Gold Effects by Barry M

This is a crackle polish which creates a shatter look on your nails.  I only have Barry M crackle polishes so I don't know what other brands are like.  I find with the Barry M polishes that they are quite thick so the crackle effect itself is raised up from the nails. 

The last time I used my Black Effects crackle polish I wore it over the last nail polish I wore which was a yellow (Big Yellow Taxi by Ciate).  This time though, the Gold Effects polish comes alphabetically after Gold by Barry M, so slightly pointless to layer the Gold Effects over the top.  So I broke protocol and layered the crackle over the Maybelline MNY polish I wore previously.  This is the effect it gave...

It is ok, not greatly dramatic I think.  It probably would look better over black more than any other colour.

I can't say that I am a huge fan of the crackle polishes (again I've only ever tried Barry M so I can't speak to the effects given by other brands).  I find the premise much nicer than the actual effect.

Next up is Gorgeous by Sinful Colors.
Until next time,
Lealea x

Gold by Barry M

This is an old Barry M polish, I've probably had it for about 5 years or so.  I think I bought it for a christmas outfit as gold is not my favourite - I much prefer silver as I think it suits my colouring better.

This gold has very fine flecks of gold glitter in it, giving it a bit of a shimmery effect.  My main complaint about this polish is that it is very thin and takes a lot of coats to achieve anything like an opaque coverage.  I put three coats on and really a fourth would have been better to give better coverage.

Like I said, I don't think that gold polish suits my colouring, but I do like the shimmery effect this polish creates.  If gold is your colour, this is a good polish.

Next up is Gold Effects by Barry M.
Until then,
Lealea x

Glitter by No. 17

This nail polish came with a free gift from Boots No.17 when you bought another product.  It is just a clear nail polish with fine glitter of red, green and silver sparkle.  The polish itself has a very strong smell, a bit like paint stripper which is a bif off putting. 

The glitter is ok, but not something I would bother about buying if it hadn't come as a free gift.  My four year old loves it though, she loves wearing sparkle over other polishes so maybe I will keep it for her use only.

I wore this over the previous MNY polish, and you can just about see it on my nails.  Brown is not the best colour to wear it over though, it probably needs something light like a light pink or pale yellow to show it off properly.

Next up is Gold from Barry M,
Until then,
Lealea x

Maybelline MNY polish

Ok so the title of this polish does not start with a G I know.  This is because I mistakenly thought that the Maybelline MNY polish that I bought was called Gemey Paris.  However having examined other MNY polishes I noticed that they were all actually called Gemey Paris and just had numbers to distinguish the colours.  Oops - my bad!

I actually bought this polish from Poundland for £1, so I can't complain too much.  In the bottle its a lovely mixture of brown polish with a very finely milled gold glitter mix.  It really shines in the bottle and I thought it was going to look beautiful on the nails.  Nope.  When will I learn that what is in the bottle does not always translate to the nails.  On me it just looks like brown polish.  Bearing in mind I wore this during the little heatwave we had here, it was just totally the wrong colour to be wearing, it would be more suited to a cold Autumn day.

Next up is Glitter by No. 17.
See you then,
Lealea x

Aqua Glitter by Barry M

I went on a bit of a mad glitter kick a couple of weeks ago as Superdrug had a deal on Barry M nail polish and I had just figured out how to take glitter polish off my nails using the tin foil trick.

I thought this polish was going to be like Red Glitter and Blue Glitter from Barry M which is a coloured polish with coloured glitter so you get block coloured polish on your nails.  Not so with this.  The polish is actually clear with aqua glitter so even after four coats, you could see all of my nails under the polish.  It really needed another colour underneath it first, but there was no way I was busting out the tin foil to take it all off to start again after using four coats in the first place. I must confess though I only wore it for a day before I had to take it all off as I couldn't stand it being so see through.

The colour is actually really pretty, but you could have to find a similar colour to go underneath it, as it might detract from the aqua colour if you got the under colour wrong.  Such a shame.

Anyway enough of jumping backwards, onto the G's now!

Until then,
Lealea x

Fuschia by L'Oreal

I bought this polish a couple of years ago as I was trying to replicate a Jessica polish that I'd had at a professional mani/pedi.  Unfortunately I never bought the Jessica polish at the time and never found out the actual colour used so could not buy that specific one.  To be honest I'm not sure what spurred me to buy this polish, the colour is really nothing like the Jessica polish I had which was much more red.

This polish is ok, the colour is a dark burgundy colour, but nothing special.  The polish goes on ok, but nothing to get too excited about.  Not a shade I would pick to wear often I don't think as I have others that are much nicer.

(Sorry about the quality of the photo, taken from my phone as I did not have access to my usual camera).

It lasted a while without chipping, so thats one good thing to report.

This is the last of the F's - next up I am jumping all the way back to the A's (naughty me!) to try Aqua Glitter by Barry M.  Then its onto the G's.

Until then,
Lealea x

Fantasy Fire by Max Factor

This nail polish has been all around You Tube and the beauty bloggers as one of the IT nail polishes of the spring/early summer.  My lovely MIL bought this for me as a Mothers Day present back in April, so I have been really excited about trying it out myself.

The polish is a duochrome of red and purple and in the bottle it is amazing.  In one light its purple, another red, so, so pretty.

On the nails though, its another story.  It took me four coats to achieve anything like a good coverage and you could clearly see all of my nails underneath.  The polish is so thin.  It really needed another colour underneath but I wanted to see the true colour of this polish so I stuck with it.  The polish itself does translate as a red/purple colour but because it was so thin, the impact was not as amazing as it could be.  It seems such a shame to have to wear it with another colour underneath as this might change the colour of the polish from that in the bottle.

So all in all its nice but not as amazing as it could be.

Next up is Fuschia from L'Oreal.
Until then,
Lealea x