NOTD: Barry M Gelly in Greenberry

My NOTD

I went to the dentist earlier in the week and decided I deserved a treat for being so brave.

Enter Barry M's Gelly nail paint in Greenberry;

These photos were taken in natural sunlight and while the Gelly looks more blue in the pictures, it is actually more green in the flesh.

The colours in the S/S13 Gelly range are GreenBerry (pictured above), Lychee (beige), Papaya (orange) and Dragonfruit (pink). 

The application process was quite tricky with the Gelly nail varnish. The first coat I applied was streaky and see through and the second coat dragged and become blotchy. The third coat, however, looked perfect not only because it was evenly spread and smooth on the nail.

My mother commented that the finish looked similar to the Shellac nails which is a great result from a £3.99 nail varnish.

Chipping occurred after roughly 3 days on the tips of the nails and the thick varnish got dented slightly (see my index finger in the first picture). 

I've recently purchased the Lychee colour as well so keep an eye on my instagram and twitter for pictures! 

Have you purchased any of the Gelly range? What did you think?

Barry M textures: Kingsland Road

Textured nails!

I recently bought Barry M's new Textured nail varnishes in Atlantic Road (Blue TNP1) and Kingsland Road (Pink TNP3). They are currently on offer in Superdrug, 2 for £6 and can be mixed and matched with the new Gelly shades. I'm not too keen on the Gellies however, and wanted to road test (see what I done there ;) ).

Here are my nails after being painted with 3 coats so it's really opaque. It's a beautiful pastel pink colour; perfect for the SS13 which is all about pastels! The texture itself is a soft rough feeling, it's quite a nice feeling actually and it looks really interesting. I got complimented on it by my fiance's family.

However....

This is a photo of my nails after 4 days wear. I can't really describe what's happened but textured bits have actually collected dirt and no matter how much I wash my hands, it won't come clean. My nails look so grubby. I suppose if the paint was a different colour, the dirt wouldn't be so prominent. My mother so kindly point out that the texture looked like I'd painted my nails and then gone to bed without letting it dry properly which isn't the look I was going for...

I have yet to try the blue Atlantic Road colour and I hope the same thing doesn't happen as I really like the idea of this varnish but I can't go round looking like I haven't washed my hands!

Have you tried the Barry M textures? If so, did the same thing happen to you?

A Beauty Blogger Superdrug Haul!

I only went in for new Deodrant ;) 

Barry M texture in 305 Atlantic  Road (blue) Multibuy discount, £3

Barry M texture in 304 Kingsland Road (pink) Multibuy discount, £3

MUA The Artiste Collect Mutliuse Palette, £6

MUA Eyebrow Pencil, £1

MUA Eyeliner, £1

MUA Pro Base Eye Primer, £2.50

Sure Long Lasting Protection, £1.32

MUA Undress your skin, £3

MUA Pro Base in Porcelain, £3.50

Total= £24.32

(average of £2.70 for each item)  

Hopefully I'll be making a post soon about some of the items I bought :)

Boogie Nights; Model's Own and Sally Hanson

This is probably one of my favourite nail looks, just because it's so easy and looks fantastic! 

 I used Sally Hansen's nail varnish in Bewitched which, I found in Poundland for the grand total of (can you guess?) £1!! I was actually really shocked because Sally Hansen is such a good brand. I think this generation of bbloggers concentrate on newer brands and sometimes forget about good quality varnish like this one. Whilst the colour in the bottle is purple, after two coats on the nail it appears more of a black purple- the perfect base for Boogie Nights.

Boogie Nights is a bblogger favourite, and I can understand why. It's part of Model's Own Mirrorball collection and boasts large glitter flakes with a purple tinge. I find it a bit difficult to get the glitter/nail ratio right as the flakes can just stick together but too much glitter is never a bad thing!

The only problem I have with this look is when I go to remove it as the glitter takes some scrubbing to get it off! Apart from that, I wore my nails like this for a week and a half with no chipping!

What's your favourite nail look?

Pedi Pro, meet my Hobbit toes.

Over the Christmas break, I was watching Stephen Fry: Gadget Man when he done a feature on the PediPro Deluxe. The PediPro Deluxe is a pedicure treatment with a rotating head which removes dead and callous skin. I was very lucky to receive one of these PediPro Deluxe for Christmas off and decided it was about time to use and review it.

I would advise any readers who do not like feet/toes to look away now ;)

Left Picture: This is the PediPro Deluxe with it's lid on. It's a handheld device and takes up little room.

Right Picture: This is my big toe which has heaps of dead and hand skin. I'm going to test out my PediPro Deluxe on this toe.




 Left Picture: This is the Buffing Disk head designed to gently remove the hard and callous skin.

Right Picture: My toe after using the Buffing Disk. Already there's a huge difference (although it has taken some of my nail varnish off!)




Left Picture: This is the Buffing Pad head designed to finish off your feet. This leaves the skin smooth and silky.

Right Picture: My toe after the Buffing Pad. You can see how smooth my toe now is. No hard skin in sight!






I am really impressed with this product. Not only did it remove the hard skin and soften my toe up, but the whole process only took a few minutes. The sound it made when I first turned it on was a little off putting but it doesn't hurt on either of it's two settings. The only downside for me, is that when using the Buffing Pad, white dusk (skin cells- ew), collects on the side of the machine and flies up into the air and because of this, I had to stop a couple of times to clean the excess dusk away. I also found that if you use the PediPro Deluxe on good skin for too long, that it'll feel a little hot on your skin.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone with hard skin on their feet. It's made a huge difference to the appearance of my toe (see picture on left). The PediPro Deluxe also comes with a pouch to store it in, extra Buffing Pads and a little brush to clean with. The only thing that you need to get going, is 4xAA batteries.

The PediPro Deluxe currently retails at £19.99 - Bargain.




Have you used the PediPro Deluxe? Would you consider buying one?

MUA constellations; Stars in your nails.

 I recently purchased Nail Constellation by MUA in the Scorpio colour scheme. There are five different colour options in the Constellation range; Scorpio, Pisces, Leo, Gemini and Libra. You might have noticed that there's only five out of the twelve constellations so I'm hoping that MUA will expand the range. I went for the Scorpio set because of the colour of the beads; green, gold and pink.

 

Before I paint my nails, I use 'OPI Nail Envy' nail strengthener. I love this product for a number of reasons; it strengthens my nails, protects them from staining and dries really quickly. To compliment the gold and pink, I paint my nails in 'Barry M's Nail Paint' in colour 334, Teal. In the pictures below, I am wearing two coats of the nail polish for a fantastic deep colour. To protect my nails from chipping, I use 'Rimmel Pro Super Wear', a top coat, which gives a really amazing high shine and protects from chips for roughly ten days.

On my ring finger, once my second coat of nail paint had been applied, I sprinkled the MUA constellations onto the wet nail until it was completely covered. I would advise doing the constellations over a small tray as they do go absolutely everywhere otherwise. Once I was sure that my nail had dried and the constellations had stuck, I gave a quick once over with the Rimmel top coat.

I'm really pleased with the result of the nail constellations. It gives my nails a really high end look but on a budget. I would definitely recommend.

Have you used the MUA nail constellations? What did you think? 

Viridian nail varnish.

I received an Illamasqua box full of goodies for Christmas. One of the items was the beautiful Illamasqua Viridian nail varnish. The website describes the colour as 'peacock green, metallic finish'  but I would descirbe it more as a dark teal with a shimmer. In natural daylight the varnish looks like a darkened blue but when artificial light or bright sunshine, it looks more of a dark green.

Picture shows two coats of nail varnish.

I used two coats of the nail varnish as I didn't find one coat gave satisfactory colour. It looks fantastic on my pale skin but I imagine it to be great for other skin tones.

The only problem with this product is the price; £13.50 for 5ml 0.5 FL. OZ but the price does match the quality as I had no chipping and the colour remained bright for the entire time I wore it.

Would you fork out £13.50 for a nail varnish or keep to cheaper brands?

New year, new start.

Hello! 

Got this lovely Models Own nail varnish set for Christmas. It's a cute gold colour with a handy black nail art pen. The pen has two attachments; a small brush and a fine pen. I decided to give a leopard print    design a go and was surprised how easy it was. Two coats of the gold and for the splurges of black, I used the fine pen attachment and drew a bunch of lopsided C shapes. Super cute and super quick.

The packaged set.

The finished result!

I've order some more Models Own nail varnish and will definitely be making another post about the colours.

Have you tried leopard print nails?

-Roxy