitter. I think that works well. But I love the other nails! They're three coats of glitter on its own. As you can see, there are some tiny gaps, but the tinted base evens this out.
Overall, I think these polishes are good - nice colours, high quality, decent brushes. I don't know how much the company are planning to charge, so I'd be interested to know. I like the look of a lot of the other colours too.
On a very very trivial note - I like the lids! The shape makes the brush nice and easy to hold, but also mirrors the zig zag shape of the VK in the logo, which makes me smile!
You can follow the company on Twitter @Vivien_Kondor for news of the range launch.
These polishes were provided by the company for my honest review. Please see my Disclaimer section for more information.
I'm being a bit rubbish at the moment! Didn't finish the Colour Me Crazy challenge, haven't posted the last two Polish Party themes... I've got no ideas for any actual nail art, and I still haven't swatched any of the new Barry M Glitterati!
Tonight's post is just a quick look at the two new Barry M Aquarium colours - Persian and Atlantis. Persian is a purple-gold duochrome, and Atlantis is a multicoloured glitter.
Here I'm wearing two coats of Persian over a base of plain black creme, and a coat of Atlantis on my thumb and ring finger.
Persian has quite a thin formula, which is why I've worn it over a black base. You can get the same result without the black base, but it'll take 3-4 coats. The formula is good though - it's even and smooth, and dries well.
Persian has a lovely purple shimmery finish in most indoor light, and then a lovely golden orange sheen in some other lights. It looked purple most of the time today, but then is showing the gold a lot more in the photos!
Atlantis is a clear base with lots of tiny silver hex particles, larger silver hex particles, blue diamond shapes, and fuchsia pink irregular shapes. It's super sparkly, as you can see! It needed a bit of dabbing and poking about to get the glitter evenly spaced, because it does tend to drag towards the tip of the nail otherwise.
I really like these two! Aren't they pretty?
I was in a large Boots the other day and noticed a display of a brand I'd never seen before - Orly Color Blast. Google tells me that Color Blast is the high street 'cheaper' version of the Orly range. Not that much cheaper though, as these cost £9.50 each! The display was stunning, really gorgeous, and I ended up buying three!
This is Magenta Color Flip, 2 coats, with topcoat. Apparently the Color Flip range is the Color Blast duochrome range. This one shows a gorgeous red/orange in the bottle, which suckered me in immediately as I LOVE reds and oranges!
Application is really nice - it's even, smooth and clean, and the brush is really good. The lid is nice - it's rubbery and the ridges give a good grip.
On the downside, I can't really see any duochrome on the nails. There's a bit visible in the bottle, but it doesn't really translate to the nail.
On the other hand - it's a gorgeous, glowy, shiny colour! I do really like it.
Having said that, £9.50 is quite a lot for a high street brand, and I can't say that this colour is particularly unique. I do have a lot of glowy metallic reds! But this is beautiful!
I was NOT going to buy this shade from the Barry M Aquarium collection, but then I was in Boots the other day, and Barry M was on 3-for-2... and, well, you know how it is!
This is Barry M Pacific, two coats, with no topcoat.
The formula is a little on the thin and sheer side - my second coat was thicker than the first though, and covered well. I wore this earlier in the week as well, when I was away, and it lasted perfectly for three full days and nights. Admittedly, I wasn't in my usual routine and so wasn't typing, digging around in my handbag for keys, or washing up, but even so, I was really impressed.
This is a blue-green duochrome, although to be honest, there really isn't that much duochrome or colour shift in there. The colour is mostly a turquoisey blue, although it does look a darker cobalt blue in some lights, and a brighter green in others. It's a lovely colour though, and a very pretty, metallic finish with a lot of shine.
Not content with leaving well enough alone, I thought I'd try this with some stamping over the top - I used Barry M Silver Foil and MoYou London stamping plate Pro 09. I used the 3 different butterfly designs.
The MoYou London plates are just so good! They keep bringing out new ones too, it's far too tempting!
I mean - look how pretty those butterflies are!
This is the second of the Barry M Aquarium collection that I bought last week - Caspian.
This is three thin coats, with no topcoat.
Caspian is a really pretty gold foil. To be honest, I can't really see any duochrome in there, apart from a slight pinkish tinge to it, especially in the bottle, but it is a really pretty colour, and I found it very flattering with my skin tone.
The formula is good - application is smooth, and this dries really well.
I find that these types of foils sometimes wear very quickly at the tips, but after a day at work with plenty of typing, it's still looking perfect.
These are on sale in Superdrug and on Barry M's website for £3.99
Barry M's latest new collection is the Aquarium collection: six sea-related colours. There are 4 duochromes and two shard glitters. I chose two of the duochromes, Caspian on the left, and Mediterranean on the right.
Aren't they pretty? First up, I tried out Mediterranean, the pinky-gold one. And just to warn you - this is going to be photo heavy, because it's PRETTY!
Did I say pretty? I mean DROP DEAD GORGEOUS!
This is three thin coats of Mediterranean, with no topcoat. Two coats would probably have been fine, but it's quite a sheer formula, so I added a third. This is a lovely pinky gold foil that moves between deep pink to bright orange, via peachy gold tones. I ran round the house taking photos in every different light I could find!
Formula is fine - this is smooth and even, dries well and applies easily. The first coat is a bit sheer, as this is a foil, so the particles don't cover the entire nail straight away.
It looks great in the sun.
It looks great in the shade.
I think it's a really flattering colour.
I think I love this polish! Because I can never leave well alone, I decided to also stamp over it. I used Barry M Gold Foil and MoYou London Nature 02 stamping plate.
I used the peacock tail section of the plate to get this feather design. I think the combination works really well!
I like the subtle contrast between Mediterranean and the gold stamping - it's not too obvious, but it is pretty.
The Aquarium collection is out now in Superdrug, and costs £3.99 each. However, I bought these two yesterday on a 2-for-£6 deal, so you can get them cheaper.
Today I'm posting the second of my W7 reviews (for the first, click here). This is Metallic Saturn.
This is three thin coats, with topcoat.
Metallic Saturn is a rich greeny olive gold, with an almost duochrome sheen. This is very similar to Chanel Peridot (which I do own). It's not a dupe, but at a tenth of the price, it's an excellent substitute!
The formula on this was a little trickier than the cremes I tried the other day - it's a little on the thin side, so it's a bit runny, which can flood the cuticles if you're not careful. However, it dries quickly and looks great! I really like this one a lot. The duochrome isn't very pronounced as a colour-shift effect, but the polish does look very different depending on the light, moving from a rich bronzey gold to a dark olive green.
I decided to add to this by stamping over it using MoYou London Rockstar XL plate 01. I used the large guitar, the guitar necks, the winged guitar and the guitar with the rock & roll banner, and Konad black polish.
I love how this looks! The winged guitar is a little fainter than I wanted, but apart from that, I think this looks good.
I can't get over how good these MoYou London plates are! They all work so well.
I'm really impressed how the details of the designs print so clearly!
This polish is excellent - I really like it. Looking online, it seems to be available in lots of places for under £2 a bottle, which is a bargain! Half the price of Barry M (and the bottles are 15ml, compared to Barry M's 10ml) - I would definitely recommend this, especially if you've been lusting after Chanel's Peridot at any point.
This polish was provided for review. All opinions and words are entirely my own. See my disclosure page for more information.
