Return of the Aquarium Collection: Barry M's Persian.

Sadly, it has to be admitted that this little beauty has been in the stash a while yet not appeared on the blog. It's been on Instagram here. Maybe it's just been forgotten under it's sheer brilliance, well here it is now and hopefully it will impress you all. It's Barry M's newest Aquarium Collection release called Persian, the colour is a mix of a deep purple and a bronze/gold when it catches the corner of the eye. This happens a lot, have a sneak through for some more photographs.

Appearance of another duotone: Mediterranean by Barry M

When this collection first appeared, the hype didn't really reach myself as duotones haven't gone down well in the past. However once this polish was swatched, I was completely converted to duotones as it really appear to be two colours at once as well as having a lot of staying power on the nails. The amazing collection which has converted the feelings towards duotones is Barry M's Aquarium collection. And today is going to feature another one of these lovely polishes:

Now it's a little different from the usual nail polish palette which are normally swatched but I promise you it's a great colour choice. It's called Mediterranean from Aquarium collection by Barry M, the duotone effect is between orange and a rose gold. (sort of - not really any other way to describe it!) It appears metallic orange in everyday light and then the rose gold appears when moving your hands and in brighter light. Shall we go ahead and see the swatches?

A Blast From The Past: MNY 445 and 447

Good morning readers! Hope you are all well this lovely day, this mood I am in is too happy for my normal self. The reason for this happiness has yet to be established... Just whittling down some more loved but not yet shown to you guys polishes today. They are a slight blast from the nail polish collection past as they are the first ever polishes bought from a pound shop. From then I've been addicted to purchasing polishes from these shops!

These polishes were chosen from the pound shop seeing as they are from the brand Maybelline, instead of brands which you've never even heard of inside the pound shop. Sadly these don't have really call names like Maybelline polishes do now, they are called 445 and 447. Let's start with 445:

GOT Polish Challenge: Stripes

So here's the next stage in this lovely challenge, this week is stripes which is going to mean many different colours of the oldest nail polish I own and the use of good old selotape seeing as the striping tape hasn't yet arrived therefore I apologise in advance for the neatness of the stripes! The nail polishes which are having the dust removed as we speak are:

Now one of the nail polishes is such an oldie that a) it's not a big brand name and b) I don't know where it was purchased so sorry that I cannot lead you to were it was purchased but it's on it's last legs anyway! So it's a gold nail polish by IMAGE and Gemey Paris by MNY Maybelline which does have a gold speckle inside the black colour. The combination which was the aim was a black and gold stripe seeing as it's always a good colour combination!

Not what I was hoping for in neatness of lines but they do stand out as they are such contrasting colours and the striping tape will be here soon! Definitely makes a great difference to the normality of the one colour on my nails, there'll be more where this came from! It's just practise makes perfect so they will improve with time practise and watching tips/tricks on youtube... As well as these nail polishes I have been using Sally Hansen Insta-Dry over most recent nail polishes, it's now used all the time as it drys so quickly and lasts forever. Give it a try! Hope you liked the attempt at strips, see you soon.

 





Getting into the spirit of things: Christmas Crackle!

Seeing as the lovely red and gold theme Christmas tree has now been put up inside the house, definitely going to beat all the other Christmas tree designs just kidding! It's now the time to get into the festivities therefore the nails should be also. After a few attempts at deciding a good colour combination I copied the tree colours - red and gold. However seeing as I am so addicted to crackle at the moment, the red is going to be crackle!

It's a combination of Gemey Paris by Maybelline New York and Red Shatter by OPI. The gold is definitely a mute gold as opposed to a bright gold so that it lets the red stand out and also so my fingers don't look too much like a bright Christmas tree...

Layer number one: Good so far! Definitely needs another coat as it's quite see through at the moment.

Layer number two: Okay-ish coverage, it's fine seeing as the crackle layer is going on over the top but sadly you'd need another layer or possibly two if your just wearing it as it is. Therefore the nail varnish doesn't get a total thumbs up.

Here's the final results! And another shot of the Christmas tree. Overall it came out pretty well, the OPI nail varnish was lovely to apply seeing as at one point too much nail polish was applied yet it didn't come out in one big blob (which does happen with less expensive nail varnish effects) also the under coat colour complimented the crackle effect! Therefore this combination has a thumbs up and a definite recommend of the OPI red shatter effect. Finally Merry Christmas!!!