Barry M Instant Nail Effects

I know.. I'm a very bad girl *looks up with puppy dog eyes, in the hopes of forgiveness*..

Its been an age since my last post!!

But here I am, still present and I haven't dropped off the face of the earth!  So I'll dip straight in and tell you about the new Barry M Instant Nail effects that I purchased last week.

Barry M say:
Instant Nail Effects is a simple to use nail paint that creates this amazing effect on your nails in one simple stroke. Or play around with it to create different effects.


I purchased mine through the website as my local Superdrug take an eon to get anything new in there.. I half expect to find cobwebs on the products in there sometimes!  Anyway, I don't feel that the delivery was all that quick, infact I completely forgot I'd ordered it!  (OK, so I just checked, and I ordered on the 24th (A Sunday), and I got the 'Dispatched' email on the same day, then my order arrived on Thursday, so not bad, but I've received orders quicker with Feel Unique (free delivery on all orders) and HQ Hair for example..)


When I first applied it, in haste and with excitement, it was over 4 days old OPI Tickle My France-y!  I actually quite liked it over that.  If you love the look of dark nail polish, but are perhaps worried about carrying it off, or you feel your skin tone may not suit, then the Barry M  I.N.E might be the perfect way to try it out as it gives you the overall look of a dark nail polish, but as its not solid it allows your natural nail to peep through, breaking up the whole look.


Oddly, I really enjoyed watching it dry too  In the words of Forrest Gump; "Barry M Instant Nail effects is like a box of chocolates.. You never know what you're gonna get.. "  Sort of!  
The thicker the application, the less it breaks up and the bolder it looks, the lighter the application, the more crackled it appears.. so theres some playing around with this.


What I did find, and this may be because I applied it over old varnish (ie there may have been some oily residue on my nails perhaps) I found that the I.N.E polish wore off on the tips of my nails, this happened on the 2nd day, keeping in mind I applied it very late in the evening the previous night and went straight to bed pretty much, this got steadily worse though and by the 3rd day it was ready to come off.  A proper application of a base coat may well solve this though.


I also found that you have to work fast with it.  The longer you take, the more it begins to thicken.. You can tell that the excess polish on the brush and the bottle rim is thickening up from the moment it hits the air, so I strongly suspect that I won't see half of the polish because it may well become unusable.. again, time will tell on that one, but that is my first impression.


I was expecting it to be glossier than it was, but with some Seche Vite topcoat that one can be solved.


All that said, this is quite a fun thing to have a play around with, and its something pretty new to me..  Although I seem to remember Changing Rooms and Carol smiley - Smillie going through a phase of slapping on a similar crackle paint to everything they encountered!  Does anyone in the UK remember that programme!? lol  ..Trust me, if you didn't get to see it, or aren't from the UK, then you didn't miss a thing!


Today I had another go (in haste as it was a last minute decision.. I know I know, one day I will apply my nail polish in the correct manor!).  
This time I used Glitter Red with the I.N.E over the top.  

(picture taken from the Barry M website)


Theres quite a difference when you apply this over a glitter based polish.. instead of the effect you get with a smooth-non glitter polish (similar to the example given on the bottle, although I should add its not as neat  as that pic in R.L either!), you end up with smaller crackles, crackles that give almost a leopard print look to the nail.


So here it is, and please excuse my really shoddy application.. 

Nail polish is a pretty new experience to me!  It's only in the last  month or so that Ive taken a real interest in it actually.  I've always had plenty of bottles, but have always avoided actually using them because Im so bad at making it look neat.. 'practice makes perfect' though, right!?

Oh, and I also don't recommend you stick silver stars on your pinkie either!!  It was total overkill.. I was just playing around!

I purchased this for £3.95 from the Barry M website here



Heres hoping its not another 50 years before I make another post!