Inspired By... #1

Hi Guys,

Hope you all had a good week last week and a good weekend! I was so busy last week, out pretty much every day, then my nephew had a little birthday party yesterday because he turns two today. So today I've been trying to catch up with housework! I hate having to tidy up and clean, it's so mundane, but has to be done unfortunately... I just can't wait to get into bed tonight! 

Tonight I have something that will hopefully turn into a regular feature: Inspired By...

Recently I bought a new phone case from TKMaxx and as soon as I bought it I knew I wanted to do some nail art inspired by it. The polishes I used here were Snow Me White by Sinful Colors and Barry M Gold Foil.

I started off with a white base coat and let that dry completely, and then I marked off chevrons with striping tape. Next I applied one coat of gold and then peeled off the striping tape while the nail was still wet.

Here is the result:

Natural light

Slightly different shade of gold but still looks nice...

I had to include this, my brother text me just as I was taking this photo!

You can get Barry M Gold Foil at pretty much every Boots and Superdrug, it's definitely worth having. Sinful Colors is available at selected Boots stores.

If you like the look of this phone case, I've seen it in a couple of TKMaxx stores, it is made by Agent18 and they usually retail at around the $30 mark, but they sell them for £6.99. This is for the iPhone 5.

Right, that's all from me for this evening. I'm going to quickly experiment with a Slimming World cake and then it's time for bed!

See you next time!

Barry M Ridley Road

Hi Guys,

Another tired post from me I'm afraid! These days I just can't seem to get any energy! At my Mum's the room I sleep in is really light and so my son wakes up about two hours earlier than when his blackout blinds are there! I would have to get to bed around 9 to get enough sleep but that's way too early for me, I need down time after little monkey goes to sleep!

I went out shopping and he was a total nightmare all day, so this is going to be brief-ish because I can hardly string a sentence together out of sheer exhaustion!!!

Anyway, tonight's post is the third out of four Textured polishes from Barry M. This one is the green, called Ridley Road.

I used three coats for the photos taken in my light box but for day to day wear two would be fine. 

The formula was good, the coverage was decent and I loved the colour, a gorgeous mint green creamy polish.

I love this picture of the whole range!

Pretty!

Macro

This polish retails for £3.99 in Boots, Superdrug, and the Barry M website here.

What do you think of this polish? And the textured nails trend in general? It seems to be pretty much split down the middle. I wasn't a fan until I tried it for myself, now I want ALL the textured polishes out there!

Barry M Kingsland Road

Hi Guys,

Sorry for my absence! I've been so busy... I'm at my Mum's at the moment, my boyfriend is going away on Saturday and we've got tickets for Micky Flanagan tomorrow so we're at my Mum's for all that.. We had some bad news tonight that her cat was run over. She was missing since Monday night and it turns out she was found on Tuesday. We only just found out and it's such a shock, I'm really upset, but I feel like I should do a post today.

This polish is from the Barry M Textured range, and it's one of my favourites from the collection.

Kingsland Road is a baby pink textured nail polish and I love it. I'm not a pink lover of clothes but I've always loved pink polish. This is no exception!

The photos below show three coats. It was okay in natural light at two coats but in my lightbox it looked a bit patchy so I used an extra one for the photos. The formula was pretty good for this. I find these polishes a bit lumpy but okay, and I struggled to clean up my cuticles, but apart from that, they're good!

The whole range!

What do you guys think? Have you picked any of these up yet? They retail for £3.99 at Boots, Superdrug and the Barry M website.

Barry M Atlantic Road

Hello everyone!

I'm so proud of myself today for fitting in a post this evening! Things have been so busy this week, we've totally painted the stairway ready for the carpet fitter to arrive tomorrow morning at 9am. We've picked out a wooden floor for the living room so we're going to order it tomorrow. And on Saturday we're having a bit of plastering done. We've got so much done since my boyfriend has been home from offshore, it's a bit overwhelming! He was meant to go away again on Sunday but it's been put back a couple of weeks so we can get even more done. It's nice to see our house becoming our dream home! 

Tonight I have one of the new Barry M Textured polishes to show you. I bought all four of these the day after they came out, so my next few posts will be of these I think. The first one is Atlantic Road, a pastel blue with texture.

I used three coats for the photos below. In normal day to day wear you can get away with two but my lightbox was showing up patches. 

The formula was okay with this. I found it a bit lumpy to start with but after a couple of nails it was fine and I got used to it. I love this polish so much that I've worn it since I swatched it before I went to Wales. It wore really well and I got four days out of it last week without chips.

This polish retails for £3.99, but when I bought it from Superdrug there was an offer on, I think it was 2 for £6, so the polishes I bought worked out at £3 each, so the normal price for Barry M.

My Week In Pictures #1

Hi Guys,

Tonight's post comes from a tired place. Sickness has taken hold of the Truly Polished family. My son has been ill for about a week and the last two days he's been chesty and coughing. And now it's my boyfriend's turn! Luckily I haven't caught it... Yet. I say yet because if you've been a long-term reader of my blog then you'll know I'm pretty much ill all the time! 

Anyway, I have a new feature to introduce today. It's been something I've been considering for quite some time so tonight is the night...

My Week In Pictures is my idea to keep my blog up to date with photos. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll probably have seen these already, but I know there are a lot of people who just read my blog, so I don't want people to miss out! I post so many photos to Instagram and it will be nice to share them here too.

This won't be a weekly thing, more of an "I've had an interesting week" kind of thing!

So here goes!

Valentine's Day, my boyfriend always knows the best cards to get me!
I loved this!

Some of my stash pre-organising

During the organising...
I CAN'T WAIT TO GET WOOD FLOORING!
GOODBYE TERRIBLE CARPET!

And then I found 5 more in my makeup bag...
And bought another 7...

Trying to eat healthily and get my Five A Day!

I got a lightbox, more of that soon

New Barry M textured polishes! 

Taping off areas to paint grass on my son's wall

After painting, we still have a couple of walls to do

Yesterday found out I won £250 to spend at ASOS in the eShores
Global Style Blogger Challenge, yay!
You can read my post here...

So that's that! My week in pictures! Let me know in the comments section or by email - trulypolishedblog@gmail.com - what you think of the new feature.

I'm hoping to get some swatching to do over the next two days because we're going away on Friday. I was dying for a holiday, but since my boyfriend got home, I have been having too much fun getting things done in the house. So instead of going abroad for a week or more, we're having a mini-break in Wales instead. We've rented a cottage for four days in Pembrokeshire. It's in a little complex of ten with an indoor pool and a soft play area for the kids. Sounds perfect for a change of scenery if nothing else. And we're going to stop in and see my boyfriend's sister in Swansea on the way home. It's over a seven hour drive but I just want a little break! 

See you in a couple of days! Don't forget you can see a lot more of what I'm up to on Instagram, find me at @truly_polished!

Barry M Spring 2013 Releases

Hi Everyone, 

I can't believe it's the end of the week already... This week has flown by with a lack of posts unfortunately. At the moment I just can't seem to get myself together. I really regret not bringing my camera here because I have bought some really beautiful polishes recently and I'm dying to swatch them!

Anyway, tonight I have a little bit of polish news for you! Barry M have revealed their new Spring additions...

So here goes!

Papaya GNP13, Dragon Fruit GNP11, Lychee GNP10, Green Berry GNP12 

There will be four new additions to the Gelly Hi Shine range. These are super glossy polishes, one of which (Watermelon) I swatched here. As far as these polishes go, I don't really understand the need for high shine because I always use a fast dry top coat, but I can understand why it might appeal to some people. That aside, I LOVE these colours, especially the pink and green. They're exactly what I think of when I think of spring. 

Here's what Barry M had to say about them:

"To add to our Hi Shine Gelly Nail Paint collection Barry M have 4 new exotic fruit inspired shades! Lychee GNP10, Dragon Fruit GNP11, Green Berry GNP12, Papaya GNP13 will be your go-to shades this Spring for an extra shiny mani."

When these are released they will retail for £3.99. I know I'll be picking them up!

Next up, and something I was waiting for...

Kingsland Road TNP3, Atlantic Road TNP1, Ridley Road TNP4,  Station Road TNP2

Every year there is one nail polish trend that stands out amongst all others, this year, it is texture. Specifically this kind of texture. During the summer last year, my boyfriend and I were talking about ideas for a polish line. It's a dream of mine to start creating my own, and we were just chatting casually about it. He suggested a textured polish that was gritty and like sand... I turned my nose up at the idea, saying "who wants sandpaper nails?" As far as I was concerned, I use topcoat over my glitters to get a smooth finish so why would I want gritty nails. As soon as I saw the OPI Liquid Sand polishes, I realised that was going to catch on big-time! So I hold my hands up, I WANT GRITTY NAILS!

Here's the official statement from Barry M:

"Channel East End cool by adding some grit to your nails! Textured Nail Effect’s grainy, matte formula creates a unique textured effect for a grunge-chic look. Available in 4 Spring/Summer shades named after famous haunts where Mr Barry Mero began his early working days in the markets of Ridley Road and Brixton. Ridley Road (Green)TNP4, Kingsland Road (Pink) TNP3, Station Road (Yellow) TNP2, Atlantic Road (Blue) TNP1." 

I love all of these colours so much... They too will retail for £3.99 once they are released!

.......

I can see myself buying all 8 of these new additions. I'm starting to think when I get home and organise my Helmer I'm going to need to do it by brand rather than colour because I'll have too many Barry Ms! 

What do you think, which of these do you think you'll be buying? And what do you think about the craze for gritty nails?!

Have a great weekend!

A big day and a little thank you to a fellow blogger!

Hi Everybody,

I hope you're having a good week so far. Today has been a pretty exciting day for me! It's my Mum's birthday, my boyfriend's step-sister had a baby girl this morning, my friend announced she's expecting baby number two, and I arranged for two sets of people to come and view my house. As I mentioned, we're moving soon, so the house we are renting needs new tenants. The sooner we get new people in, the less months of rent we have to pay because we're tied in until March! Fingers crossed the viewings go well, tomorrow I'll be frantically cleaning and tidying to make the house look as attractive as possible! 

Tonight I thought I'd do a bit of showing off, not bad showing off, but the good kind. I recently won a giveaway over at Confessions of a Small Town Girl. I never win anything, so to have my entry picked from over 600 was amazing. The funny thing is, Charlotte won my 30 follower giveaway a few months ago, our blogs love each other! 

I am amazed by Charlotte's generosity for her Autumn Pamper giveaway, it's things like this that make me love being a part of the blogging community.

Here is what I won, she put it all in the most beautiful box and included a card!

All packaged up so well!

Beautiful Prizes!

Included in this package was:

A card

A book

Perfume samples

Beauty Samples

Hair product samples

Full sized hair products

Kleenex blotting tissues

Body lotion

Face packs

Concealer

Lip gloss

Eye shadows

Nail polish (w7)

Tinted moisuriser

Rings

Isn't she lovely for giving all this away?! Thank you Charlotte for being so generous with your prizes, I love everything! I'm trying to think of what I can store in this pretty box, it's too nice for me to give away!

I started the book the day I got the package and it was perfect for me. I love this kind of "holiday read" because it's not hard to get through and this one was a real page turner, I was up until 3am reading it and finished it on Saturday night!

The main reason I did this post was to show you what you can expect to see on here over the next few weeks, as I'll be reviewing some of these products as I use them!

See you tomorrow! In the mean time, why not head over to Charlotte's blog and show her some love!

Barry M Watermelon

Hi Guys,

Tonight's post is going to be pretty quick because I have LOTS of TV to catch up on! I've been watching the second series of Revenge and I have 4 episodes still to watch, plus all of the second season of Homeland... I think I'm going to have to spread it over a few nights! 

Illness-wise I'm feeling slightly better and so is my son. We're still coughing and spluttering all over the place but slightly less than a couple of days ago!

One more thing before I get onto the polish! I made a blog button at last. You can find it at the top right of this page. There is a grab box underneath for anyone who would like to place it on their blog. If you like my blog and want to show my button, drop me an email at trulypolishedblog@gmail.com with the code to your button and link to your blog and I'd love to check out your blog and display your button!

Anyway, tonight I have a Barry M polish to show you. Watermelon is from the Hi-Shine Gelly range and is a dark teal super glossy creme. When this range first came out I thought they were going to be jelly finish polishes. There aren't enough of those available in the UK (hello - someone make some please!) but these don't fill the void... They are super shiny, supposed to be like gel polish, hence the name "Gelly."

For the photos below, I used two coats and no topcoat.

Natural light

Sunlight

This polish is crazy shiny! However, it does have me wondering... Do I need a really shiny polish? Probably not, as long as I use Seche Vite. And... Do I wish this range was full of squishy jelly goodness? Yes, yes I do!

Nevertheless, this polish is really pretty and the colour is totally up my street and perfect for winter. It retails for £3.99 at all the usual Barry M retailers, but I bought this at Boots as part of their "buy one get one half price" deal. 

See you tomorrow for a Festive Friday! 

Barry M Gold Mine

Hi Guys,

This post is a bit late, but my whole evening got pushed back about an hour and a half because I went to the supermarket. This might not sound major, but getting out of the door with my son, as well as getting him in and out of the car, shopping trolley etc really eats up the minutes! So my son went to bed at 9 instead of 7:30, I ate at ten, then sat around for a bit, I'm really tired and unmotivated... Caleb woke up at 6:30 this morning, then I had my exercise class at half past 10... He didn't fancy having a nap until 3 in the afternoon, so it's just been one of those days!

Anyway, I'm excited to be actually sat writing a post after editing the photos, it seems like ages since I've done this. My holiday threw me off because scheduling posts meant I was out of the routine of posting!

I still can't find my camera, so these photos are taken with my iPad, I'm sorry about that. This is driving me NUTS because I swatched a couple of Models Own polishes last week so I know my camera is in the house somewhere waiting to be found!

Tonight's post is a Barry M polish I bought the other day. It is from their Jewel Glitter range and it's called Gold Mine. I love this collection, but honestly, I think I have more chunky glitters than regular polishes, and glitter is all I'm buying, so I just picked one to buy. Gold mine contains gold hex glitter in a black base. 

The photos below show two coats of Gold Mine with one coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Coat. Sorry there is no sunlight photo, but we're lucky if we get daylight here at the moment. I love winter, until it actually arrives, then I get the dry hands, chapped lips and have to live with just cloudy skies! This is England...

Natural light

Inside in the shade

I love how this looks, it has a lot of depth because of the slightly sheer base. Some of the glitter is partially covered by the black and some of it is at the top, it looks very unique. I've been wanting a glitter like this for the winter because I own nothing else like it. I think Gold Mine sums up the party season, and I'll definitely be wearing this over Christmas and New Year.

This polish is available for £2.99 in all the usual outlets. I bought mine from Boots, but you can also find it at Superdrug. Boots have a buy one get one half price deal on at the moment, and Superdrug have a 3 for 2 deal, so you won't have to pay full price for this. You can also find this on a lot of online retailers, including the Barry M website!

See you back here tomorrow (technically later on today but you know what I mean!) when I'll be introducing a new feature!

Barry M Magnetic Green Sparkle aka Cosmic Glow

Hi Guys,

Tonight I have another Barry M polish to show you. I'm loving Barry M at the moment, every five minutes it seems like they have another collection coming out! In fact, they revealed a new collection of glitter polishes that are coming soon...

Anyway tonight's post is one of the new magnetics, and it's called Cosmic Glow. My bottle says Magnetic Green Sparkle though, it's the same situation as when I swatched Barry M Neptune Sea.

Cosmic Glow is a forest-y green polish that develops a dark green pattern with the magnet. It also contains holographic glitter which gives it a special extra something.

The formula on this was pretty good, smooth and went on easily. I used two coats and then a third with the magnet. The magnetic effect was really good too. 

Now onto the photos:

Natural light

Sunlight

Isn't this gorgeous?! I love green nail polish and really don't own enough of it, but I was really taken with this, I had to buy it as soon as I saw the holo glitter and I have no regrets, I love it!

You can buy this in all the usual places: Superdrug, Boots, ASOS, the Barry M website. Barry M is so easy to get hold of and that's why it's such a favourite with a lot of people.

This polish retails for £4.99, but I got it in a 2 for £8 deal in Superdrug. It's definitely worth getting, I haven't seen a colour like it in any of the magnetic ranges!

Barry M Denim

Hello!

I am about to collapse from tiredness! I can't believe it's nearly 11 o'clock already! I only ate about half an hour ago! If you follow me on Instagram (@truly_polished)  you'll notice I've been posting more food pics recently than normal... Since my boyfriend has been away I've been doing some serious cooking. More time in the kitchen means less time sat on my own watching pointless TV! But it also means I decide at 9pm to start making pasta sauce! So I'm really tired now and ready for bed...

Anyway, tonight I have a polish that I bought ages ago and totally forgot about! It was one of the new Barry M polishes and I had to get it. It's called Denim and it's a perfect denim blue with shimmer. The formula was amazing, one coat was fully opaque, but I used two for the photos below. This dries with a satin look, the first photo shows no topcoat and the others show one coat of Seche Vite.

No topcoat

Topcoat - Natural light

Topcoat - Sunlight

I think this colour is perfect for the weather right now. Sometimes it wants to be summer, sometimes autumn, sometimes winter... I wake up in the morning not knowing what to put on, but with these nails, you'll always have a seasonally appropriate mani! 

I really have no complaints at all about this polish, it ticks all of the boxes: great formula, fast drying, flattering, and most of all... AFFORDABLE! I bought this for £2.99 at Boots. You can also get it at Superdrug, ASOS, Nail Polish Direct and all the other usual outlets for Barry M!

Barry M Magnetic Sparkle Blue aka Neptune Sea

Hi guys,

Another quick-ish post from me tonight. It's been a long day, I've been trying to sort out a venue for my son's birthday (unsuccessful) and then my boyfriend and I had a barbecue at 9pm in the nearly dark night! So here I am, very tired and achy and writing my post!

Tonight's polish is a new(ish) one from Barry M. When I heard they were releasing new colours of the magnetic polishes I was intrigued, but then I forgot about them until I saw the range in Superdrug a few days ago. They were on a deal at 2 for £8, so just under £2 off, so I bought two. 

Now onto Neptune Sea... I have a confession to make, I've only just found out that this is actually called Neptune Sparkle! I forgot the name of this and couldn't be bothered to dig out my bottle so I set onto google and found out the real name. I would have been none the wiser! My bottle says Magnetic Sparkle Blue on it, and seeing as Barry M polishes never have very imaginative names I never thought to question it!

Anyway, Neptune Sea looks a bit non-descript and grey at first glance, but luckily I check all of the effects before buying any of them so I knew the magic inside this bottle. It was too sheer for me, I hate doing layers and layers of polish so I cheated and layered it over black!

The photos below show two coats over black:

Natural light

Sunlight

When you apply the magnet over the polish, the most gorgeous glass flecked blue comes out, you'd never expect it from what it looks like without the magnet. I decided to use the chevron magnet for three fingers with the star as an accent nail. Not sure what happened with my little finger, it went a bit awry!

This is 100% my favourite magnetic polish yet. I love that Barry M have brought out so many, and I have another one to show you in the very near future that is really something special!

You can find this in all the usual places, Boots, Superdrug (where I bought mine) the Barry M website... It's not in stock on ASOS or Nail Polish Direct yet though, I'm not sure what their plans are for releasing it. It retails for £4.99, but as I mentioned before, Superdrug have it on 2 for £8, so it's worth getting!