In my continuing role as a sample stopover point for Lucy's Stash, I recently had the chance to try the shades in two of 5-packs of polish from Barielle.
The Some Like It Hot pack has Life of the Party, Gotta Have Fate, Sunshine, Lily of the Valley, and Surf's Up.
The Dazzling Diamonds pack consists of Cherry Blossom Sparkler, Purple Hearts, Stardust, Ebony Rainbow, and Pink Diamond.
You know the purple glitter caught my eye right off. I thought it would look good over Surf's Up, a creme which Barielle describes as "deep caribbean blue". Here's two coats of Surf's Up with two more of Purple Hearts on top.
Barielle's website describes Purple Hearts as "purple glitter" and has a photo that looks nothing like the bottle that came in the pack, so I'm not sure what's up with that. This Purple Hearts has a mix of hex glitters: large cool-toned purple, medium warm-toned purple, medium silver holo, small cool-toned purple and silver.
As you may have detected in the photos above, Surf's Up is quite pigmented and was a bit of a challenge to clean up. When I removed it, my fingers were looking somewhat Smurf-y. I scrubbed them with a brush and some whitening toothpaste so I could continue my swatching, though you may see some remaining hints of blue in later photos.
Lily of the Valley is the odd polish out in the Some Like It Hot pack; it's a shimmer among cremes (well, cremes and one near-creme, but we'll get to that later). Here is it at two coats, no top coat:
I added one coat of Stardust to Lily of the Valley and quite liked the effect.
On the Barielle website, Stardust looks silver and is described as "multi glitter". In person, it looks white-ish and has translucent iridescent glitter in a clear base.
Pink Diamond looked more opaque in the bottle than the other two glitters I'd tried to that point, so I used it by itself at three coats. It really could have used some underwear (or a fourth coat). This is a warm dusty rose glitter in a clear base.
Cherry Blossom Sparkler has a warm deep pink base with small silver glitter; the glitter is not nearly as dense as that in Pink Diamond. I expected this to be sheer but wanted to see the colored base, so I did my tips in Life of the Party (the warm pink creme from Some Like It Hot) before putting on two coats of Cherry Blossom Sparkler.
Then I tried Sunshine Tips with Cherry Blossom Sparkler over the top. I am not so sure about this combination, though it does look summery.
Ebony Rainbow is a true multi glitter; I see blue and green and gold and pink and orange and silver and purple. (On the Barielle website, it looks like dark silver.)
I used Ebony Rainbow over Gotta Have Fate, the reddish orange creme from Some Like It Hot. This is three thin coats of each, no topcoat.
Finally we come to Sunshine, the yellow one. For a yellow, it was quite well behaved; this is three coats:
I thought this one was a creme, but it's really a very subtle shimmer. Maybe it's the shimmer that helps it apply nicely.
For fun, I added dots of Life of the Party and Gotta Have Fate.
For even more fun, I put a coat of Stardust on top of the dots. I think this look would be perfect to wear to the circus. The way the glitter in Stardust is influenced by the base color really shows; here over warm colors it pops mostly pink and yellow, while over Lily of the Valley earlier, it was much more blue and green.
Individual bottles are priced at $8 on the Barielle website, though there is often a BOGO50% sale going on. The 5-packs are priced at $25, so if you like all the colors in one, that's a pretty good value.
The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.
I need lily of the valley! gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteOoo I'm loving all the glitters!
ReplyDeleteThey are all beautiful shades. Your polka dot mani is adorable!
ReplyDeleteA Dazzling Diamonds pack! Fantastic, I love that!!
ReplyDeleteSunshine is - ahhh so sweet - Lily of the Valley is gorgeous - and I just renamed Surf's Up to Smurf's Up ;)
ReplyDeleteI want them all----------------until I seen your smurf nails, that is. Although I've had pretty good results with lemon juice...its just still annoying when this happens.
ReplyDeleteI'll probably get them anyway when they show up at our local Winners in box sets about a year from now.
Your nail art is fabulous, btw!
Thanks for the swatches! I needed these to help me decide :)
ReplyDeleteThe dots are good. Barielle have stopped trading in the UK though so I won't be getting these.
ReplyDeleteoooh those are some pretty colors! I have Lily of the Valley and I love it, but it is the odd man out of the group. And wow on those smurf nails! I'll be sure to wear base coat before trying Surf's Up.
ReplyDelete~ Yun
OMG Lily of the Valley and Sunshine are just beeyootiful!!! *dies* Shame you ended up all Smurfy. I hate it when that happens. All out of the blue like that..... ;)
ReplyDeleteFun collections!
ReplyDeleteSunshine and Gotta Have Fate are exceptionally gorgeous!! ^.^
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the downsides of blue polish! Great colour though! And I love that last manicure, so chic!
ReplyDeleteI just picked up a Barielle 5-pk from our version of TJMaxx for $15, thought it was a good deal. Wish I can find the Dazzling Diamonds. Yikes for the stain :(
ReplyDeleteWow, these glitters are so much fun! Barielle has really been stepping up their game lately, I'm loving it!
ReplyDeleteLily of the valley is pretty but doesn't look very unique. I loved the dotticure!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful swatches and art! :D These look pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteGo KarenD and your dotty self! I am loving that lily of the valley green with the sparkle on top! Very nice
ReplyDelete