Barry M Indigo

Sorry, it's been a while. Sorry I'm always saying sorry. School has been really busy this semester. I'm typing out this blog post in order to procrastinate a little bit more on my paper that's due tomorrow. I've still got to write 5 more pages. Ugh. Only 30 more days until winter break. 

Here's Barry M Indigo. This is fairly color accurate, although I don't think any picture will ever capture it perfectly. This is a really gorgeous blurple color. I used two coats for opacity. Dry time was normal. 

Crowstoes Halloween 2012 Collection

Lauri sent me these polishes to swatch for her and so I thought I would do a review of them for you guys as well.
Sorry if some of these color combos don't strike you as particularly "Halloween-y". I'm at school right now and only bring a few polishes with me at a time.

I've got seven polishes to show you today so it's going to be a pretty long post. Enjoy!

Hell Hath No Fury over Barry M Coral

Red, orange, and iridescent glitters in a clear base. This also has some really nice golden shimmer to it. 

Purple People Eater over Essie Boxer Shorts

Gorgeous! One of my favorites from the collection! Small purple, blue, and green glitters in a clear base.

Bone Daddy over Zoya Dove

A mix of white and iridescent glitters in a milky, grey base. This is the only polish in the collection that has a tinted base. Application was a bit difficult with this one because there are a lot of the large, white hexes. You need a bit of skill in applying polish to get an even look with this one but I think it's worth it in the end. 

Tangled Web over China Glaze Electric Beat

A mix of black and duochrome (blue to green) glitters in a clear base. This one is really fun! I love black glitters! 

I had a hard time capturing the color shift of the glitters in my picture but in real life they're much more obvious. When I was first looking at the bottle I thought it included blue and green glitters but then I realized that they were actually duochrome!

Last Call at the Crowbar over China Glaze Elephant Walk

Multicolored glitters in a clear base. The primary color is a gunmetal, silver glitter. It reminds me of a dark version of all the Happy Birthday dupes. The darker colors make it even more appropriate for fall. 

Voodoo over Sally Hansen Crushed
I know what you're thinking. Why am I showing you Voodoo again? It's because Lauri informed me that the version I showed you a few days ago was an earlier version and the one that was going to be for sale was slightly different. There are purple, shredded glitters in the updated version.
Purple, orange, and green glitters in a clear base. Since I already showed you what it looked like over a purple, I wanted to show a different combo today.

Frog's Breath over Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime

A mix of green and gold glitters in a clear base. This one was a surprise favorite. I'm not normally a green person (unless it's mint green, then I'm all over it) but Frog's Breath is really phenomenal! 

My overall impressions of this collection is that they're all really great! Application was very easy on all of them besides Bone Daddy, which was a bit trickier. I've done one coat of glitter over their base color in all of these pictures. 

What's nice about these polishes is that they all have a Halloween vibe to them but they don't scream Halloween so they'll still look nice all year long. I find that glitters generally dry very fast and these were no exception. 

It's really hard to pick a favorite but I think the most stand-out polishes from this collection are: Voodoo, Purple People Eater, and Frog's Breath. 

Polishes can be purchased from Llarowe and Overall Beauty.
For more information on Crowstoes polishes (including swatches of the rest of her Halloween polishes), check out Lauri's blog The Polished Crow.
For updates on stock regarding Crowstoes polishes, make sure to follow Llarowe's Facebook page.

Pahlish End of Days

Pahlish End of Days is an orange jelly with blue and orange glitters and golden microflakes. Very beautiful and unique.

The first time I wore it, I wore it by itself at 3 coats.

I didn't care much for how it looked by itself. It seemed a bit too crowded and the glitters weren't getting the chance to shine. So then I wanted to see how it looked layered over a similar color. I chose Barry M Coral for my base color and I used one coat of End of Days on top.

Much better! You can clearly see all the glitters and the gold microflakes are even more visible!

Go USA!

I meant to do something a bit more elaborate for the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics but I was in a car yesterday for 14 hours so I didn't get the chance to do anything. I was gone last week with my roommate visiting her family in Florida. I got home around 9pm last night so thank goodness for DVR or I would have missed the beginning of the Opening Ceremonies (I loved watching the children singing their national anthem!)

Here's the mani I'm wearing today. The colors are Barry M Cobalt Blue and Nails Inc Jubilee (anyone else find it funny that these are both British brands?).

Go Team USA! I love gymnastics, cycling, and water sports the best but I try to watch as many events as possible!

What are your favorite events to watch? 

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Duckie + Barry M Mint Green

Nostalgic Duckie is a glitter polish in a sheer milky base. You can wear it alone but I prefer to layer it over a complimenting color. I think it's too sheer by itself but I know some people like that look. I've been in love with milky glitters for the past few months and I'm happy to have this polish in my collection. I managed to snag this and Blane during one of Nostalgic's sales.
I love the colors and sizes of the glitters. My only complaint about this polish is that there aren't enough glitters in it (despite how it looks in these pictures). I know it's meant to be sparse but this was just a little too sparse. I had to fish around to get some glitters out. This is two slightly thick coats over Barry M Mint Green.

Here's Barry M Mint Green by itself. Mint green is one of my favorite colors of nail polish. It's just a very calming color for me to look at. This polish leans more blue than any of the other mints in my collection. I don't have anything else similar. Application was wonderful. 

Barry M Cobalt Blue

I decided to wear blue nails for Memorial Day. I chose Barry M Cobalt Blue. I wanted to do some stamping with stars or stripes but I really liked how simple this polish looked just by itself.

This polish dries darker on the nails then it looks in the bottle. Very pigmented. This is one coat. 

All of the Barry Ms I've tried so far have been one coaters and have had amazing application. I really need to get some more of them. 

Thank you to my family, friends, and all the other men and women out there who have served our country! 

For Reference:

1 coat Nail Magic

1 coat Barry M Cobalt Blue

1 coat NYC Grand Central Station

BarryM Coral with Stamping

I recently did a swap with a friend and she sent me my first BarryM polishes. I've had my eye on a few of these for a while now but never bought them. Now that I've tried a few of them though, I think I'm going to have to make an order soon to get some more! 

Today I'm wearing Coral (how creative haha).

This could have been a one coater but I did two coats because the color was a bit brighter with a second coat. Formula was perfect. 

And since I haven't stamped in a while, I decided to do a bit of a contrasting look with another BarryM. I used Cobalt Blue for the stamping. I really like the contrast between the two colors. 

For Reference:

1 coat Nail Magic

2 coats BarryM Coral

Stamping with BarryM Cobalt Blue from Cheeky XL Plate B

1 coat NYC Grand Central Station