I’ve been a huge fan of Barry M nail varnishes for years now, and I think over the last year or two they have really established themselves as the ultimate high street brand for innovative nail products. It seems that whatever new formulas and effects high-end brands release, Barry M are never too far behind, providing the same products for us mere mortals who don’t want to spend upwards of a tenner on nail polish. As such, whenever they launch a new range I get pretty giddy with excitement and want to try it.
One of their newest offerings is the ‘Confetti Nail Effects’ range. These polishes are a dead ringer for the Nails Inc Feather Effect polishes that I first saw reviewed on ETC LLYMLRS (don’t most of our first-glimpses come from that girl? Thank you, Lily!). They’re clear polishes that contain little strands of various colours to create a textured look and feel.
I chose to buy the ‘Bubblegum’ shade for my first one, as I’ve been loving blue nails a lot recently. Bubblegum is mainly a bright blue, with flecks of white.
At first I planned to be an extremely dedicated blogger and aim to get a fully opaque effect with the polish. But after doing a quick coat and seeing how thinly it applied, I realised I would still be sitting there by the time my 5-year-old niece turned 18, so decided to go for a base coat first. I chose the Barry M nail paint in ‘Blue Moon’, which is a nice pale blue shade, if a bit too milky for my taste.
With flash/without flash
I soon realised I’d been a little quick to judge the application of the confetti polish; once I started applying it over the base coat I found that you actually could get quite good coverage from just one dip in the pot. You just need to go over the nail quite a few times to get all of the bits off and onto the surface. After two applications, I was pleased with the finished effect. It’s a bit like I’ve dipped my fingers in hundreds and thousands, which I personally think is quite a charming look. The colour is bright and summery, and the texture is nowhere near as ‘bitty’ (I still can’t write that word without squirming thanks to Little Britain) and rough as I expected it to be.
The light blue works nicely under the confetti polish, but I’m excited to see how it looks on other base coats too, especially a white or even lemon-y coloured one.
My final thoughts, then, are this is an impressive little range that nicely mimics higher end brands. I haven’t tried the Nails Inc polishes yet, but the main difference to me so far appears to be that the Barry M pots are much cheaper than their £11 counterparts, at only £3.99. For such an interesting effect and easy application, I think I’ll definitely be buying more from the collection. The black and peach look particularly tempting!
Have any of you tried the confetti effects range – if so, what do you think of them?
