Barry M Confetti Polishes

As I said in a Facebook post the other day , I have become really slack with my regular posting recently, and I have had these Barry M polishes for weeks and weeks now and I can't believe I haven't reviewed them yet! 

As some of you may know already, these polishes are very similar to the Nails Inc feather range. I personally didn't think that 'feather' was the correct word for the effect the little bits created, but I was still desperate to get my hands on them, however at £11.00 a pot, I was having to save up my pennies. As you can imagine, I was so happy to see that Barry M had bought out a similar effect, and I think that 'confetti' is a much better word for the effect. If you read my blog, then you will know I did a battle of the brands to see if price made a difference to the quality of nail polish. For that post I did Nails Inc VS Barry M with magnetic polishes and on that occasion, Barry M came out on top. This made me feel a lot better about buying the whole range of confetti polishes from Barry M at just £20.00, where that wouldn't even get me two polishes from Nails Inc! I also prefer the colours of the Barry M collection to the Nails Inc ones.

Nails Inc Feather Effects. Picture from nailcandy101.com

These effects are created but using little rectangles of different colours. There are lots of different ways to wear the polish. You can opt to have a couple of coats over a colour that matches, over colours that don't match, layer up different polishes from the range, or I chose to layer the coats up to create the look the bottle gives. I used about six coats when creating these looks. They really don't look that good if you just do one coat, and you have to get to grips with the awkward application. They dry really quickly though so six layers takes no time at all. You also don't need a top coat as the bits are bound together with an already clear polish, but you could if you wanted extra protection.

Here are the swatches of the individual colours.

Sour Apple

This is one of my favourite from the collection. I would happily wear this on all of my fingers as it had a good depth to the green and yellow colours.

 

Dolly Mixture

This is more of a paler colour which I would prefer on my hands when I had more of a tan. The texture is made up of yellow, blue, light green and orange sprinkles. It is the polish with the most colours.

Marshmallow

Again this is a paler colour which I'd like with more of a tan, especially to make the white sprinkles contrast with the pale pink more. A nice compromise for a pastel pink which is in fashion this summer.

Bubblegum

This is another of my favourites. The bright blue really pops in contrast to the white flakes. A nice bright summer colour.

Liquorice

This is the polish I didn't think I would like, but it actually looks really cool on the nail! It reminds me a bit of the L'oreal confetti effect. The contrast of the black and white is classic but it still surprised me at how chic it looks.

Sally Hansen is a brand I still need to explore, but they too have their 'fuzzy polish' which is exactly the same effect, and has basically the same colours as Barry M. I do like the look of the orange colour Sally Hansen's collection has though. These polishes are £6.99 each, so Barry M is still on top with its cheap prices.

taken from project-swatch.com

Battle of the Brands: Magnetic Nail Polish

I was recently requested to try the Barry M magnetic effects nail varnishes, due to a disappointing experience. I had previously used these and had an equally disappointing experience, so thought I would give it another go! To make it a bit more interesting though, I thought I would compare the Barry M polishes, to the Nails Inc ones, and see if price difference really effects products. There are loads of different brands around that do magnetic polishes, but the Barry M ones and Nails Inc ones have quite a significant £8.00 price difference so I thought it would be interesting to see who won. I also played around to see if the different magnets would work on another brands polish. 

 
To use the polishes you apply one coat and leave to dry, and then do another coat and hold the magnet over the top whilst wet. The little lips on the lids next to the magnet make placing the magnet over the nail easy and gives you the correct distance. So here were my results.

I'll start of with the Nails Inc polishes. At £13 a bottle these are my 'splurge' purchases. They come in 3 patterns, fish net, stripes and a large star. They have different colours in these patterns but I chose the green, blue and gold. The other colours were not to my taste. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with the effects. The gold polish did absolutely NOTHING! so I had to try the fishnet effect on another nail.

Thumb- This was the green polish and I used the fishnet effect. It did work but because a thumb nail is quite broad it only did the top surface and not the sides.
Index finger- This was the blue stripe effect. It didn't go stripey but went more of an oil spill.
Middle finger- This was the green polish again but with the star effect. It looks better in real life to be fair.
Ring finger- This is the gold polish that had no effect whatsoever.
Little finger- This was the blue nails Inc polish but I used a Barry M magnet. This was not the best experience as the magnet actually fell off onto my wet nail polish so left a nice scuff. The magnet effect was coming into place though so you CAN use the Barry M magnets on Nail's Inc paint.

Next we have the Barry M polishes, I chose 4 colours, although they do moreof a selection online. I prefer the colours and the packaging is a bit clearer in indicating what the nail effect will be. These are much cheaper at £4.99, and I found I got on much better with them. The effects came out a lot clearer and again I found the Nail's Inc magnet worked on Barry M paint.

Little Finger- The black polish was the one I had tried previously and not had much luck with. Second time round, I think it didn't go quite as wavy as it should, but it did make a bit of a pattern

Ring Finger- This broken star effect did work but went to the corner of my nail for some reason.

Middle Finger- I was really impressed with this one as the lines were very definitive and the colour is really pretty.

Index Finger- This one was the best. It has a really clear pattern and has done its job perfectly.

Thumb- This was the blue Barry M with the Nail's Inc fish net effect. It did work well but again I only got a bit of coverage in the middle.

To be honest, I think magnetic polishes are a bit too much hassle, and although I don't mind the look, its not one I would do again. If you do like the look though, the Barry M ones are much better value for money so I would recommend those but hold onto the magnets as the may fall off!

*I bought all these nail polishes myself