The Crumpet: Barry M Gelly Mango

Showing posts with label Barry M Gelly Mango. Show all posts

Friday, 31 May 2013

Barry M Gelly Week - They Stamp Too!! (with Cheeky Jumbo Plate 5)

Hi Goddesses

It’s Barry M Gelly Week on the blog this week to celebrate the very imminent arrival of the new Barry M Gellys to the High Street. They are due to launch next week on the 5th, but I know some ladies have had luck picking some up already.

Today’s post uses all 3 of the 5 Gellys from the Collection – you can refresh yourself on them HERE – and is over a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

One of the hidden secrets of the Gelly polishes is that they also make great stamping polishes, so I wanted to include a mani that put that to the test and showed you how opaque they are.

I am currently a million times in love with the new Cheeky Jumbo Plates and this lovely pattern comes from Plate 5, which is all about Music. As on most large plates, some stamps work better than others, and this one wasn’t quite perfect for me. I struggled to get the whole pattern on the plonker, even when I tried with a Konad.

So what do you do when that happens? You’re in love with your mani but your stamping is a little lacking. Well on this occasion, I added a skinny French tip. The funny thing is, it looks like it was supposed to be there! It really rounds the mani off nicely, and grounds it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Gelly Nail Art – I have loved each and every look, although today’s is probably my least favourite. Which one have you loved the most ??

Have a great weekend. Enjoy xx :)

Thursday, 30 May 2013

Barry M Gelly Week - Gradient Meets Cheeky Jumbo Plate 3 (catchy lol)

Hi Goddesses

Today’s post uses all 5 Gellys from the Collection – you can refresh yourself on them HERE – in a rainbow gradient running from thumb to pinkie.

I do have a little sad though – I am not totally happy with the thumb, as Blue Grape has turned (an albeit cracking shade of) indigo when layered over Dragonfruit. I wish I’d done what I did on a couple of the other nails, and painted it half and half, with some sponging down the middle.

The stamp used is from Cheeky Jumbo Plate 3 and I love it !! I’m going to be using it a lot. It’s so big and bold and chunky – I love it I love it I love it!

So which nails are your favourite? I think the 2 with Key Lime really stand out – they just look amazing against the boldness of the stamp – and I also love (obviously, after yesterday) anything that’s a Mango-Dragonfruit cocktail :)

One more post to come tomorrow, where I’ll be showing you that these aren’t just glorious colours, they STAMP too.

Enjoy xx :)

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Barry M Gelly Week - Hot Hot Tribal with Mango and Dragonfruit

Hi Goddesses

Happy Hump Day! Thank you to everyone for the awesome response to Monday’s mani of Barry M Gelly polka dots! It’s been shared in so many places and been seen probably by more people than any other mani I’ve done, so thank you!

Whilst all that was going on, yesterday I hit 600k page views AND published my 1250th blog post. That means I’ve done 750 in a year – whoops. Stay tuned for the weekend when I launch a whole hoopla of changes for the blog to add to your viewing pleasure. Not less, just better :)

So, today’s mani uses just 2 of the Gellys – Mango (the orange one) and Dragonfruit (the reddy corally one) – as well as my Barry M nail art pen. You may remember I initially had some problems with my nail art pens. Well, I think I’ve worked out it’s because I had them sat right next to the laptop, in front of all the heat blowing out. I’ve kept the new ones horizontal and cooler, and so far, they are surviving life in the nail room!

One of the reasons I was excited to get the nail art pens is because I want to master tribal. It always looks so awesome when other people do it, and although I have a LONG way to go, I am loving how this turned out.

The base has been sponged. Each nail started off with 2 coats of Mango and then had Dragonfruit sponging. Each nail is different, some have a top to bottom gradient, some a bottom to top, others have splodged lines, or just general randomness. One of the things I like about these 2 polishes is how very well they play together – it’s almost impossible to tell there are 2 polishes here.

I tried to needle drag with them too – STILL not mastered that – but again, look how they moosh and merge together to make pure fire – lovely!

So, there we go, tribal on fire! Enjoy xx :)

Monday, 27 May 2013

Barry M Gelly Week - Polka Dots

Hi Goddesses

Today’s post uses all 5 Gellys from the Collection – you can refresh yourself on them HERE – and is over a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

I don’t care what anyone says, there is just something SO happy about a polka dot mani. To me they always look smiley, cheerful, bright – a little like having your own garden on your nails lol.

This one is the very definition of simplicity – I used my largest dotting tool for the large dots, and then flipped it over and used the thinner end for the smaller dots.

I love how the white background really makes these colours pop. It reminds me of Twister AND Smarties. It’s childlike and playful. Happiness.

Enjoy xx

Sunday, 5 May 2013

Crumpet Reviews - Barry M Summer Gelly Polishes

Hi Goddesses

GAH SOMETIMES BEING A BLOGGER IS SO EXCITING !!! So exciting, in fact, that only Caps Lock will do :) Yesterday, I was the lucky recipient of the new Gelly polishes from Barry M, a full month before they come out AND THEY ARE FAN-STONKING-TASTIC !!!

This is the 3rd set of Gelly polishes Barry and his M have released. The original release of 10 (ish) shades was in the Autumn. They then followed up with 4 Spring shades. And now .. ladies, oh ladies .... 5 summer shades that could not be more perfect if Barry himself had screamed "Make 5 perfect summer shades!". Yup, they're THAT good.

I gave you a sneak peek of this skittle last night on my FB page, and don't they look perfect together? As I took them out of the envelope, this was the thing that struck me most - I can't remember the last time I saw a collection where all the polishes look like they BELONGED together. There is something about how these 5 bounce off and complement each other that's just incredible.

So back to the skittle - don't they look like Smarties! It makes me happy. All the polishes in this post are 2 coats (although with time you'll find 1 coat opaque enough) and Poshe top coat (they are super shiny on their own, but I always TC out of habit.)

There were no application issues at all with these polishes. You may remember that a couple of the pastels were a little bit streaky on first use, well these were perfect. I don't know whether the formula has been tweaked a little or if I'm just getting used to applying them (they are a little runnier than normal polishes) but this was the best collection yet for ease of use.

Let's start with Blue Grape. Will you look at that! Wow in a bottle! This is Baker Street with the headlights on.

This polish is fabulously intense, I love it. In the bottle, there is an indigo lean. On the nail, not so much. I'm not sure if this is a trick of the light, or whether it should just be a straight-up-knock-em-in-the-eyes blue.

There are a lot of Baker St dupes out there, but you won't find one glossier than this.

Key Lime. As you know, I am not a green lover, but even I was keen for this one :) As I mentioned last week in my 7 Barry M Nail Paints You Can't Live Without post, I love Barry M Lime Green, and this is basically a rebooted version of that polish.

Not just rebooted though - it's glossier, and it doesn't take 4 coats for opacity. This is a FABULOUS green - even I can see that.

I love that all my green loving friends have been desperate to see this - well look! feast your eyes! This is one magical polish.

Mango is the orange polish. I was nervous about this one in case it was too neon. Also, I didn't like Satsuma, which was in the original Gelly release last year.

Not too worry - this is summery perfection! It's a paler orange - what I would call a sherbert orange, very similar to Zoya Arizona.

This looks "just right" on the nail - not too bright, not too loud, not too pale ... it nails it.

Passion Fruit is the "red" of the bunch. I honestly don't even know what you'd call this colour - soft neon red? It's almost like a neon coral with a dollop of red in it. Indefinable, but fantastic.

On the nail, this pops like crazy, and it's just THE perfect summer shade. Even better, this will suit all skin tones, and it's just a joy to stare at.

I've seen / maybe bought a few polishes of similar tone lately - I think this shade, whatever it is, is the shade of the summer.

And then we have Guava, and oh goddesses, there is a long tale attached here. Guava is the turquoise. The holy-crap-that-is-THE-best-turquoise-of-all-time turquoise. I have had the hardest job photographing this, and none of my photos really capture the insane intensity and depth of this polish (which I am sure some of you will also call teal).

I photographed this as I do any polish, and it blanched it out to sky blue. I walked through every room of the house and it photographed the same. I went outside - sunshine and shade - nada - even went to my old "studio" in the utility room - no go. I did the hand underwater thing - nope. So I am assuming that just as some cameras hate purples, mine hates this one single polish that I currently love more than any other - bitch! Let's remind ourselves of Barry's publicity shot -

And then here are my photos -

As you can see, that crazy greeny-oceanic depth is just absent, and it really upsets me. Like REALLY upsets me. This is a helluva polish, and whilst I've managed to manipulate some of the photos closer to the true tone, they are still that little bit lacking.