WOW! Coming Soon from Barry M!!

Oooooooooh! As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm a huge Barry M fan! And thanks to The Polish List I've just found out what they're up to this autumn/winter! I rarely post about upcoming collections, because I generally find it quite hard to get excited about collections before they come out and I've seen swatches... but this time, I'm making an exception! The Polish List did some excellent detective work, and found this online magazine showing all the Barry M new releases in detail. 

I LOVE the idea of some deeper, more berry coloured Silks. I loved the pastel Silks - they are fantastic in quality and with such a gorgeous finish. I'm really looking forward to the more autumnal colours. 

 The massive nail box would be a fab Christmas present for someone (although not me, as I already have lots of these!) and Ooooooooh at the glitters! Star shaped glitters? Yes please!

Second part of the Christmas glitters - and these look even nicer!

And then oof! Look at THESE BEAUTIES!

And then these sparkly beauties...

That purpley one looks gorgeous, as does the dark blue... 

Oh dear! I can foresee a lot of my money being spent here. At the very least I want 11 of them, and that's just under £45... And most of them are being released TOMORROW!

Models Own - Limited Edition Midori Set

Hello again! I've had a bit of a break from the blog and from my nails over Christmas (I did paint them, but not with anything special) but now I'm home and raring to go with the nails for the new year. I hope you all had a good Christmas!  Today I'm very excited to share a new limited edition Models Own set of polishes, inspired by gorgeous Japanese melon liqueur Midori!


I love a good cocktail! There was a time when I was very much into making cocktails, and Midori was one of my favourite liqueurs to use - I absolutely adore the smell and flavour of melons. So when I saw this set, I thought it was right up my alley - they're melon scented!  The set consists of three different green polishes - a bright neon, a golden green duochrome, and a fabulous glitter. I decided to swatch them separately, and together.


My Midori is a sheer, bright green polish. It is very sheer - this is four coats - but the colour is SO bright and happy and juicy that I don't mind that. Some sheer polishes don't dry properly once they're built up to layers, but I didn't experience that at all with this one. This was a nice, even consistency, which dried very well. 


I added topcoat to this for extra shine. The melon scent is delicate and pleasant, unlike some scented polishes, which can be a bit overly synthetic.


Golden Green is my favourite of the set - it's an absolutely beautiful greeny gold metallic, with a duochrome edge to it. Quality is really good - it's smooth and even. This is two coats. 


Golden Green is so pretty in the sunshine (which we had some of today!) where it looks so shiny and bright and rich.  Isn't it lovely?


I then tried the glitter, Dancing Queen, over Golden Green. Dancing Queen is a bit like the Mirrorball glitters in that there are all sorts of different shapes in there, from rough shards, to tiny and medium hex glitter, to diamond shapes. There's a blend of green, blue, silver and gold, and this is SO shiny in the sunshine!


This glitter doesn't have the unpleasant smell of some of the glitter polishes out there. Like the other two in this set, as it dries, it has a lovely fresh melon scent. Because of its nature, the glitter isn't the type you can just paint on as you would a normal polish - it definitely benefits from a bit of dabbing and placing to get even coverage. 

Finally, I wanted to do a skittle using all three polishes. Because My Midori was so sheer, I thought I'd try it over white to see what that was like. I think it's interesting!  My Midori looks much more neon this way. I like it a lot - but I have to say, I think I prefer it on its own as in the first swatches, as it looks a bit juicier. But for that neon look, this is perfect.  

Here I have My Midori on my little and ring fingers, and Golden Green on my thumb and index.  I've got Dancing Queen over the little finger and thumb, and on its own over white (Essie Blanc) on the middle finger. 

I really like this set! I like that the greens are all different - I'm not sure that My Midori and Golden Green work so well together, but they both work really well with Dancing Queen, and I think that makes the set really interesting.   You can buy this set on the Models Own website here for £15, but it is a limited edition, so I don't know how long it will be there!  If you want more information about Midori (it's delicious!) then their website is here, so long as you are over 18. 

Wearing these has made me really want some Midori now! I haven't made cocktails in quite a while, so I think I may have to get a bottle for new year's eve.



Edit: a comment from Squeakymom below made me realise that I'd not thought of doing a jelly sandwich! And My Midori & Dancing Queen make a PERFECT jelly sandwich!

This is alternating coats of My Midori (first coat, one in the middle, and then as a last coat) and Dancing Queen (two coats, in between My Midori) and no topcoat. I love how this looks!  




This product was sent for review. Please see my disclaimer for more information.



 

Barry M Blue Grape and Limited Edition Bright Green

I hadn't got any of the newest Barry M Gelly range, as I was a bit disappointed with the last few I tried. However, in Superdrug the other day I spotted Blue Grape Gelly, and decided to give it a try. I also got the boringly-named Superdrug Limited Edition B, which is a bright (not quite neon) green and has a cute tribal pattern cap.

This is two coats of Blue Grape. The first coat is a little sheer, but the second evens this out. I like the colour a lot - it's vibrant and rich, and very glossy. It is still a bit sheer, especially in the sun, but I think it looks fine.

The green, however, is ridiculously sheer. This is FIVE - yes really! - coats, and it's still not properly opaque. I should have put it on over white, and I will if I bother to wear it again. However, I have other, far better, bright green polishes, such as the China Glaze neons I have, so I may not bother.  

Blue Grape costs £3.99 and the SLE B is £2.99 in Superdrug, but is also free if you spend £6 on Barry M.  There is also a bright pink version with a zebra print cap, also free with a £6 Barry M spend.

Overall conclusion: I really like Blue Grape, I'm not impressed by SLE B (green).

The Mysterious Mystery of Barry M's Superdrug Limited Edition Christmas Glitter!

You may remember how I recently posted about the Barry M Christmas Limited Edition glitter. It is a very lovely mix of blue, green and fuschia glitter in a clear base.

Today I was in Superdrug and saw something that looked DIFFERENT somehow - a whole row of Limited Edition glitters with the shiny green top, but DIFFERENT glitter! I promptly bought one. 

The labels on my two glitters are identical. Same barcode, same name (SLE 2012 B).  

The only difference in the labels is the number - 251 on the new one, 243 on the first one. 


But look! They're clearly different!

My original one has blue, green and fuschia glitter, the new one has red, blue and silver. 

Here they are on a nail wheel, and over black - new on left, original on right.

To me, this looks very much like Jewel Britannia, the limited edition that was released in the summer around the Jubilee and the Olympics. At the time, I failed to find this anywhere, and it sold out quickly.   Jewel Britannia is numbered 228 though, so who knows?? 

If it is Jewel Britannia, then yay, because I was disappointed that I never found it. If not, I don't care - it's still really pretty!

OPI - The Man with the Golden Gun - Gold Leaf Topcoat

Part of OPI's recent Skyfall collection was the limited edition gold leaf topcoat, The Man with the Golden Gun. When I first saw swatches online, I wasn't tempted, but when I saw this in the flesh in my local nail varnish shop, I had to get it. Online this sells for between £20-£35. I found it for £19.99 which I think was reasonable enough for a special treat. 

The Man with the Golden Gun comes in its own presentation box, which is nice and sturdy. I will probably end up using the box for something (nail varnish rings or something, I expect). It is a clear base, with gold leaf flakes suspended in it. They can sink to the bottom after a while, and shaking doesn't move them about much, so I recommend holding the bottle upside down for a few minutes before using. 

This is what it looks like over Essie Skirting the Issue:


and over China Glaze Escaping Reality:

And in close up:

I like how this looks - elegantly shiny without being blingy and overly glittery. And I really like how the flakes are suspended in the clear base, so not lying entirely flat on the nail.It dries very smooth - no roughness or sticky out pieces. Maybe pink isn't the best base for it; I want to try it over dark colours next, perhaps a dark blue or green...

Barry M Christmas Limited Editions - Round 2!

After yesterday's post of the Superdrug limited editions from Barry M, today I am wearing the two Boots limited editions.  On the bottles these are called BLE 2012 A and BLE 2012 B, but on Barry M's Facebook they're called Christmas Gold and Christmas Pink.

Like the Superdrug versions, these come with a shiny, textured cap. They're only available as a free gift if you spend £6 on Barry M, they're not available to purchase separately.  This is two coats of Christmas Pink, and two coats of Christmas Gold on my ring finger.

Like the Christmas Blue yesterday, these are super shiny! Application was a little draggy, but after yesterday I'd learnt to paint this fairly thickly, so it was fine. The finish is really nice - the particles make the colour look foily and give the colour a bit of depth. 

Barry M have had a few dodgy releases in recent months (Web Effect, anyone? Urgh!) but I think these are really nice. I don't even need any more golds - I have dozens - but I can't resist this one.

Barry M Christmas Limited Editions

Barry M have launched four limited edition Christmas polishes this week - two in Boots (free if you spend £6, not available for purchase) and two in Superdrug, which are either free if you spend £6, or available to buy for £3.99 each.  Here I have the two Superdrug colours.

On the bottles, they're labelled 'SLE A' and 'SLE B', but on Barry M's Facebook page, they're called Christmas Blue and Christmas Glitter. 

This is two coats of Christmas Blue, with Christmas Glitter on my ring finger. Christmas Blue is an icy foil metallic blue, with lots of shimmery particles. Application is a little draggy - too thin a coat does drag and leave bare batches; I found a thicker coat went on more smoothly.

Christmas Glitter is a clear base (rather thick, and very smelly!) with lots of tiny blue and green glitter, and larger pieces of blue, green and reddish fuschia glitter. I love how sparkly it is!

I really like both of these.

The bottles look great, with the textured foil caps (so shiny!) - the display in Superdrug looked so pretty!  The limited editions in Boots were all gone in two stores I looked in this week, although I managed to find some in the third, so i think these are pretty popular!