Urgh just a couple of days ago I had written half this blog post and popped out to see some people. Then come this afternoon I have come to continue with said post and it’s gone. It didn’t save and I have done everything I could possibly do to get it back, with zero luck. URRRRGH! So I am having to start again. Yuck.
As many of you may have seen on my February wish list that I’ve been eyeing up the new Barry M nail paints for quite some time now, in fact every since they announced their new Under The Sea range back a month ago via a live Instagram video. I watched a couple of times in awe of the new nail paints and knew I needed them in my life.
When they finally came out a couple of weeks ago at the end of January/start of February I picked up two shades that I had been lusting after.
I’ve been using this on and off since then and it’s definitely something I will wear loads when the spring and summer months hit us! Of course I had to share my love of these through a review.
I picked these up on an offer in Superdrug. If you spent £7 you would get a free Strobe Cream. WOOHOO! Even though I don’t wear highlighter I’ll definitely use this over liquid lipsticks to give them a pop! Otherwise these cost me £3.99 each, which for a nail paint is a really good price in my mind.
Under The Sea nail paint is a duo chrome nail polish that shifts in colour in the light. There are currently four shades to choose from, I picked up two of them.
Butterflyfish on the left and Jellyfish on the right.
Butterflyfish
Butterflyfish not in direct light
Butterflyfish in direct light
Jellyfish
Jellyfish not in direct light
Jellyfish in direct light
There’s Angelfish (a pearly pink shade which shifts to silver), Pinktail (a pink shade which shifts to orange), Butterflyfish (a blue shade which shifts to pink) and Jellyfish (a purple shade which shifts to green). The latter two are the shades I picked up.
Before I talk about the shades themselves and how the formula works, I want to quickly touch on the design of the bottle lids. Barry M aren’t really OTT when it comes to their packaging designs for their nail paints and that isn’t exactly a bad thing. Good looking products are always a must, especially if you keep them in your handbag and show them off when out and about. But who takes nail paints out with them? 😛
These however are aesthetically pleasing to look at when they’re in your nail polish collections! They have a white lid with metallic blue sea designs on them, which includes seaweed, starfish, seahorses and fish. Very cute! It also makes them easy to find when looking in your collection for these to dig out and use!
Now that I’ve briefly spoken about the design of the nail paints themselves, I’ll go into the formula and look of the polishes when worn!
One thing I love about the Molten Metals collection is how thick the brushes are for them all and this is the same when it comes to the Under The Sea nail paints too! It means you don’t need to keep applying loads of little coats with a thinner brush. Instead you only need one or two strokes of colour applied, which is great! I have small nails so this means I only need two or three max.
The pigmentation of this isn’t anything “amazing” but it definitely does the job of being a lovely iridescent polish, no matter how sheer! The colour shift still works with one and two coats as well, although I do prefer three coats to give it a stronger pigmentation to the colour.
Butterflyfish – one coat
Jellyfish – one coat
I find with this polish that you can get away with one dip into the bottle to get a good finish all over, but due to how sheer it is on the first coat I found I dipped into the bottle a couple of times, just to ensure I had enough on the brush to give an even coat all over the nail. I found throughout all coats of polish that I had to keep dipping into the bottle to make sure I had enough on the brush to get enough on the nail. This was a tad disappointing, but so worth it!
Butterflyfish – two coats
Jellyfish – two coats
With a second coat you really start to get a good colour payoff and pigmentation! As I said before however, I do prefer three coats of polish when it comes to these polishes. I just love a strong look to the nail, especially now I can wear nail polish alllllll the time. 😛
Butteflyfish – three coats
Butterflyfish – three coats
Butterflyfish – showing the pink duo chrome effect
Jellyfish – three coats
Jellyfish – three coats
Jellyfish – showing the green duo chrome
I’ve seen people posting on Instagram of them using these polishes over different coloured polishes including black, white and shades with the same base shade(s) as the polish in use. For example people used a light blue cream shade with Butterflyfish over the top. It looked gorgeous! I’ll definitely be giving this a go myself with a black polish underneath!
NOW with the chip test! I never use a base or a top coat and this is for a few reasons… 1. I don’t own one right now and 2. Every time I ever do or have my polish never dries and doesn’t look good after a while.
I wore both of these shades to work and after four days they started to chip. This wasn’t a bad amount of days really considering I type loads at work, write a lot and do bits and pieces around the office. I also found that cleaning the bathroom after applying these polishes lasted REALLY WELL! I was pleasantly surprised!
Overall what do I think of these nail paints then? Well, they’re bloody stunning and I love them so much! They’re definitely going to do well throughout spring and summer this year and this type of finish with nail paints and polishes is on the rise!
Jellyfish on the left, Butterflyfish on the right.
I can’t decide which of the two shades I love the most though to be honest! Out of the two I love the look of Jellyfish the most, but when wearing them I feel like I look at Butterflyfish more! I couldn’t tell you really to be honest. I think they’re both gorgeous in different ways! Butterflyfish seems more shimmery to me, whilst Jellyfish is more metallic looking. Either way, they’re both gorgeous! Fuck it, I can’t pick one!
If you do want to pick one up for yourself, you can find them on Barry M Cosmetics official website!
What do you think? Have you given the Under The Sea nail paints a go, or do you want to? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!
Until next time take care all and I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend!
There Might Be Coffee 