Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Almond

Hi Everyone!

 

So I may have been guilty in the past of being a bit of a nail polish snob and sticking only to salon brands such as OPI and Essie but I have fallen in love with the Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paints. I have several in my collection now so expect to see more soon!

 

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Polish in Pomegranate

Hi everyone!

 

The weather is amazing here in the UK at the moment and I hope you are all enjoying it! I am off to the beach tomorrow so decided to paint my nails before I go!

Top 10 Loose Eyeshadows/ Pigments

Hi Everyone!

This is a post dedicated to my top 10 loose eyeshadow/ pigments. A lot of people are put off from using loose shadows as they think that they are harder to work with than pressed ones and guarantee a lot of fall out but if you use a decent primer and/ or base and the correct type of brush they are amazing and give you a much stronger effect than a pressed shadow can. They also blend out really well and can also be used wet to give a foil-like effect. I like to use either the MAC 239 or 242 brushes to apply them, a great tip is to dip your brush into the jar and pick up some of the pigment then crush it into the lid, also make sure that you tap off any excess back into the jar and apply with a patting rather than sweeping motion to begin with. So on to my top 10!

10. Illamasqua Pure Pigment in Involve:

Illamasqua describe this pigment as a Royal purple with shimmer but to me it is more of an shimmery eggplant shade. I like to layer it over their cream shadow in Mould (such an attractive name!) with a lighter purple shadow such as MAC's Digit in the inner tear duct area for a dark smokey eye that is perfect for a night out especially for those of us with brown eyes.

You can purchase this pigment from Illamasqua Online for £15.50.

9. NYX Loose Pearl Powder in Mocha: 

I purchased this pigment after seeing one of my favourite YouTube beauty guru's, JulieG713 using it in one of her tutorials. It is a lovely shimmery brown shade that looks great during the day for work or on a night out. This is the only loose shadow from NYX that I own and I am really impressed with the quality of the product itself but I really dislike the packaging as the opening is too small to fit your brush into which makes the application slower and messier than it needs to be, however, for the price I don't mind purchasing a separate jar to transfer it into!

You can purchase this shadow from NYX for £2.50.

8. Barry M Dazzle Dust in Bright Indigo (99):

This is a matte indigo-purple shade that is super pigmented! A little goes a long way with Barry M Dazzle Dusts so they are great value for money. If you are a fan of purple and would like to try a loose shadow then I think that this would be a great one to start with due to its ease of application, intense colour pay-off and affordable price.
You can purchase Dazzle Dusts from Barry M for £4.59 and also from Boots and Superdrug stores across the UK.

7. MAC Violet Pigment:

My favourite colour is purple so this vivid bright violet purple pigment was a must have for me. It is your classic true purple shade and I love to apply it all over my lid with a pale lavender shade such as MAC's Digit with a dark colour such as MAC's Black Tied in the crease for a gorgeous purple smokey eye.

You can purchase this pigment from MAC for £15.50.

6. MAC Heritage Rouge Pigment:

This was a limited edition pigment from the Makeup Art Cosmetics Collection from 2009, it is described as a dark cranberry-burgundy frost. I love this pigment as it has a lovely smooth texture and is great for autumn/ fall. I love to layer this over MAC's Artifact paint pot and pair it with golds and chocolate browns. I only have a sample size of this at the moment but I'm hoping that MAC will re promote it at some point in the future so that I can get the full size!

5. MAC Rose Pigment:

This is such an unusual colour which MAC describes as a rose with copper sparkle. The gold colour, to me, comes across much stronger on the skin that it does in the pot, it is a great colour to experiment with as you can pair it with so many other colours and it looks great!

You can purchase this pigment from MAC for £15.50

4. Sugarpill Goldilux Loose Eyeshadow:

This metallic gold pigment is amazing and is so sparkly and bright! The consistency of this shadow is a little finer than the MAC pigments but not as fine as a glitter. This shadow looks amazing paired with golden brown shades such as MAC's Bronze and Twinks and plum shades such as MAC's Sketch. It is also perfect from Christmas time as it has a slight festive edge to it!

You can purchase Sugarpill products in the UK from Cocktail Cosmetics the pigments cost £8.45 each.

3. MAC Tan Pigment:

Tan is probably my most used pigment and looks great on everyone no matter what their eye colour or skin tone. It is described as a muted pinky brown bronze and I love to wear it over MAC's Rubenesque pot with a warm brown such as Mulch in the crease. It I had to recommend one pigment to buy from MAC this would be it as you would get so much use out of it!

You can purchase this pigment from MAC  for £15.50.

2. MAC Mutiny Pigment:

Mutiny was a limited edition pigment that first became available from MAC back in 2008 as part of the Naughty Nauticals collection and is a sky blue with gold pearl. This really is the most beautiful shade of blue that I have ever seen and is so bright and rich in colour. It looks amazing applied along the lower lashline with a neutral lid.

1. MAC Pink Pearl Pigment:

Pink Pearl is my favourite MAC pigment and is a stunning pink with a lavender duochrome (the picture below really doesn't do it justice). I love to use this wet all over my lid with Sketch in the crease. This pigment used to be available in the permanent collection but I think it is now only available in the pro line. Stars n Rockets pressed shadow from MAC is very similar to Pink Pearl but less pigmented.

Some swatches for you (shown on NW20 skin):

(L to R) MAC Pink Pearl, MAC Heritage Rouge, MAC Violet, Illamasqua Involve, Barry M Bright Indigo

(L to R) MAC Rose, Sugarpill Goldilux, MAC Tan, NYX Mocha, MAC Mutiny

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my favourite loose eyeshadows, please feel free to share yours with me in the comments section below and click here to read my Top 10 MAC Pigments post.

Maz x

Crackle/ Shatter Nail Polish Top Coats Review

Hi Guys!

Shatter/ Crackle top coats are a relatively new product on the market and are already really popular! All of the top nail polish brands are bringing their own versions of these top coats out and they are a great way of quickly adding some nail art to your nails with very little effort or skill!

I own 3 of these types of top coats,

Barry M Instant Nail Effects in Black Magic

China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Fault Line

OPI Silver Shatter

I have applied a coat of each of these over 2 coats of OPI's La Paz-itively Hot so you can see which apply and crackle the best! So let's get started!

OPI Silver Shatter: This is the most expensive of the top coats, priced at around £9.95 in the UK. I purchased mine from Tiffany Nail Supplies which currently offer another 6 shatter colour options, Black, Blue, Red, Turquoise and White. I was so excited to try this one as the silver colour is so eye catching and sparkly but it hasn't really shown up against the pink polish all that well. I think that it would look better over a dark purple or black. It cracked OK but not amazingly well and it's consistency didn't seem as thick as the other two. I would only give it 3 out of 5 stars for the crackle effect as the other two seemed to crack better!

China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Fault Line: This is the mid-range polish priced at around £5.50 - £7 in the UK. I purchased my bottle from Beverly Beaute and they currently offer 5 other crackle colour options, Broken Hearted (Pink) Crushed Candy (Mint Green) Black Mesh (Black) Cracked Concrete (Grey/ Silver) and Lightening Bolt (White). I love the purple one as purple is my favourite colour and I think that this looks great paired with the pink polish underneath. The polish was thick but easy to apply and, as you can see, has cracked quite well. I would give this 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Barry M Instant Nail Effects in Black Magic: This is the cheapest of the 3 polishes priced at £3.99 in the UK and is by far my favourite! This definitely cracked the best out of the 3! I think that the black colour is great over a brighter polish and will certainly get you noticed! I have owned this bottle of polish for around 6 month's now and it has pretty much dried out (I thinned it down using nail polish remover in order to swatch it) which is a bit disappointing, however, the price is low so buying another bottle wouldn't be too bad! I would give this polish 4 and a half stars out of 5! I would of given it the full 5 is it wasn't for the polish drying up. Barry M nail effects are currently available in 3 other colours, Pink Fizz, Blue Print and White Frost, you can buy them from Boots and Superdrug stores in the UK or online at the Barry M website.

I think that all 3 of these polishes are great and a fun and easy way to make your nails look more exciting! I have not owned or used the OPI and China Glaze polishes for very long so I can not say whether they will dry up as quickly as the Barry M one did. I think that the Barry M polish is by far the best choice as it is the lowest price and crackled the best. I would advise applying a clear top coat over the polishes as that makes them pop more!

I hope that you found this post helpful!

Maz x