Here I have all 9 colours from Barry M's new Gelly collection to show you!
Click the jump to see the post (it's very picture heavy).
Press SampleI'm excited about this collection so I'm really happy to have the whole lot to show you! Long time readers of my blog may also notice that my swatches have now been updated and improved! This is one of my most viewed posts so I wanted to make it even better.
About Gelly - At first I thought these were going to be jelly finish polishes, but it really does mean gelly rather than jelly (think shellac) The finish is super super glossy, as you'll see in the pictures. They have an almost wet look and are very pigmented, so you won't be able to make
jelly sandwiches with them. Opaque does not a jelly sandwich make!
These polishes are described as being 1 coat colours, but only a couple of them really are. I use 2 coats as a general rule for polish anyway, but I'll tell you how many coats I used on each swatch. Top coat isn't needed with these as they're so glossy by themselves, but I always use top coat in my manis anyway. It's just up to you.
Blackberry
Before I start I will clear up some confusion: I received a very early batch of these polishes, and my bottles of Blackberry and Plum were mislabelled, so there is a chance yours may be too. In the picture above, Blackberry and Plum should be the other way around, and Blue Plum should just be called Plum. Confused? So was I! I wondered why Blackberry was purple! Anyway I have fixed my swatches now and they're all present and correct. So, on with them...
Blackberry is a dark royal blue. 2 coats here.
Plum
Plum is a dark plum-purple. I used 2 coats here.
Watermelon
This one is my favourite colour from the collection! It's a lovely dark teal and is pigmented enough for one coat, but I used 2 thin coats as it was a tiny bit streaky on the first coat (I often find dark greens/teals/blues to have this tendency)
Blood Orange
This is a deep orange-toned red (hence, blood orange!) it's a beautiful colour and I don't think I have another one like this in the Helmer. It looks extremely juicy and kind of makes me thirsty! 2 thin coats here, though 1 would possibly be enough.
Blueberry
And here we have my second favourite! This is a perfect cornflower blue. One of the most sheer ones in the collection, you'll need 2-3 coats of this to build the colour. It's such a nice blue and I can see myself wearing this quite a lot!
Prickly Pear
This is a dusty pale lilac, and the most sheer of the collection. I needed 3 coats with this one to build the colour. The formula is really manageable though, so applying multiple coats was no problem. It reminds me a little of parma violets!
Satsuma
This is a coral orange and the brightest, most pigmented of the bunch. It almost leans towards a neon!
Grapefruit
The collection does not leave us without a pink! This is a lovely bright bubblegum pink and another of my favourites. 2 coats here
Pomegranate
Lastly we have pomegranate. This is a gorgeous dark magenta. I used 2 coats
And that's all of them! That's the most I've ever swatched in one go before. Phew.
Verdict
As you can probably tell, I'm very happy with these polishes. Barry M's tend to be glossy anyway, but these pack an even glossier punch (trying to get creative with words there, failing) and I love the gelly look. As I've mentioned, not every shade in the collection is one coat, but adding extra coats is no trouble due to the easy to work with formula that you'd expect from Barry M.
Also, there's another reason I love them...they can be used for stamping!! This will be music to any stamping enthusiasts ears...
I did a quick stamping mani to show you -
I used Satsuma, Plum, Blackberry and Blood Orange. Shades like Prickly Pear and Blueberry won't work too well, but the darker are great.
So happy they work for stamping!
Availability
This collection will be available at £3.99 each on
Barry.com from September 21st, and will be in Superdrug stores from September 26th, followed by Boots stores on October 3rd.
