As you can probably already tell from my previous Polish Pick posts round here, I have a serious love affair for the Barry M nail polishes of any variety - but particularly the Hi-Shine Gelly range. Designed to be perfect lacquer hybrid, combining the convenience of a polish and the super glossy, super long-lasting effect of gel - they really are just all kinds of awesome. Since they launched a couple of years back they've been hugely successful, with countless collections with colours panning the entire rainbow released every season and now Barry M have gone one even better. Say hello to their new Sunset Nail Paints...
If you've seen my last 'NIATD' post you'll already have seen these and what they're supposed to be about, but if not I'll link that here and give a little background. On first look, these are pretty similar in concept as the Gelly range - nail polishes aiming to mimic the look, feel and longevity of something such as an in-salon Shellac jobby. However, whilst the Gelly's simply attempt to do this by replicating the finished result, these newbies go one step further and try and replicate the entire process too. Put simply, whereas at a salon you may expect the technician to use a UV lamp in-between coats to 'cure' the layer before moving onto another - these rely purely on daylight UV rays. Barry M have released a total of eight polishes in this collection - seven colours and one top coat (important to note that this can only be used with any other Sunset colour!) - all with very cute names mimicking famous song titles (completely irrelevant, but still a nice touch). They recommend applying two thin coats of your chosen colour, leaving a good amount of drying time between each one, and then applying the special topcoat and voila! Gel nails all from the comfort of your bedroom.
I picked up one shade out of this core collection just so I could give the system a go and see if it's worth picking up any more. The shade 'Peach For The Stars' immediately caught my eye on the shelf - a beautiful, bright pinky-coral - and so in my basket it went, along with the topcoat of course. After photographing them for my NIATD post, I tried them out pretty much instantly while the Sun was still out to play (I know some people have said that they do work in artificial lighting, but I still wanted to ensure nothing stopped them from doing their job so opted for natural this time).
Applying the colour was interesting. I tried to keep to the instructions and applied two fairly thin coats (or as thin as I could get them) and while the application was fairly straight-forward, I did find them slightly more harder to work with than the Gelly's. I suppose this is due to the intended 'daylight curing' process, as I found when I was applying the polish because I was trying to keep the layer thin, I found in some areas the polish was almost 'curing' as I applied and so I found I had to work a little more on keeping the finish even and streak-free. Aside from this, my patience did pay off and the finish was completely opaque in two coats and the drying time was super-speedy too - I'm guessing a good sign of claims the range makes. However, the top coat was just something else. Until then, I had mixed views and was unsure whether this range was really for me, though when I'd applied a layer of this I was sold. I feel this was when the whole process really came together and everything just locked into place. Whilst after applying the colour there was still a little bit of tackiness left behind after the 'curing', the topcoat dried far quicker and left behind a completely hardened finish. For me, this is the real star of the show in this collection and I will definitely be picking up some more shades to go with it.
Have you given this new launch from Barry M a go? If not, have I managed to tempt you to test it out?
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