Showing posts with label Barry M Blue Moon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barry M Blue Moon. Show all posts

Saturday, 27 April 2013

Crumpet's Choice - The 7 Barry M Nail Paints You Can't Live Without

Hi Goddesses



And welcome to an exciting new series on The Crumpet - Crumpet's Choice.   It basically gives me any and every excuse to walk you through my stash, my preferences, my polish loves and anything else that tickles my fancy.


We start with the awesomeness that is Barry and his M.  Originally, this post was going to draw from ALL his polishes, but as we have 5 new Gellies on the way, I thought I'd split it.  So today focuses on the cremes, the Nail Paints.



Barry M has many gorgeous colours, and many of his most popular shades - eg the Ice Creams - are not amongst my personal favourites.  What I have here though are the 7 I use the most, that I feel are the most unusual or to die for or unique, or that just provide a very specific balance to your collection.  If you're lucky enough to have 60 seconds to scoop up 7 Barry M polishes, these are the ones I'm suggesting you choose.



We start with Block Orange.  This is my most used Barry M.  It's just THE perfect orange, and it's also super glossy.  Worse, it started my orange obsession.  I never loved an orange until this polish, and I haven't found another orange since that's as pure or as perfect.




(YIKES!  super nubs!)

Next, Indigo.  This is just a stunning shade.  When I bought it, it was quite unique in the polish world, but lots of other brands have since attempted something similar - Miss Emo Shun All by Sation being the closest dupe.  This polish is just  soooooo dramatic and deep and intense. It's amazing, and again, I have no other purple that compares to it.




I think this next choice will surprise you - Lime Green.  We all know I am a hater of greens, and my skin particularly abhors warm greens, so how the hell does this make the cut?   Well, it's just so ugly that it's gorgeous.  It transfixes me ha ha.   I literally can't stop staring when I wear this one.   Admittedly, this colour is less unique in polish world, and it's also one of the thinnest Barry M polishes I've encountered - I usually need 3 coats for opacity - but I guess that also means it's one of the few Barry M's that will provide you with a jelly sammich.




(are those REALLY my nails???!!!  ugh!)

Shocking Pink.   To be fair, it's not that shocking, it could stand being dialled up a couple of notches, but this is a perfect pink.  For me, it just sits in the centre of the pink spectrum - not too blue, not too red; not too light, not too dark; not too white based, not too corally.   It's poised on the axis of perfection, and that's why I use it a lot.






And then we have 3 blues.  I always considered Barry M one of the best brands for blues - and blue probably appeared more times in his range than any other - but recently other brands have overtaken him here, namely KIKO.





Blue Moon however, is essential.  This is a super soft, super light baby blue with the teensiest bit of shimmer, and for a long time, it was unique in my stash.  Other brands are now catching up with it, but at a higher price.  This is probably my all time Number 2 Barry pick.





Next we have Blueberry Ice Cream, which is just lu-uh-ush.   This is probably the only ice cream shade I genuinely love, as (for me) the other colours can be a bit sickly.   This is just blue perfection.  It's also almost opaque in one coat.  I use this a lot as it's the perfect colour for the sky in nail art.  Just delicious.






And then we have Cyan Blue.  When I bought this, again, it was unique, and I think it may still be.  It's not quite turquoise, and it does lean darker than the bottle, but there are literally a million variations in this little niche of the blue spectrum.   Again, this is effortless application.  If you want a nice bright, summery blue, this is your polish.




And that's it, your 60 seconds is over!   Which was your favourite?   There are LOTS of Barry M swatches on this blog (just use the search box), and you can also click the logo in my sidebar to go directly to their website.  


You can also click on this post HERE to see pics of my Barry stash.  It's grown a bit since then, but it's got some pretty photos :)


Barry M have a really good price point, which is part of their appeal in the UK.  More importantly, they LAST.  They are more chip-resistant than most brands, and I'd say that was more valuable.  


In the US, you can pick them up at Ninja Polish.


Enjoy xx :)

Saturday, 17 March 2012

Spring Challenge - Spring Splatter

Hi Goddesses  



Happppppppppppy Weekend!   I have had the week from hell, so I am planning a whole weekend of relaxation, food, films and polish :)  I have been a seriously bad Crumpet this month, which is bad for the bank balance but AMAZING for the haul post (soon) and play time :)




Anyways, back to the splatter, Crumpet!  Soz.  Yes, so I LOVE splatters.  Love them, love them, love them.  They fit into my "perfect" category of "structured mess".  You can't go wrong with them really, and even if you do, there's so many way to fix them.




I decided to heed the master on this one.  I was going to just pick 5 pastels, and basically do the same on every nail, but I remembered Sarah from Chalkboard Nails stating that a splatter works better when you use black or white in it (creating greater contrast).  And lo, an idea was born ....




So the nails all have a base of a pastel colour, a splatter of white, and then a splatter of the darker version of the pastel, which I think is kinda neat.  The white was my staple, SH White On.  Here are the other colour combos -

thumb = OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, and CG It's Poppin', which has a little bit of shimmer in it which looked awesome in the splatter
index = SH Lacey Lilac and OPI Planks A Lot
middle = Barry M Blue Moon and Orly Snow Cone
ring = OPI Stranger Tides and Orly Ancient Jade
pinkie = CG Lemon Fizz and OPI The "It" Color




Now, I know I'm biased, but I LOVE how this turned out.  It's so happy and colourful, and just, ah, I just LOVE IT.



So, let's talk technique.   Usually, I take the polish brush and swoosh it inside the straw before I blow.  However, lately, I've found this creates a splatter that's too big, especially as I can't find thin straws in England.   This time, I again listened to the Chalkboard, and dipped the straw INTO the polish bottle.   Now, this DID create better splatter, but oh man, I made myself really messy.   Next time, I'm going to try an old Bic pen, as the hole is narrower.




So, what do you do when you splat too much ?  Well, I took one of my cheap eyeshadow applicators that I use for sponging, and sponged IN some of the excess, to make it look more mushy.  I also used a tissue to soak UP some of the excess, and again, it didn't matter that the tissue pressed into the polish, because the effect you are creating is so random.



I love splatters.  Love them.  Yes you make a bit of a mess, but every single one has some wow factor to it.



I can't wait to see what the other girls on the Challenge come up with today - it should be a very pretty day :)



Enjoy xx :)

Friday, 9 March 2012

Spring Challenge - Mr Blue Sky

Hi Goddesses




I was a little stuck for this one, having done a sky mani that I absolutely loved once before - here.   I didn't want to just duplicate that, and thought about doing a picture that spread over all 5 nails.





In the end boredom / weariness set in, and I just went for something easy, doing a blue skittle and then different types of clouds.





To be honest, I thought I had more pale blues than this.  What I found though was that the ones that I had were too similar (that'll be you, CG Sea Spray) or were the wrong tone to fit the skittle (looking at you, Models Own Beth's Blue).



So what did I end up with ?

* thumb = Barry M Blue Moon
* index - Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream - my preferred sky blue
* middle - a-England Galahad, which had too much green in it next to these others (it amuses me how a skittle can completely change your perception of a colour)
* ring = Barry M Cyan Blue
* pinkie = Essie Smooth Sailing




I tried for different types of clouds, but they didn't all work.   I live in Lincolnshire in the UK where we have a lot of RAF bases - you constantly see plane streaks across the sky, and this is what I tried to do on the ring finger.




The index is my favourite.  All of these were done with a dotting tool and then smeared with a sponge, to give them a lighter look.



Enjoy xx :)

Sunday, 20 November 2011

200th Post !!!! Barry M Camo Skittle


Nails I Love


Barry M Blue Skittle & Blue Camo Mani


Hellooooooo Goddesses



Well, would you believe it, this is my 200th post.  Yup, 200.  Go me!  I’ve picked up a lot of friends along the way and I’m delighted that most of you who read the blog seem to enjoy it AND my madness J



When I started the blog I planned to average at about a post a day, but in the last 6 weeks, that seems to have doubled!  I think partly because my obsession has intensified, and also because I’ve started to have a LOT of ideas of how to play with polish.  So whilst the first 200 posts have been mainly swatches, the next 200 are going to be quite different, with a mix of swatches, layering, basic art skills and whatever else tickles my fancy!



I debated doing something AMAZING for my 200th post and my good friend Elizabeth Stern came up with a killer idea.  Elizabeth – I’m going to save that for the 250th, cos I need to do it justice.




Then Post 200 was going to be a polish that has just crashed into the Crumpet All Time Top 10.  And then this afternoon, as I was continuing my Barry M odyssey, this just sort of evolved, and when I finished it, I KNEW it was what I wanted my 200th post to be – something a little more wow than I usually do, but something that I have managed to pull off!  Lol.



So this started as a Barry M Blue skittle.  Barry has some brilliant blues, and I wanted to do 1 swatch that compared them, as at first glance a couple do look similar.   So here we have –

Thumb = Blue Moon
Index = Blueberry Ice Cream
Middle = Cyan Blue
Ring = Cobalt Blue
Pinkie = Navy



I love how they look together as a skittle, but then, I love skittle manis full stop.  But something strange is also happening – I am no longer aesthetically allergic to blue nail polish.  Yikes!  I don’t know how it happened, but I’m quite liking the blue against my vampire-white skin.  Blue is just purple on a cold day, right?



Quite by accident, this then turned into a camouflage mani.  I didn’t know what I was going to do and then I remembered how much I loved my purple camo mani and how wonderful blue camo looks, and as I looked at my skittles, the idea formed – a blue skittle camo mani!




And that’s what we have and I am super super happy with myself.  Each nail features 2 other blues, and I honestly can’t decide which nail I like best.  Possibly the ring finger.  Or the index.  No, the ring.



Camouflage nails are really easy to do.  I use a medium dotting tool and basically dab.  You can’t go “wrong” because you are creating a random pattern, and not just that, but a pattern that very often overlayers itself.



So, 200 posts.  Awesomesauce! 



Enjoy xx J

J

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Blogging tips