Barry M Lip Paint Pinkie Gold Sparkle
I’ve wanted this lipstick for ages! It is never in any Boots stores when I’ve looked and I never wanted to make a Barry M online order for fear of spending all my money! However, with a lot of restraint I finally made a small order and included this lovely lipstick. I was worried about the formula of this lipstick and buying before swatching it because some Barry M lipsticks can be a little drying, but I need not of worried because this lipstick is very nice and not at all drying.
The colour is, like it’s name, a pinkie sheer lipstick with a gold sparkle sheen to it. It’s sheer enough to apply without a mirror and although it’s lasting time isn’t great, it’s very easy to apply it doesn’t take long to top it up. The lipstick in the tube is really pretty too, it’s a nice dusky pink with a almost marbled gold shimmer running through it.
Finally here is a swatch on my lips. As you can see it’s not very pigmented, but leaves a nice pinkie gold sparkle finish. The lipstick is quite moisturising and this is my go-to lipstick for a neutral day with a bit of sparkle.
I’m in Marseille right now and I have a few scheduled posts for this week while I’m away. I’m probably still on Twitter though, I’ve sorted out my phone with an internet booster so I will have internet while I’m away. I’ve definitely packed this lipstick to take away with me. However, I am concerned about melting lipstick and myself melting in the heat. I’m a total heat wuss! Hopefully myself and my lipsticks will make it back in a non-melted state :P Speak soon! xxxx
Nails Inc Chelsea Park Gardens and Barry M Nail Effects Crackle
POST 100!
I recently indulged in a Nails Inc offer in which you pay £10 for 5 polishes. 1 will be Chelsea Park Gardens, 1 will be either a basecoat or a topcoat and the other 3 will be a random selection. I received this little bundle. They came really well packaged in a silver bubble wrap envelope (seen in background) which I blinded myself with several times while opening! I received Kensington Caviar Basecoat, Chelsea Park Gardens (neon pink), Soho (sheer coral pink), Pallmall (sheer pearly white pink) and London Nights (black).
The basecoat arrived covered in gluey finger prints, though it hadn’t leaked and a bit of remover cleaned it up. I didn’t clean it up for the picture as I was shocked by there being daylight outside and I wanted to get some pictures before it faded.
I wasn’t sure I’d wear Chelsea Park Gardens. I knew it was a neon pink, but I couldn’t find any good swatches online. When it arrived I kinda liked it, it isn’t a flat neon colour, it has a shine to it, almost duo coloured. It’s hard to describe! You can probably see better from the pictures.
The below picture is my nails tipped out of the sunlight
And this picture is tipped into the sunlight. It has this shiny pink glow to it when the sun hits it, even though it is a matte finish.
Chelsea Park Gardens dries really quickly as most neon matte polishes do. I only used two coats, but it could have done with three. I’m really pleased with this polish in the end! I wouldn’t normally rave about a neon polish, but I really like this one because it isn’t just a flat colour.
I didn’t put a topcoat on this polish. I was in a rush when I applied it and didn’t have time for a topcoat. I went to a winter BBQ and I did manage to chip a corner, but it held up pretty well seeing as I spent most of the night playing with the fire pit! The next day, while nursing my hangover I decided to put a coat of Barry M Nail Effects Crackle over it. I don’t use my crackle polish as much as I should and I’ve seen it look quite good over neons.
Again I left the topcoat, so the base colour and the crackle are both matte. I quite like it. It ends up more of a satin finish in the end due to me putting hand cream on, but I still liked it! :)
I’ve been wearing this for the last three days. It’s in a pretty sorry state now due to the lack of topcoat, but I’ll definitely be using these polishes together again. I’m really surprised by Chelsea Park Gardens, it’s a really nice polish! :)
And now for something completely different…This is my 100th post! Crazy stuff. I’m pretty poor at maintaining blogs usually, I’ve had many over the years, but this one is the only one to make it to 100 posts and to last 9 months! I’m pretty pleased. :)
I think the main reason I have managed to keep it going is due to the large amount of wonderful people who also blog. I love to read all the different blogs and to read any comments that are put on my posts. Thank you all for being so lovely! I really appreciate your comments :D
I have a little bundle of items I’ve been saving up from various offers I’ve snatched up during exam time (always a good shopping excuse! :)) and I wanted to do a little giveaway as a way of saying thank you to you lovely people! :) I’ll put up a proper post about it in a little while.
Thanks again for taking the time to read and/or comment on my blog! xxxx
Christmas Nails
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! I had a fun time and I have eaten far, far to much! I don’t want to eat again till new year, but there is so much stuff in the fridge to eat before it goes out of date! If you don’t hear from me again, I’ve exploded! I can’t believe how cold it’s been, I’ve been watching TV from under a big fluffy blanket. I received my Twin Peaks DVDs on Christmas Eve, so I’ve been kept happy. My mum got me some awesome flurry boot slippers which I am never taking off, they are so warm and comfy! I hope everyone had a lovely, cosy time too! :D
Here is what I put on my nails for Christmas day. It took me ages to decide on what to paint my nails for Christmas. In the end I decided I was thinking about it too much and went for a Christmassy red with red glitter!
I used 17 Knockout Red as a base and Barry M Red Glitter on the tips. I only needed one coat of Knockout Red as it was opaque in one, which was great! I prefer one coaters from when I’m doing tips because I put an extra coat of topcoat on. I don’t like to have 6+ coats of polish on, I feel like some sort of polish monster, more polish than human!! :o
Anyway, after I let my first coat of topcoat dry I cut up some tape and just placed it at random angles and painted on a tip of Red Glitter, removed the tape and put a final topcoat on. It worked out pretty well! My tips look far better when I tape off the area, I’m so clumsy otherwise.
I hope you are all having a lovely Christmas week, keep warm and cosy! :D
Accessorize Crystal Shimmer + Barry M French Polish
ARGH! I have been crazily busy the last few weeks. I can’t wait till January when this term has finished. I have a large assignment to do this weekend and even more work that needs to be finished, plus I need to actually make a start to my giant literature review! Stressful times! So I haven’t been posting or commenting on any blogs :(, I haven’t really had time to read them either, which is horrible! Even worse, I haven’t even seen the new Harry Potter! I’ve been that busy! At least I have had two pretty snowdays to look at out of the window. It’s much nicer to look at than raining and greyness. This is only the second time I have seen snow in the south of England in the 8 years I’ve lived down here and this week is the most I’ve seen. The south just doesn’t really get much snow…but I guess I can’t really say that anymore! LOOK SNOW!
I probably won’t be around properly for awhile, at least until uni work has been finished, so I hope you are all have a lovely December! :) I have a couple of unfinished posts saved up and if I have time to finish them I’ll put them up. See you all soon and I’ll leave you with a snow inspired NOTD. :)
I used Barry M French Polish as a base and put a coat of Accessorize Crystal Shimmer over the top.
I have had trouble with lighting with the winter weather, but these slightly dark pictures kinda show the glitter. It has green/blue/gold glitter, it’s quite pretty. It smells weird though! I dunno why, but it doesn’t smell like the normal nail polish smell, it’s a bit more…nasty. I doesn’t smell once it’s dry, but I thought it was a bit weird. Hope you are all wrapped up warm!
NOTD Ghostly White Halloween Nails
I was taken my polish off yesterday and wasn’t sure what to put on. My nails seem to be looking a lot less stained than I’ve seen them, in fact they look quite normal. I’ve started using the Models Own 3 in 1 as a base coat too use it up, it is a bit of a fail as a top coat…bubble city! As a base coat though, it’s not bad, especially considering I’m been wearing a lot of darker colours lately.
I was taken off the Missguided MissCellaneous Nude polish. I didn’t really wanted to, I was liking the pale nude look, but it was getting raggy. I wanted something similar, something pale…then I realised it was Halloween, so maybe something ghostly.
I got out a couple of pale-white polishes I have and toyed with white nails…didn’t fancy it. I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to paint hem all several coats of white and then hate it and have to remove and re-paint. Then I remembered I had a Barry M French Polish. I’d only used it for tips before, but it’s quite a translucent white, not as harsh. Then to make it more ghostly with a blue tinge I thought I’d add a coat of Illamasqua Prism on top.
(Barry M French Polish and Illamasqua Prism)
The Barry M looked much nicer than I thought it would. It’s white, but with a little bit of pink so it isn’t so harsh. It went on really nicely too, but definitely needed two coats, it’s quite a watery polish. Even with two coats it is still translucent and there’s definitely a nail line, but it almost looks like french tips as it makes the tips look white.
Putting Prism on top didn’t change the colour, it just introduced the blue tinge when the light hits it. It does look quite a ghostly colour with the blue sheen. I did consider drawing little ghost faces on my nails, but I didn’t have time, plus my nail art tends to be awful!
Hope everyone has a nice Halloween and everyone enjoyed their extra hour today! I always feel a bit weird whenever the time changes, but at we gained an hour rather than lost one! I recorded Bugsy Malone this morning on TV, so I’m going to enjoy cheesy film day! I know I should be watching horror films for Halloween, but never mind! Enjoy your Sunday!
Barry M Nail Effects Crackle
Hello! I’ve been busy with my lectures for a couple of days, now I have the rest of the week to work at home. :) I said I wouldn’t buy any more polish till I had tried my un-loved-un-tried ones, but I had to get this one and show you all as I think it is pretty cool. It is a bit gimmicky, but what the hey! I like gimmicks! :)
This is the new Barry M Nail Effects matte black crackle polish (long name!) over Ciate Dangerous Affair (free with November Marie Claire). I love this effect. I wasn’t sure at first, the randomness and unpredictability of the crackle effect was putting me off. However, now I’ve seen it, I love it. I think my love for it will be dependent on the colour combos being used, but red and black, I <3!
I really like the black matte, I tested a thumb (bottom corner of second picture) with a gloss topcoat, but it didn’t look as good. I think the red looks like lava and the matte black could be burnt ground. I quite like that. Even when you watch the effect happen it kinda looks like the burnt earth splitting and lava coming through. I’m easily entertained.
I apologise for the cuticle smudges, but I painted these while trying to haphazardly paint and film myself, with only a phone and a box. So the cuticles aren’t as neat as they could be! However, I did get some fab videos of how I applied the polish to get this effect and how long the polish took to crack (see below). The polish takes less than a minute to dry. Once it’s finished cracking, it’s dry. I took a shower right afterwards and they looked just as good when I got out as when I had just painted them.
Barry M say you should not overlap the colour, but I think this is more advice than a rule. I think it means that once the bit you’ve done starts to dry and crack you shouldn’t go over it again, as it will not look as good. If your quick and just painting your nails normally with a little overlap it still works fine. The warning of no overlapping had me mess up my first nail (the thumb that I put the gloss topcoat on, see thumb in picture above), it went really crackly and looked a bit rubbish. I was too slow and too careful I think. Whereas on my other fingers I just painted as I would normally and they looked far better, more blocky, which I prefer. It also took me less time to do and just felt a lot easier without worrying about this overlapping business.
Anyway, here are some videos of me using the Barry M nail effects polish. Now…this was shot with HTC Desire, it was on a shoe box with the lens hanging over and I just painted my nails under it. It’s a bit MacGyver, but it did the job ok, apart from the being able to see the shoebox on the right hand side of the screen, ignore that! :P Speaking of gimmicks, what do you think of videos in blogs like this? Are they useful or just taking up space?
The first video shows me disregarding the Barry M overlapping suggestion as I didn’t have enough polish on the brush on the first go.
Lastly, in ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ style, this one seemed juuuuust right. Enough polish on the brush to cover my nail in one go and not too messy.
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About me
My name is Gem and I am a psychology graduate in the south of England. I like shiny and sparkly things, but I am also a total nerd. ^.^
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