Barry M Amethyst Glitter - Glitter Gradient

An old mani for you all today, but one I still love!

Back in September/October last year Barry m released a 'Jewel' collections, full of gorgeous glitter polishes. I didn't wait long before grabbing myself a couple and one of my favourites it Amethyst Glitter:

Instead of wearing it on its own, I tried it as a glitter gradient and I really do love it!

Amethyst Glitter is a beautiful mix of small and micro hex glitters in an array of jewel tones. There is a mix of turquoise, pink, gold, purple, black and red hex glitters and only turquoise micro glitter. It is so densely packed that one coat is almost opaque! 2-3 make it totally opaque and add lots of depth.

The formula was pretty good, slightly thick due to the amount of glitter but fast drying and smooth. It did dry to a slightly bumpy finish but a good thick layer of topcoat sorts that out nicely.

For this gradient I've layered it over Barry M Greenberry, a lovely turquoise one coater. The density of this polish made the whole process so much easier because there wasn't much base in ratio to the glitter so fading the glitter out was delightfully easy.

What do you think? Have you tried any of the Barry M Jewel collection?

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 31 - Re-Create Your Favourite Challenge

Okay, so I'm not actually doing my favourite day, but one that I wanted to have another go at.

Truthfully there was about 6 days I wish I could have done again, but I picked Day 10 - Gradient Nails because at the time I wasn't confident about my gradient skills so did a glitter gradient instead. I liked what I created the first time found but felt like I wanted to do a "proper" gradient, so here it is:

I used two of the new Barry M Gelly Nail Paints in Key Lime (green) and Guava (blue). They made the whole process so much easier because the formula was brilliant! I then added a layer of sparse iridescent glitter and then mattified it.

Here's what it looked like before the glitter:

 I really really like these! And I feel like my gradient skills have improved vastly!

Look forward to seeing more gradients from me, I just love the look of them!

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

Tutorials.

I actually really like them, because they help make rather difficult things really quite easy.

So for this weeks theme I decided to use a tutorial for a style I've never tried before... Braided Nails! I used this tutorial by fellow Brit Blog - Lucy's Stash.

And it was amazingly SO easy! Because all it is really is stripes! And you don't need any special tools or equipment, just some one coat polishes!

Seriously, if you've ever wanted to try these but thought they would be too difficult, go have a try and tell me how they went, I bet you'll be surprised!

Barry M Sequin Nail Effect - White

I have a new product for you all!

You may have seen or heard about all the new Barry M releases coming out over the next few months (more Gelly polishes, new Sequin Effects and new Confetti Effects). Well I have one of the New Sequin Nail Effects Nail Paints to show you!

This is Sequin Nail Paint in White. (There is also a pink one with the same formula and a black and gold one too).

That is two coats of the polish over a white creme.

It is basically a sheer white base with small hex glitter suspended in it. The colours of the glitters are red, blue, green, gold and silver. I think there is also some sort of texture element to it because when the first coat dried there was visible opaque residue in the polish. Either that or I have a dodgy bottle.

The formula was easy to work with and applied smoothly, but the glitter did like to hide away on the first coat. On the second however, they spread out nicely and a good amount transfered onto the nail.

Okay, here's the truth. It is very sheer. As in so sheer it will NEED a base colour, otherwise it will take about 6/7 coats to get it remotely opaque. And if you actually do that many coat, the glitter will probably just fill your nails.

I decided to mattify it to see what it looks like and well... there wasn't much difference. The whole thing just went a bit cloudier and the base and glitter got duller, but apart from that nothing much else changed.

Removal was the same as any other chunky glitter. Thankfully no vicious scrubbing was required and eventually the glitter did slide off which is a major bonus!

So overall what do I think? Well it reminds me of sprinkles and I can see myself using this a lot for nail art, but I doubt I would wear it as a full mani very often. It was a tad bit 'primary school' if that makes sense to you and the formula was a bit annoying but I think it will quite popular since it's quite different.

You can purchase it from the majority of Superdrug and Boots stores and the Barry M website soon.

Nail Art Hauling

So you all probably know that I like nail art right? Well, its true I do. But I realised that all the nail art I do is generally painted or stamped! So I thought I should invest in some 'other' things to use for nail art and this is what I ended up with:

Some nail art glitter:

 Some nail art studs and gems:

Some nail art brushes:

And some more stamping plates:

And here's a quick look I created using some gold square studs:

I used Barry M Black Multi Glitter as a base, which in the bottle is a black creme with loads of scattered holo glitter, but on the nail it just looks like a black creme. I then just added a layer of topcoat and placed the studs on. Easy!

I bought all the NPW stuff from River Island/Topshop/New Look and the GALS stamping plates from Amazon.

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 20 - Water Marbled

Water Marble.

A technique I was scared of doing because of the mess involved.

But for the sake of the challenge I gave it a go. And after two failed attempts, this is what I ended up with:

I used all three foil Limited Edition Barry M Xmas polishes and no base or top coat.

Hmm, I actually really do like the finished look but knowing how much work was needed beforehand (and the clean-up!) makes me weary of doing this very often.

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 19 - Galaxies

Galaxies.

Something I had never thought of creating on my nails.

But now that I have, I love them!

They were really straightforward as well!

What I did was first paint my nails with A England Tristam, then using the corner of a makeup sponge, dab on on A England St George and Color Club Eternal Beauty and Harp On It. Then once that was dry I very lightly sponged over it all with Color Club Beyond and topped it all off with Barry M Diamond Glitter. Then sealed it all in with some topcoat.

I love the fact that all the colours merge together but can all still be seen and the holographicness from the polishes and glitter topper just ties it all together.

So easy and so cool!

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 16 - Tribal Print

I realize now that I missed day 16 - doh! So here it is...

Tribal Print.

Something I hadn't actually done before.

But now that I have, I know I'm going to do it again. It's so easy!

All I did was paint my nails pink, with Barry M Dragon Fruit, then painted on the turquoise with Barry M Green Berry. When they were both dry I freehanded the black patterns and then topcoated. Easy!

And I actually like these! They're not the neatest but considering it took less than 20 minutes, I think its pretty good!

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 14 - Flowers

Flowers.

An image that can be created in so many ways. And one that I've repeatedly produced on my nails.

At first I was going to do rainbow flowers over all my nails with a dotting tool but I was short for time, so I did the same thing but stamped!

I rarely wear crazy full nail patterns, let alone a different one on each nail, so this was a refreshing change.

I think they look like old fashioned wallpaper!

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 12 - Stripes

I know this was technically meant to be up last week but I accidentally took a chunk out of my middle finger last to last sunday and so couldn't paint my nails. But its healed now so here you go.

Stripes.

Another easy nail art technique.

They can be drawn freehand or done with striping tape and both give off a different look. I went for striping tape simply because it was just easier.

This is O.P.I OPI Ink with Barry M silver foil.

I love the clean lines striping tape gives and I can definitely think of so many manis that would look so much better by using it!

What do you think, do you prefer freehand or tape?

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 8 - Metallic

Metallic.

A finish I don't tend to wear much. Why? Because it often looks brushstrokey and also, I don't much like the frosted/pearly look that can sometimes come off of metallics.

So, instead of a plain metallic I chose... Barry M Chameleon Blue!

I originally bought this for when I was a away from home so I could change my nails without much effort.

Its a nice enough colour on its own, not my favourite though. It's a sort of silver toned blue colour.
It was opaque in one coat but I did two because it it showed just about every single ridge on my nails.

I wasn't feeling particularly creative so I just did dots...

The colour I do like from this polish is the one it changes into! Its a gorgeous plum/maroon/burgandy colour and I think that looks more flattering on my skin tone than the blue did. Excuse the mess, the topcoat outside of the painted area sort of changed colour too and i was too lazy to clean it up :/

The funny thing is, in real life I did NOT see this much variation in colour! Its as if the amount, and thickness, of topcoat dictate the outcome of the 'topcoat' colour... Hmm, interesting.

I guess in the future I will wear topcoat anyway so I'm happy that I prefer the 'topcoat' colour.

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 7 - Black and White

Black and White.

Two colours that I hardly ever wear.

No reason in particular, they just don't seem to look good plain on my nails...

So, for this week I used a different nail art technique on each on my nails. Well, I say technique but two of them are just special effect polishes.

Anyway this is what I created (excuse the messiness, I didn't have time to clean up) :

I used O.P.I My Boyfriend Scales Walls as a base and then I used (from left to right) China Glaze Black Mesh, Barry M Black, Barry M Croc Effects Black, W7 Cosmic Black.

Hmm, my favorite nail is probably the polka dot one...



P.S. I think I'm the only one still doing this challenge so I'll stop putting links to the other blogs from now on.

P.P.S. Since I am the only one, I'm going to post when I can, not every monday as was previously arranged.

Barry M Denim

Barry M Denim. A polish i showed you on monday as part of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, which you can see here .

Oh.My.God, this is just sooo amazing!

It is a one coater, and by that i mean it is seriously one coat and your done.

Aaannnddd

This is so smooooth!!! Infact, it's so smooth my mum thought the pictures were fake! :0

Okay, before i get ahead of myself let me talk about the polish. It is basically a lovely blue creme base with micro sliver shimmer shot through it. The ratio of silver to blue is just perfect, and it genuinely looks like denim on my nails! (besides the smoothness obviously)

It has a matte finish and so it dries nice and quickly, but still allows enough time to avoid streakiness or dragging. The formula is just so perfect too!

I cannot fault it at all!

Okay, so its obvious i'm not going to be able to stop gushing about this for a while so i'm just going to stop typing here.

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 5 - Blue

Blue.

A colour I like very much but much like green, a colour I never used to wear!

But that has completely changed! I own a lot of blue polishes now.

This is probably one of my favourite blues, Barry M Denim. It genuinely does look like denim on my nails! I'll do a proper swatch post for it soon but for now, here's a quick pic.

On top of that I put Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell (duochromatic micro glitter) and Look Nail Pop Pearl Effect (blue flakies), all sealed in with a coat of Seche Vite.

Before I started I didn't actually know if this combination.would even work, but now that its on my nails I can safely say it did!

Random underwater shot...

I love how it changes completely in different angles.

And under very bright light you can still see the Barry M Denim!

Ah I'm a sucker for magical toppers!


And don't forget to check out what Stephanie and Wendy have created this week!