Finally! An almost perfect cream coloured polish.

I'm interrupting my brief hiatus (if you can interrupt an interruption) from blogging to show you this cream polish I've bought recently and love.  Regular readers may remember that I have been on a quest to find the perfect cream coloured polish for some time now and never quite managed it, but now I think I might finally have got close.

 

The polish is a Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, one of the new releases, Coconut.

 

The formula wasn't brilliant, I found it a bit streaky and it needed 3 coats to get it looking perfect but all was forgiven one I saw the colour of the dried polish, could it finally be the holy grail cream polish I have been hunting for?!!

 

 

It's maybe more of an off white or ivory than a true cream but it's close to what I have been picturing in my head so whatever colour it is, I like it!

 

It's lovely on it's own; a really fresh, crisp neutral of a colour and it's also great as a base for nail art or stamping, you can see my very speedy stamping attempt over it below.

 

 

I don't think I'll ever give up my mission to hunt down the perfect cream shade of polish, which currently seems to exist only in my head, but in the meantime Coconut is a worthy contender for the top spot.  Well done Barry M, you've made a cream obsessed nail blogger very happy.

 

 

Bundle Monster H18 Stamping

I used a plate from Bundle Monster's Holiday Collection for this manicure, H18 which is a love / Valentine's sort of theme, I just used it because I liked the pretty pattern.

 

 

I use Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Blueberry, a dark blue colour, for the stamping over yesterday's Coloured Speckled manicure and I'm really pleased with how it turned out, the glittery base adds a little extra to the overall look I think.

 

I really like the Holiday Collection from Bundle Monster, despite being themed around certain holidays or events there are tonnes of designs which can be used whenever and aren't just tied into a holiday or event making it a useful set even if you aren't big on tying your manicures to life events.



Double Stamping

This manicure didn't quite turn out how I was hoping, and I've cleverly forgotten to take a note of which stamping plates I used so it's not going to be the most useful of blog posts ever. :)

 

They're both from the Bundle Monster Create Your Own collection and the polish I used to stamp is a pink to purple Chameleon polish from Barry M and Gold Foil, also Barry M.

 

 

Unfortunately these pictures have highlighted the tip wear quite badly, it wasn't noticeable in person but it certainly is in the pictures so apologies for that.

Christmas Textured Stamping

This stamping didn't exactly go to plan, it was supposed to look Christmassy but instead I think it looks more like flock wallpaper.  It IS in Christmas colours though so we'll let it through on that.

 

 

I used plate H03 from the Bundle Monster Holiday Collection, it looks like more Christmassy on the plate, I think it's meant to be baubles but that didn't really translate so well onto my textured nail.

 

It's still pretty though, I used Barry M Foil Effect in Gold for the stamp.

 

 

As you can see from some of the pictures I am suffering a bit from wear, the stamping on my index finger and close to the tips is wearing off a bit, probably because I can't top coat the textured polish to make it stay put, it's not too noticeable in person though.

Sparkly Haul - Part 2

There is only one person to blame for this mini sparkly haul and that's Claire from Nuthin' but a nail thing.  Her recent post on the best of all the textured polishes, along with her lovely photos, meant that I had to add a few more to my collection, that combined with Superdrug having a 3 for 2 on all cosmetics at the moment meant that I came away with these three pretties:

 

 

Barry M Nail Effect Textured Nail Polish in Lady

2True Sequins in Naomi

Maybelline Brocades in Rosy Rosettes

 

Lady is a second attempt to get a white textured polish which I like, I really didn't get on with Celestial Pearl, the very similar looking polish from Seventeen, so I am hoping I'll like Barry's version better.

 

Rosy Rosettes looked so lovely in Claire's pictures that I couldn't resist and I thought it might go with an outfit I am wearing to a wedding soon so that was all the excuse I needed to buy it, plus it'll be lovely over Christmas for a festive manicure.

 

Naomi is just pretty, and reminded me of a friend who recently passed away so it seemed like a perfect choice for my third polish to complete the trio.



Create Your Own Textured Stamping

Another stamping manicure using the Bundle Monster Create Your Own set today.

 

I used Barry M Silver Foil Effects to stamp over Kiko Starry Black textured polish.

 

I'm not sure this was the best choice of image for over a textured polish as the trees lose a bit of their clarity, something more abstract might work better.  Nonetheless I quite like the effect, from a distance it looks a bit like crackle polish.

 

I used plate 407.

Textured Stamping

I was a bit sceptical about stamping over textured polishes at first but it actually works really well, for today's manicure I used BM-422 from the Create Your Own Collection.

 

 

I used Barry M Gold Foil for the stamping and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

 

 

The simple hexagon design compliments to base colour and the textured adds an extra element to the stamping which makes it a bit different.

 

I'm also really pleased with the wear time on the Barry M textured polish, I'm on day three now and there is only the smallest amount of tip wear which for a textured polish and no topcoat I think is great.



Barry M - Countess

After yesterday's textured disappointment I decided to try another textured polish from a different brand, this time Barry M's Countess, a dark burgundy polish from the recent Royal themed collection.

 

 

This polish is much more like the Kiko Sugar Mat Collection which I love.  It applies nice and evenly and it totally opaque in two relatively thin coats.

 

Countess is a gorgeous dark purple wine colour shot through with gold and red glitter which give it a gorgeous shimmer, particularly in bright artificial lights.

 

Countess reminds me a lot of Kiko 645 from the Sugar Mat range although it's a slightly darker more purple black leaning shade than the Kiko.

Sparkly Haul

I had some Advantage Card points to spend so I decided to take advantage of Boots 3 for 2 offers and pick up some polish, without meaning to a created a bit of a glittery sparkly theme, here's what I got...

 

First up two if the Seventeen Rock Hard Couture polishes; Charm Bracelet and Celestial Pearl.  I've been meaning to pick these up for ages now but I've been good and waited until there was an offer on.

 

I also picked up one of the textured Barry M polishes; Countess.  I was tempted by others but I already have a few pink textured polishes from the Kiko Sugar Mat collection and the other two in the collection are basically exact dupes of the Seventeen colours above.  

 

I grabbed the new LE bar glitter polish that Boots have available at the moment too, it's a mix of pink, green and blue bar glitter in a clear base.

 

Then two of the new Maybelline Brocades; Foil Flash and Knitted Gold.  I've seen the US collection pictures of these (they seem to have 8) and so I had to try a couple when I saw that Maybelline UK had 4 available, there's also a grey/black and a red but I preferred the silver and gold ones.

 

Finally, Rimmel Space Dust in Total Eclipse.  Since getting back online after the purchase I've realised this is another matte finish textured polish which I didn't know in the shop.  It's a gorgeous colour so I'm looking forward to trying it both with and without a topcoat to see which is prettiest.

 

Look out for swatches over the next few days, I have enough new colours to keep me busy for a good few manicure now. :)  A good use of my hard earned points, I think.



Kiko 342 Stamped

A simple stamp today using one of the Create Your Own set from Bundle Monster.  You may be able to tell this is also a manicure from a few days back, I didn't have a chance to post it before my Halloween themed nails so I'm sneaking it in now instead. :)

 

 

I used plate BM-406 and the knotted heart pattern on the left hand side.

 

 

Aside from the rather messy clean up I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, it's nice and subtle but adds a bit of extra interest.

 

I used Barry M Blue Plum to stamp, the original dark blue / navy polish from the collection which I think might now be called Blueberry?

 

 

 

Barry M - Indigo

I love this colour, it's a deep deep blue purple; these pictures are two coats.

 

 

My top coat was misbehaving a bit so it looks slightly bubbly in some of these photos.

 

Indigo is definitely one of my favourite Barry m shades.



Barry M - Gelly Hi Shine - Lychee

 

A nice neutral nude today, Barry M's Lychee from the Gelly Hi Shine range.

 

These pictures are all two coats with top coat.



Barry M & Bundle Monster - Stamping Stars!

I decided to use Barry M Blue Plum to stamp over yesterday's Sally Hansen polish, I'm not hugely impressed with how this turned out because I don't think the colours go that well but I do love how well the Barry M Gelly polishes stamp, look at the colour pay off!

 

 

I used another plate from the Bundle Monster Holiday Collection, this time the roses came from plate BM-H16, I think this image could look really delicate and pretty just not in blue. :)

 

The blue shades just don't quite work for me so I didn't have this manicure on for too long, it was however further proof of what an excellent stamping combination Bundle Monster and Barry M are!

Glitter Stamps

I decided to jazz up the very neutral Kiko polish from the other day by adding Nubar Sky Sparkle as an accent nail and Barry M Guava for some stamping.  The plate I used is Gals GA4.

Aside from the very annoying tip wear / shrinkage on Sky Sparkle I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out.  The glittery accent nail adds a bit more interest to the geometric stamping image.

Guava stamped beautifully and turned out a lot bolder and brighter than I was expecting over the creamy nude base.

I used the left hand image from GA4 plate.

Reasons to be cheerful...

New polish collections!  Autumn is almost upon us and so are the new season collections.  Here are the three I am most excited about at the moment.

 

Barry M Matte Collection, I love the colours in this set!  From left to right Espresso, Vanilla, Mocha, Caramel and Crush.

 

Barry M Royal Glitter Collection, these textured glitter polishes look a little like the sparkly half of the Kiko Sugar Mat collection which I love, and the colours are just gorgeous, again from left to right Princess, Majesty, Duchess, Lady and Countess.

 

 

Both Barry M collections should be in store on 25th September for Superdrug and October 2nd for Boots so not too long to wait!

 

And finally, already out and available to buy Models Own Velvet Goth.  I need to get my hands on the green and purple versions STAT!

 

Left to right Valerian, Sardonyx, Amethyst, Absinthe and Obsidian.

 

 

Barry M - Mint Green

Another on the pastel theme today; Barry M Mint Green.

 

This is two coats and a top coat.  Mint Green is a lovely muted green shade.

 

It has an almost gelly look on the nail, although it's not too sheer it seems to have an almost squishy look which I really like, very pretty!