Nails Of The Day - Barry M Holochrome Holographic Effect Vegan Nail Paint - Aqua Aura*

Talk about slow but this post or the pictures at least have been in my drafts for about year now! Eeek better late than never I guess, but I hope that this shade really was worth the wait.

Over the last 12 months or so I can honestly say I've probably worn this shade at least once a month, you know me I love a holographic nail polish and this one as the saying goes is a doozie.

Released to the market in 2025, Barry M Holochrome Holographic Effect Vegan Nail Paint in Aqua Aura, is the perfect combination of blue and green, all combined in a gorgeous multi dimentsional holographic formula.

In natural light, 9 times out of 10 it probably doesn't look that impressive but add a bit of sunlight, or even the glow from your big light, and it comes alive, with flashes of holographic, multi coloured sparkle. You can certainly see the difference between the pictures I've taken in natural light and the pictures that I've taken with the flash.

Application was pretty decent, the brush was a nice width so it was possible to paint some of my short nails at least with just one swipe. 

The coverage was pretty good in fact if you applied it super carefully you might be able to get away with one coat - There was no real streaking and it self levelled pretty well. If you're going to paint your nails though you may as well do it properly and seeing as it was pretty quick drying, I went for two coats here for maximum drama and sparkle! 

When it comes to wear time holographic polishes for me at least seem to fall into two main camps, polishes that barely last 24 hours without chipping and those that cling on for grim death, and whilst Aqua Aura wasn't completely indestructible, the wear time was decent even without a top coat lasting for about a week with just a tiny bit of tip wear, and the odd small chip. Add a decent top I managed about 10 days again with just a few small chips and some tip wear, and I even experienced a bit of grow out.

I think this polish is absolutely stunning even on my short nails (cry they are actually even shorter now!), on long nails of course it would probably be even better but if you have short nail please don't shy away from a bit of colour and sparkle. As I say I've worn this polish pretty consistently over the last year, and I always love how polished a holo makes my nails look.

The one thing I would say is that this polish is now showing all the signs of being well used, the further I've got down the bottle the thicker it's starting to get, and I've had to clean the neck of the bottle and even the brush itself to avoid gloopiness so alas I can see me having to replace it sooner rather than later, and yes I definitely will be buying another bottle!

Aqua Aura is one of 6 shades in the Barry M Holochrome Holographic Effect Vegan Nail Paintrange. I know own all of the shades, the initial four, Aqua Aura, Lavender Lights, Pixie Pink and Silver Stardust, and I've just recently added the two newest additions Clementine Comet, and Pistachio Prism to my collection. I've already shown you Pixie Pink, and next up on the blog from this line at least will be Lavender Lights which I've got ready in my drafts folder x The other shades you might have to wait a little bit longer for because as I say my nails as short, short at the minute, and have you tried painting your nails in this heat and humidity? A none drying gloop fest is my experience even with strengthener at the minute so goodness knows what actually polish will be like. Never mind if you do want to try these fabulous shades for yourself they retail at around £4.49, and they are currently available from Superdrug and direct from Barry M, selected shades are also available from Amazon. Have you tried these polishes yet? Let me know in the comments x 

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Nails Of The Day - Barry M Holochrome Holographic Effect Vegan Nail Paint - Pixie Pink*

There is nothing that I love beauty wise than a holographic nail polish. The way they change colour and sparkle when the light changes just soothes my soul, and makes me happy.

It's fair to say that over the last 12 months I've been on a bit of a journey with my finger nails - from outright destruction and damage central in January and February, to health and length and then back to just a bit healthier - it's certainly been a case of two steps forward and 3 steps back at times, but I'm on the right track again, and I've found a few products that given regular use, time and patience can really make a difference.

Something that definitely helps is painting them and keeping polish on at all times - I'm yet to brave gels again so normal polish it is, Despite several half hearted attempts to weed my own personal polish mountain, I've still got way too many bottles of nail colour - I have been good though and I have pretty much stopped buying new polishes but earlier this year I saw that Barry M had a released a new nail polish range and it really was love at first sight.

Although Barry M has changed a lot since I first started buying from the brand (and the prices have gone up!) one of their mainstays is still their nail polish in those familiar square bottles. Colours and finishes have came and gone over the years but I can'r honestly remember them ever producing a holographic polish before, so I guess the release of their Holochrome Holographic Effect range was long overdue.

The range comprises of four polishes and yes  you've guessed it, I bought every single one of them, the four shades are - a silver, a lilac, an aqua blue / green and of course a pink named Pixie Pink.

This polish comes with a nice wide brush which curves to the cuticle perfectly making it a really easy polish to paint.

The coverage is excellent - with careful application you could probably get away with one coat but for the full on sparkly, rich finish I went for two.

Now as you can see I've taken some photos with the flash and some without, and some even ever so slightly out of focus, so you can get a real idea of both the colour and finish, and just how this beautiful polish reacts to the light.

It's a lovely warm pink crammed full of holographic rainbow sparkle, that reacts to movement and the light and creates flashes of every shade you can think from gold to blue, to purple .

As I say application itself was a breeze and I didn't need to do any real touch ups, and if you're impatient or you can't sit still it also dried pretty quickly.

As much as I love a holographic polishes they do have a bit of a reputation for poor wear time - in fact if you remember the original holographic polish GOSH Holographic, they eventually used to label it 24 hour wear! Thankfully I didn't need to change this polish the next day, I applied it on top of two coats of a nail growth treatment and I added a coat on top and I easily managed a week with only minimal chipping and even then it was pretty easy to fix with another coat of polish ;)

 

I honestly don't think that any of these pictures do this polish justice, it so pretty I'm actually wearing it at the moment and watching the colour change and as I'm moving my fingers is actually really distracting lol.

If you're fan of sparkle this holiday season or even like me all year round, but you aren't a fan of the rough finish that you can often get from glitter polishes, then holographic polishes are the way to go. Barry M Holochrome Holographic Effect Vegan Nail Paint in Pixie Pink retails at £4.49 and is available from Superdrug, and direct from Barry M.

Are you a fan of holographic polishes? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you soon with another catch up empties post x 

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Simply Ravishing - Nails Of The Day - Sensationail Colour Gel Polish - Ravishing Raisin*

Whilst organising my photos for my upcoming empties catch ups, I found some nail pictures that I hadn't shared with you, so before I start playing catch up again for the zillionth time I thought I'd share a nice, easy to wear gel polish with you.

Like so many of my nail polishes now, I ordered this one online, and despite being able to see a tiny picture of it, given the name Ravishing Raisin, I  assumed that the polish would probably be darker and more purple toned, but as you can see I couldn't have been more wrong.

Sensationail Colour Gel Polish in Ravishing Raisin, is in fact a gorgeous, almost peachy, pinky, nude, with a bit of rose gold, and some almost holographic sparkle thrown in for good measure. 

Whilst I was initially a bit disappointed that it wasn't quite the shade I thought it was, my disappointment quickly faded when I applied it. It's such a pretty shade that's really easy to wear, and will work for any occasion on pretty much any length of nails.

Despite my less than perfect manicure like most Sensationail polishes it was pretty easy to apply, I used their dehydrator, primer, base coat, top coat and lamp, and it took me less than 20 minutes. If you want quite a sheer, paler finish you could just apply one coat, but I've gone for two coats here. The colour does change slightly with every application, so if you want more coverage and a darker finish, or if you have really white tips that can show through some polishes just apply another coat.

The wear time on me was decent compared to about 3 or 4 days with normal polish, I can get a giid 10 days on most nails with polishes like these, and on some nails I can even achieve the full 14 that Sensationail claim. I just tend to redo or touch up the nails that chip or come away and keep it one for the full two weeks before removing it which saves me a lot of time and effort compared to normal polish. I did notice that the finish on the polish dulled down as time went on but you could always add another coat of top coat to keep that shine.

Although this colour wasn't really what I expected it to be I do love it, it's so easy to wear, and it has in fact become one of my most worn shades. Ravishing Raisin is one of Sensationail's original shades so it can be quite hard to find now but it is currently available for less than £6 on Amazon , and for a similar price on eBay. 

Alas my nails aren't anywhere near as nice as this at the moment, so I've brought out the big guns, aka the builder gel, to try and get them nice for Christmas - so fingers crossed that a bit of BIAB, and a ton of cuticle oil does it thing, I'll keep you posted either way ;) Have you made the switch to gel polish yet? I'm pretty new to it and it's definitely a case of trial and error at the moment lol so if you're a fan please let me know what your favourite products and brands for home use are - I'd love to hear your recommendations x 

Thank you as per usual for reading, and thank you so much again for all of your comments and messages on my last post, I really do appreciate it xx

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Happy Halloween - A Fail And A Little Nails Of The Day Featuring Born Pretty Gel Color BP-MC02*

I know I keep saying it but this year really has flown by, I find it so hard to believe that it's Halloween already. I'm not the biggest Halloween stan, but I am partial to a pumpkin or two. I can't show you this years carving attempt because it's so terrifying - it was a bit soft to carve so I ended up improvising with a sharp knife and some BBQ skewers, to create a weird plague doctor, bird, bat, mothman hybrid - I don't know about the trick or treaters, but it will definitely scare away the evil spirits - LOL. Anyway the innards of said pumpkin are now bubbling away to create a panful of Delia Smith's Pumpkin & Toasted Sweetcorn Soup (check out the recipe here if you have some spare pumpkin flesh), and the horror exterior is ready for all the little witches and ghosts with their pumpkin pails. 

I got any cute Halloween outfit pics or recipes to share with you this year, so instead I'm sharing a little nails of the day post with you featuring my lovely pumpkin before I attacked it with a sharp knife!

This is the Born Pretty Gel Color in the catchily names shade BP-MC02. I bought this particular colour in a set of Autumn themed shades from Amazon in October of last year, when I was on the hunt for a pumpkin toned orange gel polish.

This isn't bright neon orange by any means it's definitely noticeable but it's a touch more muted, with maybe some yellow tones in it. 

This is a gel polish so you do need either a UV or LED lamp to seal it. I used some nail dehydrator, primer, and then a base coat and applied two coats of polish, and then a coat of top coat sealing under the lamp between every polish layer. I used my Sensationail LED lamp, and I've got to say the instructions were a touch vague - it said to seal for 30-120 seconds, so I went for about 90 seconds for this polish and it seemed to set pretty well.

The finish as you can see is very shiny, but I think that it could also work with a matte top coat. My nails are super short here so it's never the easiest paint job but despite the less than perfect paint job. this was pretty easy to paint with, the brush was fine and the polish was a nice consistency.

As for wear time, it's actually quite hard to judge, having your hands deep in the guts of pumpkin, full of enzymes and fruit acids doesn't do a lot for a manicure, well it didn't do much for mine! By the time I'd finished my carving attempt I'd lost 1 nail on my left hand and 4 on my right! The leaflet that came with the set I got said it could last up to 3 weeks, so who knows. I still think I'll experiment a bit more with timings, and different top and base coats when I use it again to try and see what works the best, but all in all a decent polish, and a nice seasonal shade.

Alas this particular shade is now pretty hard to find, as I say I bought in a kit about this time last year and believe it or not the last one sold out on Amazon earlier this week! However there is currently a set of 6 polishes also available from Amazon for £9.99 that contains a very similar colour. There are loads of very reasonably priced Born Pretty polishes, again including some similar sets and colours available on eBay and obviously direct from Born Pretty.

So whatever you're doing this evening be it trick or treating, sitting with the lights off hiding from said trick or treaters and ignoring the whole thing , having a party or just having a nice night in, I hope you have a very Happy Halloween, and also if you're celebrating a very Happy Diwali x 

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Autumn Nails With Sensationail Gel Polish In Macchiato And Some Easy Nail Art *

Hey Everyone - Happy Thursday! I hope you're all having another good week. As I said in my last post I seem to lurch from mini crisis to minis crisis, and this week has been no different! Being 'clinically vulnerable' I had both of my booster jabs on Tuesday and as a result I've felt pretty bleugh, and then my Internet went down for two days, which resulted in an Open Reach visit! Great fun I'm sure you'll agree but I'm back now with a little nails of the day post.

I haven't posted many pictures of my nails for what seems like an age now but that doesn't mean that I haven't been wearing polish. My nails haven't been great for a long time, so I didn't really feel like sharing but rightly or wrongly lately I've predominantly been using gel polish.

I got the Sensationail Deluxe Gel Starter Kit a few Christmas's ago now and I've added a few of their polishes, and a few from other brands to my collection, and I have to say I'm a bit of a convert.

Yes, it's a bit of a pain to remove (I would recommend this stuff though) and my nails are in slightly drier and flakier than they were, but they're growing, and gel polish last way longer on my nails then just every other normal polish and top coat that I've tried.

This shade Macchiato was one of the two shades that came in my starter kit. It's a real basic colour, and one that every person should have in their nail polish collection. It's just that perfect neutral, nude beige mannequin hands colour.

Like most of the gel polishes that I've used the coverage was fantastic. After my primer and dehydrator, I just applied one thin coat of base coat, then two thin coats of polish, followed by a thin coat of top coat and voila super shiny nails.

My nails aren't that amazing by hand model standards, my cuticles are a bit dry and flakey, and I do have a habit of of applying a bit too much polish, and flooding my cuticles, but I hope you can see just what a real staple a colour like this is. You can wear it to the office, on a night out or on the school run and your nails will just look perfect and polished. As nice as it is though, dare I say some people might argue that it's just a touch boring! The good thing about shades like this though are that they make great base colours for a bit of nail art.

Although I am practising, I'm not that arty so a lot of my nail art attempts leave a bit to be desired, something that takes very little practise or skill to use though are nail stickers. Just peel them carefully off the sheet, apply them to dry, or 'cured' nails, gently press them down, apply a top coat and you're done.

These Autumnal themed sticker are from Shein, and whilst I think i could have played with the placement and the application, and obviously the base colour, these nails took minutes to do, and I think they've really added an extra dimension to an all be it quite basic, and simple polish.

They may not be perfect but I love playing with nail bits, and that's what it should be all about having fun with nails and make up, and I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. There are definitely a few application flaws out there, and if you look carefully you may spot the odd cat hair or three, because this little one decided that he wanted to get in on the action - cats who would have them?

This particular bottle of Macchiato is the mini size that came in my starter kit bu the full 7.39ml size is available from both eBay and Nail Polish Direct for around £10. If you want to try the Sensationail system for yourself then there are various starter kits on the market, which contain an LED lamp, and all the things that you need to do your own at home gel manicure. The starter kits are available in several configurations at several different price points from various retailers including eBay and Amazon, and as I say my nail stickers are from Shein, where they were around £1 for 2 sheets. You can also get a wide range of similar fall / Autumn themed nail stickers from eBay.

Are you a fan of nail art or gel nail polishes? If you are then I would love your recommendations for gel nails polish brands, particularly if you can recommend a top and base coat, so please leave me a comment and let me know you favourites.

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Nails Of The Day - Orly Color Blast - Rose Chrome Foil

Hi Guys x I hope you are all having a nice weekend, It's raining quite heavily here today so I've been keeping cosy and working on a few blog posts starting off with a nails of the day from the Orly Color Blast range.

Although the regular Orly range is still alive and kicking I can't seem to find many of the Color Blast polishes online bar a few on eBay, and Amazon. From what I remember I think that they were originally on sale in Superdrug in the UK, and I actually remember buying this particular shade because my mam saw someone wearing something similar and kept going on about how nice it was.

I don't think Rose Chrome Foil would ever win any awards for the most creative of names but it's certainly pretty accurate. Described as a rose pink metallic foil, it's an almost cool toned rose gold, crammed full of smooth sparkles.

In a slightly different shaped bottle to the other Orly polishes I own, the polishes in the Color Blast have a ribbed, rubber grip style lid for improved application, and a long medium to thin brush, perfect if you have smaller or shorter nails.

I'm not going to lie if you're a polish perfectionist like me, this particular polish will frustrate the hell out of you. You get a fair bit of coverage with the first coat but for full depth of colour you really need two or three. The trouble with it being a smooth foil is that you can see every single mistake, and brush mark. I'm probably wearing about 3 coats here because I kept trying to perfect but try as I might you can still see the odd imperfection. The temptation is to apply one really thick coat but you'd probably wait an age for it to dry and smudge it in the meantime - so if you have a colour like this go slow, apply thin coats and give it a few minutes to try between each one.

If you aren't as much a perfectionist as I am, then all you'll see is a gorgeous, glossy, smooth finish, metallic foil with just a hint of sparkle. Drying time as I say wasn't bad and the wear time was actually even better. After a few days I noticed some minor tip wear, and it was another few days after that before it started to chip. Bear in mind though it's one of those polishes that once it chips you can't just paint over it and touch it up, as I say polishes like this literally show up any imperfections, so it's easier just remove the polish from the offending finger and repaint it.

I don't think that my issues with this polish are really anything to do with the formulation, the bottle or the brush, I always have similar issues with foil and metallic shades it's just the way that the shades translate, and I think that I am just too much of a perfectionist for them. That being said though, if you don't look too close, and fixate on the brush marks, it's actually a very nice, hardwearing polish, that I've actually worn two or three times now, because it literally goes with any outfit; It's sort of a neutral with a sparkly dressed up twist, and Mummy Lou has always commented about how pretty it is when I've worn it (her own nails are too short for polish, and I'm sorry for saying this but she's also a bit of nail biter!). 

As I say I can't find this particular polish anywhere online now but I'm sure most brands will have a similar rose gold metallic in their inventory, and Orly actually have a shade Rage, in their main line that looks similar, if a little pinker, and there us also a colour in the Orly BREATHABLE range, called Fairy Godmother which also looks similar x Let me know your thoughts on this polish and I'll see you soon with an empties post x 

Nails Of The Day - Beauty Pie Wondercolour Nail Polish - Violetta*

It's fair to say that posts have been a little thin on the ground recently, and I guess it's also fair to say that nail posts have been almost non existent! Despite using my body weight in hand creams, cuticle oils, and nail strengtheners, my nails have by and large, remained stubby, short and dry. However for whatever reason over the last week or so they seemed to have a mini growth spurt, so I had a little sort through some of my most recent nail polish buys, and got painting! Alas within a few days they'd all snapped off again so this post is dedicated to their memory ;)

I've been a Beauty Pie member for nearly a year and a half now and so far so good, I haven't gone daft and changed my entire beauty routine overnight but I've just been picking up the odd thing to try and by and large I've been pretty impressed with the things that I've bought, with the Soul Providers Re-Energizing Dry Oil Sugar Scrub being my standout buy so far. 

I've bought a few make up bits now, some of which I'm going to try and feature in a future post or two, but this was my first time trying one of their nail polishes. I have to say that if you're looking for an exciting nail polish brand, with different colours, finishes and textures, then the polishes from Beauty Pie probably aren't for you. Their shades and finishes are all pretty safe, and pretty wearable, but what you are getting from Beauty Pie are high end, salon quality polishes. All of their nail products are both vegan and cruelty free, and they are 7 free, so they are free from 7 common polish nasties including toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, ethyl tosylamide, xylene, camphor, and triphenyl phosphate. Containing nourishing coconut oil, they promise a quick drying, long lasting, chip resistant, breathable formula.

Annoyingly Beauty Pie seem to like to discontinue things especially make up items and shades, and even though this polish is quite a recent addition to my collection, this particular shade - Violetta - seems to have already been discontinued :( If you're a regular reader you should know buy now that I'm rather partial to purple and lilac nail polishes, and this one is a gorgeous pale, milky lilac shade, that's perfect with spring pastels, and perfect for making your summer tan jump out.

The polishes come boxed and in a no nonsense plain glass bottle with a black cap. With a short and stubby handle the brush itself is quite short and wide. 

The polish had quite a thick consistency and whilst I normally love a wide brush, and cream finishes are usually okay to paint, I did struggle a bit with this one. The brush was just a little too wide for some of my nails, and if you look closely some of the edges aren't exactly straight! 

The formula itself was pretty self levelling but after one coat a few nails were a bit streaky and you could see the odd brush stroke. it wasn't bad but as per usual I went for two coats, which was enough for a lovely smooth finish. The end product was really glossy even without a top coat and the dry time was pretty decent. Look carefully and you'll probably see the odd mistake and less than perfect patch but whether that's down to the polish or the fact that I'm a bit out of practise when it comes to apply nail polish, you decide ;)

As per usual for the purpose of testing a polish, I skipped a top coat, and despite their chip resistant claims, within 24 hours I did experience a tiny bit of tip wear on my right hand. I just painted it over though, and the rest of my nails lasted a good 4 days before I needed to remove it, which is pretty good going for me x

Although I had a few issues with both the application and Beauty Pie's chip resistant claims I was actually pretty pleased with how this polish performed I liked the colour, the wear time was decent, and it didn't leave me nail looking white, and flaky when it started to chip off. As I say this shade appears to have been discontinued by Beauty Pie but you never know it might come back. I've actually ordered another polish from them to try so fingers crossed I can get my nails to grow a bit before it arrives. The core range of Beauty Pie Wondercolour Nail Polishes have an RRP of £15 but members cab buy them for around £7 each. If you fancy trying Beauty Pie for yourself please check out my link here to find out how it works and to sign up for yourself x Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon with another post x 

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