Review of 'Barry M Silk Collection' in 'Heather'

Hi everyone! We slowly easing our way out of winter which means it's nearly spring time meaning new spring collections are being released! Barry M have released their spring collection in the form of these new 'Silk' nail varnishes in 6 different colours. I picked up the colour Heather for £3.99 as I thought out of the 6 it was the one I'd be most likely to wear. It's sort of a lilac colour infused with pink and it's definitely not as dark as the colour I'd associate heather with is.

I don't really feel that this silk trend is a new thing as I remember the kids kind of nail varnishes used to have a similar look and to be honest I never really liked it because I always felt the brush strokes were really visible. However, I did discover that this drys matte which is something I don't remember my old ones doing which is why I wanted to give it a go.

I used my Sally Hansen base coat first which dried super fast; always a plus with nail varnishes!

I then applied the first coat of colour. It wasn't too streaky like I remember my old ones being and if I was in a rush I think it looked actually okay with just one coat of colour. It drys really quickly and once it was dry it sort of reminded me slightly of my holographic one from Topshop. It also seemed to have a sweeter scent to normal nail varnishes when I was applying it but it still dried with no scent!

I applied a second coat even though one probably could've been enough but I had the time! I found it was better to kind of dab it on or just apply a thicker coat because it eliminates any sign of brush strokes.

Originally I didn't apply a top coat because I thought it would ruin the matte look but I did test a top coat out on one nail and it didn't actually look too bad. I don't think I'll put it on the rest though as the matte finish is what I think makes this nail varnish original.

Personally it's not my favourite kind of nail varnish because I'm not too keen on matte finishes and it just reminded me of something a small child would wear on their nails when they had first been allowed to paint them. But despite of that the nail varnish it's self is just like all the others from Barry M in quality so if you like that style I'd recommend you go check it out! Let me know if you've tried any others from the collection and which is your favourite, thanks for reading!

Review & Swatches of 'Maybelline Color Show Street Artist' in '04 Alley Attitude'

Hi everyone! So I was in town just planning to pick up some paper for school but of course I had to pop into Superdrug as I was walking past. I had a quick scan of the make up sections and I came across the Maybelline counter where they were promoting a nail varnish which looked really interesting so of course I had to pick one up. There were 4 colours but I thought I would just try one so I picked up the blue one for £3.99!

So I wasn't exactly sure what colour to use as my base colour as this nail varnish is a top coat, so I had a little look on some other peoples blogs and popular opinion was to use grey. However, despite having nearly 100 nail varnishes I don't actually have a grey so I did some swatches on some different colours!

So this is what it looks like on a plain nail without a base coat. Obviously I wouldn't wear it out like this but it shows you what the nail varnish looks like.

Firstly, I tried it with a black base colour which I think makes the the blue really stand out but you loose the effect of the black parts in the polish which I guess kind of defeats the point of the nail polish being two toned.

I then gave it a go on a light blue, similar to the colour of the blue parts in the polish, but again this had the same effect as using black as my base colour.

I thought a darker blue might work, but again it didn't look great as the effect kind of blended in which in my opinion is not the point of this nail varnish.

Similarly, using a pale purple just didn't make the effect stand out and the blue and purple just didn't compliment each other well.

Finally I tried white, as this was the closest colour to grey I had, and I think it looked amazing!

From a distance it looks like you've manually splattered nail polish on your nails (which is something I have tried but the effect never seems to turn out the way I want it to!) So many people asked me at school how I did it and were shocked to find out it was quite literally a top coat!

In the collection there is also a red, green and a sort of whitey purpley coloured one in addition to the blue one I bought. I would definitely recommend you get one and try it out for yourself! They look so fun and require minimal effort which is always a plus when you don't have a great deal of time to spare!

Although it in principal is the same as any confetti or glitter top coat I think it looks so much better and I really like that there are a variety of sized pieces making it look like more realistic paint splatters!

Let me know if what you think of this new look and if you have tried it out! Thanks for reading!