Barry M Gelly Nail Polish in Olive review plus freehand lace nailart

Woot!  I found some mojo! It's been a long time people, and good to be back.  What an up and down few months I've had. It's certainly true what they say about not fully appreciating your good health until you don't have it.  However, things are looking up now and so I've got room in my brain for the fun stuff.  So OBVS I've gone straight to my finger ends :-)

I've hardly bought any polish these last few months (I knowwwww), and have spent most of my time with just strengthener on them.  My cuticles are awful due to a dermatitis attack, despite constant moisturing I'm pretty sure I'll have to photoshop at least a couple of fingers to prevent my post looking like an episode of Casualty haha.

On a happier note I reached 100,000 pageviews yay!  Actually it's a bit past that, but for some reason I can't fathom, one of my Feelgood Friday posts is getting ALOT of love.  It must be linked somewhere in somebody populars' blog, but because I can't work Google Analytics properly I'll never know.  So I'm not counting the pageviews from that one post, because it makes me look much more popular than I actually am.

So, I went out shopping today and some new Barry M Gellys caught my eye.  I'm always on the lookout for pale green polishes and GNP23 Olive fits that bill perfectly.  A washed out khaki that reminds me very much of Essies Navigate Her, which I loved the colour of, but hated the formula.  I would do a comparison post for you, but am pretty sure I gave Navigate Her away.

So how was it I hear you ask?  Well, here's how the colour looks:

As you can see, a pale grey/green.

Here's the full hand swatch.  It has a coat of HK Girl Glisten & Glow topcoat on it as I forgot to take a picture before I applied it, doh!  It was the usual Gelly shiny finish though.

It's looking slightly more greyed out here than it looks in real life, and it is flattering to my skin tone.  I used two coats, but you could definitely get away with one thickish one if you're using a fast dry topcoat over it.  Dry time was pretty fast, and I didn't have any problem with the formula.  Nice and smooth, and no bubbles, lovely.

But of course, due to the aforementioned return of the mojo, I couldn't just leave them all blank and sensible.  So I went to YouTube to look for some inspiration.  I found some in the form of this video http://youtu.be/yC3P3pIrR3o by LNETSA for some lovely lace nails.  Keeping with the Barry M theme, I used their nail art pen, which I reviewed in full (here)

And this is what I came up with:

I'm really pleased with how they came out, considering they didn't take much time at all, and I'm considering doing a step by step tutorial for them, if anyone would be interested?

As you can see in the background, the bluebells are back out in the garden and I couldn't resist giving them a part in the show:

How gorgeous are they?  And they smell divine.  They really do make something simple like walking up the garden path a pleasure.  Yes, I do stop to smell the flowers, I think we all should whenever we can.  How are your gardens going, do you have flowers out yet?

And finally, back to the polish, here's the brush shot:

This is probably the most accurate picture colour wise, and I would say it has dried to half a shade richer on my nails.  As I said, I had no problems with application and I'm very pleased with it.  I can see it becoming a regular for me.

I paid £3.99 in Superdrug, and because they had a 3 for 2 offer on, I got it a little bit cheaper than that.  In fact I didn't realise about the offer until I already had two things in my hand, so I felt like I got a bonus freebie.

So what do you think, is it a colour or design you'd go for? 

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Artsy Wednesday: Green Nailart

Disorganised, me?  Well, ok yes this time I admit it, I was not at all ready for this weeks AW.  Hence, it's half ten on Tuesday night, and all I have is some hurriedly taken photos.  Lots on my mind at the mo, and life seems to be escaping me a bit.  I'm sure it'll all come together in the end, these things usually do!  My cuticles are misbehaving again too, despite getting more care and attention than the queen, ungrateful devils!

The idea for todays mani, I'm calling a blobicure.  I didn't want to do dots or stripes again, and I did try, and fail, at some stamping at the weekend.  So I thought I'd keep this one easy.  I painted my nails with Nails Inc's Wimbledon, reviewed in full (here) and then just used my spotter nailart brush reviewed (here) to blob on various green polishes.  Here's how it came out:

I quite like the abstract look of this.  It reminds me a bit of the wreath nailart I did at Christmas, which I loved, (link) and I'd definitely like to try this same design in different colours using acrylic paints, I really think it has potential.  Plus it's easy to do, which is always a bonus!

Here's the greens I used:

L-R: Barry M Gelly Key Lime, Gosh in Forest Floor, Nails Inc Wimbledon, and Barry M Spring Green

Here's one last pic:

I hope you like it!  Thanks for reading, and check out what the other girls have to offer:

Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)

Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)

Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)

Until next time (probably in two weeks haha)

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

China Glaze Def Defying vs Sinful Colors Innocent - dupe?

Hi there everyone,
 
Hope you're well today, and enjoying the holiday break, if you're getting one.  I'm all out of sorts and can't decide what day it is because I got Friday off, so today feels like Sunday.  The clocks go forward tomorrow night, so that's going to be even more confusing!  Typically, because I'm on leave, I woke up this morning at 7am and couldn't go back to sleep.
 
However, I've had a lovely day, I went shopping with my friend, and we had lunch at a fab pub.  I had a HUMUNGOUS burger, it felt quite wrong eating meat though as I hardly ever do, other half's veggie and we don't have meat at home.  Still, it was tasty.
 
So there I was, wandering round Boots, and PING!  A Sinful Colors display!!  I've never seen this brand in there (or anywhere) before, there were loads of colours and of course I was excited.  Then when I saw the price, only £1.99 per bottle, and a 3 for 2 offer, I was even more excited!  Needless to say, I picked up 6 haha. 
 
I'll swatch them all at some point, but will probably wait until this middle finger cuticle has healed, it's such a pain covering it up in the photos, and it makes my editing take twice as long, grrr.  I've got some other reviews and stuff I want to do anyway, so it'll be a good chance to get those done.  It's a heck of a lot better than it was due to a LOT of TLC, and I reckon it'll be better in a week or so, so not long for me to wait.
 
So anyway, I got all my lovely Sinful Colors haul home, and what do I notice?  That one shade I bought, Innocent, is suspiciously similar to the China Glaze color I bought not so long ago, Def Defying.  I keep calling it Hi Def, I have no idea why.  So I thought I would do a comparison post in case anyone else is wondering about it, and swatch and review both colours at the same time, so covering everything in one post.
 
So first up, let's go with the China Glaze Def Defying swatches, just because.  Firstly in the sun:

It has to be said, I've had an awful time capturing these polishes.  They are more neon than they're showing here.  I've tried to colour correct them as far as I can, but this is as far as I can go without giving myself alien fingers.  The formula was ok, it didn't flood my cuticles and was thin enough to do thin coats if you like to apply it that way.  I did find it a little bit runny.  First coat was streaky, and this is two, with no topcoat.  A beautiful acid green colour, it reminds me of the 60's, not that I was there, but you know what I mean.
 
Here it is in the shade:

Dry time was medium to fast and the brush was pretty good.  I like it.
 
Now we come along to Sinful Colors Innocent.  You can see why I thought of the dupe:

I actually preferred the formula on this one.  It was still runny, and it's one of those where you have to make sure you clean off the stalk or it blobs off onto whatever you're leaning on.  However, it was more opaque than the China Glaze.  First coat patchy rather than streaky, and this is two, with no top coat. I think it might be good for stamping.
 
Here it is in the shade:

As you can see, it dries a touch brighter than it shows in the bottle.  The only downer on this polish is that compared to the fast dry polishes we're used to these days, this one is only medium speed drying, and I did smudge a couple of nails while I was waiting for them to dry and had to re-apply.  One day I will learn to sit still and wait for my polish to dry.  Today is not that day.  Of course a coat of Seche would rectify it, but I like to show polishes in reviews with no top coat.  Otherwise I don't think it can be a fair showing of the finish that the actual nail polish has.
 
So without further ado, lets get on with the comparison / dupe check:
 
Here's a pic in the sun, hopefully I've made it pretty obvious which finger is which:

Can you guess?  That's right!  Def Defying on index and middle finger, and Innocent on ring and little finger.
 
As you can see, in the sunlight there's not much in it.  Sinful Colors is slightly paler than China Glaze, but I think if you weren't seeing them side by side like this you wouldn't really notice a difference.
 
Here they are in the shade:

Again, I would say the China Glaze is perhaps one shade richer than the Sinful Colors one.
 
I would say though, that these pictures don't show the true 'almost neon' brightness of these nail polishes.  The only thing that would capture it is my iphone, and as it's only a 3gs (upgrade due soon woohoo!), the resolution is not good.  However here's a pic taken against my monitor showing one of these pics before I've colour adjusted them to give you an idea of the size of the task:

As you can see, my camera decided it didn't want you to see the true nail polish colours, sigh.  I think I got them as close as I could though.  This iphone picture is pretty much spot on for colour, with no adjusting.  There's no way my OCD-ness would allow me to put up these blurry pics as swatches though haha.
 
Here's a picture of the bottles and brushes side by side:

As you can see, there's pretty much the same amount of polish in both bottles too.  So, I preferred the formula of Innocent, but I preferred the brush on Def Defying.
 
Now we come to price.  I bought my Def Defying on Amazon UK (here) for £7.45 including shipping.  I bought my Innocent in this Boots deal for £1.33.  Over three times less.  The usual price without the deal is still only £1.99.  You can order it online from Boots (here) but they do charge shipping.  However, of course if you can't get to a shop, it's still alot cheaper, even taking the shipping into account.

So what so I think?  Not exact dupes, but very very close.  Quite frankly China Glaze Def Defying isn't better by enough to justify paying for it over Sinful Colors Innocent.

So Sinful Colors wins.  If you don't own either, and you want an acid lime polish, I recommend Innocent.  And of course, because you've saved your money, you can have the other two bottles you get at the same time 'for free'. ;-)
 
Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Pretty Jelly Fairy Ring Review and St Patricks Day Nailart

Hi there everyone,
 
It's the weekend at last.  Here I am again with a polish review and some nail art for you.  Today I'm going to show you Pretty Jelly's Fairy Ring.
 
I've already reviewed some of the other Pretty Jelly holo polishes in the past, Diamond S-teal-er , Grape Escape and Bullet Rouge and I've enjoyed them.  When I saw this mossy green, I couldn't resist!
 
Pictured below is two coats, using Sally Hansen Miracle Cure as basecoat, and no topcoat.  Application was well behaved and lovely, and as a result I didn't require any clean up before taking these pictures.
 
In the shade, it's a pretty and soft mossy green:

There are some greens that don't do my skintone any favours, even though I still wear them of course!  This is not one of those, I found it very flattering.
 
BUT... it's only in the light that this polish comes into it's own, check out this baby:

And because I can, here's another picture:

Check out that holo!  Awesome!  You can see the holo quite nicely in lower light in real life, I just couldn't get my camera to pick it up.
 
As you probably know, it's St Patricks day this weekend, and as I'm already wearing green on my nails I thought I'd spice things up with a bit of Ireland-inspired nail art:

That fab green glitter I used to do the dots with is China Glaze Running in Circles. It's pretty much Ruby Pumps, only green.
 
I used Barry M Spring green to draw a line down the left hand side of my nail, I didn't bother with striping tape.  Then I used this Color Club gold glitter striper to draw a line next to that.

Then I added the dots with a dotting tool and my fingers were done

I wanted to do an accent nail on my thumb, so I decided to paint the Irish flag.  Again I didn't use striping tape, but for this one I kind of wish I had as my lines weren't perfect:

The green is Barry M's Spring Green again, and the orange is Max Factor's Bright Orange.  Despite saying I don't like this orange, I do find I go back to it alot for nail art, so it can't be all bad.

Everything got a coat of Seche Vite at the end.  As a little extra positive, the holo wasn't completely killed by top coat, which made me happy.

You can buy these polishes by going to the Liquid Jelly Etsy shop HERE the full size bottles like the one I got are $10.

The polishes are 3-free and cruelty free, so you can shop with a clear conscience.

 

So what do you think?  Do you own any of these polishes?  Would be interested to hear what you think!

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~