notd :)

if you read company magazine, you may know that barry m was voted best nail polish in their beauty awards. over-all, i think this was about right. the only thing i dislike about barry m polishes are the names - so unimaginative! o.p.i came second, and i suppose that was because of people like me who like brands that have good advertisements and campaigns haha.

you may have noticed by now that i adore blue nail varnishes; and this lovely colour may be my favourite ever barry m nail polish. it's called "cyan blue", seriously..is that all they could come up with?! i suppose that doesn't really matter when you get such a nice colour for such a good price with one of the best applications ever. two coats, no base or top coat used, left no streaks and lasted two days on me (this is brilliant because i scratch a lot..i imagine it could last upwards of 4 days on most people).

NOTD :)

why must barry m shade names/numbers be so inconsistent?! my notd today is "vivid purple" but i think i've seen it under a different name before, and it has two numbers on it and i can't work out which is the actual number :/ the numbers are 161 and 939, if that means anything to you.

this is one of those polishes that i've had for so, so long and just didn't really appreciate how good it was until i'd neglected it for a while.

neither of my pictures do it justice, but i think the top one gives a better idea of it. it's so shimmery and such a rich colour, i think it would work with most skin tones too.

i've had this since christmas 2009 and the formula is still brilliant. application is really easy and it doesn't take long to dry at all. i can't even think of one negative for this polish, and i'm even considering putting fake tan on to see what they look like together!

NOTD :)

remember last summer (i think it was either the august or september issue?) when nicole scherzinger was on the cover of cosmopolitan & the free gift was nail varnish from the clothes website missguided? you could either get nude, lilac or another colour i can't remember :( i went for the nude one, it's almost exactly the same as barry m mushroom but with pink undertones. seriously love it!

i painted my nails with it yesterday, then got bored and decided to spruce it up a bit so i experimented with barry m raspberry. i very rarely wear raspberry as a normal nail varnish on my finger nails, it's either a toe-nail polish or one that i use with something else.

i have no idea why the one picture is so much bigger :/. it's good how experimenting with two normal colours can be almost as if you've bought a new polish altogether. considering the missguided nail varnish isn't from a beauty brand, it's very good. it's a bit thin & looks rubbish with one coat but two looks lovely.

in case you can't see properly, on my left hand: there's a little love heart on the thumb, my whole middle finger nail is completely barry m rasperry (because i messed up a vertical stripe, my bad) and there's a horizontal line on my baby finger. on my right hand: the thumb has a diagonal line, middle nail is polka-dot & baby finger has raspberry on the tip :) i quite like the over-all effect! do you often mess around with nail varnishes:)?

NOTD :)

yesterday, i finally managed to convince my boyfriend to watch black swan! you would've thought the lesbian sex scene would be enough to persuade him but apparently not haha. its such an amazing film, natalie portman deserves an oscar even if just for the way she plays the black swan! she seriously blew me away, especially since she learnt ballet herself instead of using a stunt-double type thing! it's such a good film & even my boyfriend admitted it should win an oscar for best film!

suppose i should go back to my nails now..i wanted something quite dark & not feminine at all, it didn't have to last long because i just wanted it for when i went to the cinema (i'm changing my nail colour today) so i decided to go for barry m instant nail effects over nails inc denim. i know i'm a bit behind on reviewing this; i thought crackle nails might blow over like the whole matte nail thing, but it seems to be lasting the test of time since o.p.i and china glaze have jumped on the bandwagon! i love the fact that a budget brand like barry m was the first (as far as i know) to come up with the crackle effect. i paid £3.99 for mine off amazon, with free delivery, and for the results it gives this is seriously amazing!

please forgive the state of my nails; they seem very brittle lately so i decided to cut them down to size, and i forgot to clean up around my nails before taking the picture, so they are a mess. i didn't really take the picture to show the colours, i just wanted to show the effect of the instant nail effects. that's after just one coat of each nails varnish, amazing! you just paint your nails with the colour of your choice, then when that's dry, go over it with just one coat of barry m. when you first paint it on, it just turns your whole nail black. as it dries, gaps form and the paint dries in perfect crackle fashion! it's brilliant. i've seen swatches of china glaze and o.p.i's versions, but i honestly think barry m seems better, and for the price you'd be a fool not to try it! i love crackle nails & hope they stay around a while :).

NOTD :)

even though basically everyone has seen numerous swatches of barry m mushroom, it's one of my favourite nail varnishes so i'm going to blog about it anyway :). if you're one of the few that hasn't seen it, mushroom is a gorgeous light brown shade. it reminds me of galaxy chocolate, nom. i hate how people make fun of brown nail varnishes with the poo comments, ha, i think they look really nice. mushroom is one of my go-to nail varnishes because it's suitable for so many occasions. i painted my nails with it yesterday, then felt like changing it up a bit, so i painted one nail on each hand with doll house by china glaze. doll house is the typical "barbie" nail varnish - pink with lots of glitter. i can see why some people would think it's tacky or a bit too much, but i like it for going over other nail varnishes or just on one or two nails :)

on my other hand, doll house is on my index finger. i quite like how it looks, and my nails are actually an alright shape for once! the consistency of mushroom is brilliant, i usually find barry m are a bit hit and miss. with a thick coat and careful application, mushroom would be good to go with one coat! i'm a bit careless though so tend to stick to two coats. i did this at about 9pm yesterday and there wasn't even any tip-wear until i got home from school today, and then it was only minimal. i'm always a bit confused when it comes to applying glitter nail varnish, is there really a correct technique?! i put two coats on this time, but i wasn't trying to cover the whole nail.

this was taken at night time, with flash, so it's a bit overly bright, but i like how my nails look so i uploaded it anyway, haha. i buy my barry m nail varnishes from boots, they're on offer quite often so it's always worth a look! i've never tried ordering from the china glaze website before because amazon is cheeper *looks sheepish* when i bought mine it was £8 or £8.95, i'm not sure, but i think prices change on amazon quite often anyway.