Review: Barry M Midnight Gelly Polishes

When Barry M releases a new collection I know I'm just going to need it in my collection. And I was right about their latest release. The Midnight Gelly collection is a range of four polishes that in my opinion are meant to look black in some lights and their actual colour in others.

The four shades in the range are perfect for autumn/winter and I know I'm going to get a lot of wear out of these colours. There is Black Currant, a very dark purple. Black Pistachio, a very interesting green shade. Black Grape, a dark navy shade and Black Cherry, a brown toned red.

My favourite thing about these polishes isn't the formula or the finish. It's the brush. Barry M have redesigned the brush so it's no longer that very thin brush that barely coated your nail to one of the wider flat brushes that can actually cover my nails in one go.

However I am really impressed with both the formula and the finish. As I expected with these, they are a thicker consistency that means they are opaque in one coat. All except Black Pistachio which can look streaky on the nails after one coat. I'd advise doing two coats on all the shades anyway as I find this gives a bit more depth to the colour and gives them a nice shiny finish. Another thing I would advise is a base coat, I have tried these on my bare nails and they didn't stain but I wouldn't risk it.

When it comes to finish, these are another set of Gelly's that don't let you down. Once dry they have a stunning shine which is only enhanced further once a top coat is added. I can find the shine to be decieving though. The Gelly Polishes have a fair amount of shine no matter if they've just been applied or if they are completely dry and sometimes that shine can be deceiving and leads to smudging. I found this happened with all four shades in this range and I smudged a few nails as they had a dry shine instead of a newly applied/still wet shine.

Overall I really really like these polishes. They're right up my street colour wise, they have a newly designed brush and they give off that expected shine when dry. I do wish that they would dry a bit quicker though but apart from that I would highly recommend checking these out when you're next at a Barry M stand. Especially if you've got a Halloween party coming up soon.

Have any of you tried these? Did you like them? Or did you not? Let me know in the comments.

Drugstore Haul

Most months you can guarantee that at least one brand on the high street has a new release or two. This month though, quite a few brands have brought out new shiny products that immediately caught my eye. And of course I just had to share them with you.

The first thing I had to pick up were these new releases from Barry M. The first lot I picked up was their new Midnight Gelly Hi Shine Range. These are four off black shades that are perfect for the upcoming seasons. They have Black Cherry, Black Grape, Black Pistachio and Black Currant and all four are stunning. Each one looks black in the bottle but when you put it against the light, you can see the hint of each colour. I'm really looking forward to wearing Black Pistachio and Black Cherry as I don't have anything like them in my collection.

The next two new releases I picked up from Barry M are what I believe to be their two glittery limited edition seasonal releases. And I'm in love with them. There are only two shades and naturally I had to pick up both. The one on the left is Sparkling Amethyst and the one on the right is Sparkling Ruby. Both are thick formula glitter polishes that once on the nail are bumpy or patchy like some glitters. These are smooth and opaque, only one coat gives a bright glittery finish. And the best bit, they're not impossible to remove like most glitter polishes. I highly recommend checking these out if you like to break out the glitter around this time of the year.

And as I spent more than £7 pounds on Barry M in Superdrug I got a free Showgirl Mascara. I've already tried the Extra Volume Showgirl Mascara and loved it so I thought I'd go for the Extra Lengthing version this time. And so far I like it. The brush fits nicely to the contour of my eye and gives me a fluttery finish to my lashes that I prefer over some of the more volumising mascaras. However if you want both volume and length I suggest using the two together to get the best of both worlds.

And finally for this haul I picked up two new lip liners from Rimmel. These are two out of the five new releases that came out at the beginning of last week. I picked up the shades Under My Spell and You're All Mine. Under My Spell is a beautiful purple toned plum and You're All  Mine is a stunning pink shade that doesn't run to bubblegum pink on the lips. I like that they are easy to apply, giving a creamy opaque colour but I did find that they were a bit creamy than the original shades and I found they did smudge ever so slightly throughout the day. Under My Spell is my favourite of the two shades and I can see myself wearing this quite a lot over the next few months however I do find it can be very unforgiving if you don't have perfectly exfoliated/moisturised lips.

So that's it for my haul. I know it was only small but these were the only new releases that really jumped out at me. Have you tried any of these new releases? Do you have any recommendations of new products to try?  Let me know in the comments.