Two Sets from Barielle

Recently I got two 5-packs of polish to review from Barielle; I believe these are the two collections they released for Fall 2013. First up is Sophisticated Lady. The shades here are London High Tea, In Good Taste, Tres Chic, Dinner at 8, and Edgy.



Dinner at 8 is a classic red creme. I used three coats over a clear base coat for my swatch; it seemed plenty shiny without topcoat.



I alternated the two dark cremes: Tres Chic, a blackened blue, and Edgy, a blackened purple. They're pigmented enough that one coat of each gave me full coverage as far as color goes; judging by the photos I needed either a second coat or topcoat to get full coverage as far as ridge smoothing goes (even though I did put basecoat on first).



London High Tea is described as "creamy bright pink" on the Barielle website, and from a distance that's certainly what you'd see. Getting closer, however, you'd notice a subtle copper and pink shimmer that makes this more interesting. I used three coats of this for my swatch (again over basecoat and with no added topcoat). I might have been able to stop at two coats but the didn't want to risk my ridges showing (my nails do seem stronger now that I've stopped buffing out my ridges; I guess that's a fair trade, since ridges are easier to cover up than peelies).





There's one more color in the Sophisticated Lady set, but I'm saving it for later as it also is part of the second 5-pack I got for review: Nude & Naughty. The colors in this one are In Good Taste (the common element between the sets), Pillow Talk, Very Bare, No Not Now, and I Got a Headache.



I swatched No Not Now with Very Bare as an accent. No Not Now is one of those colors I'm not sure what to call; Barielle calls it "toffee", but my brain rejects that because in my head toffee and peanut brittle are the same color and No Not Now definitely does not look like peanut brittle. I'm gonna go with brownish dusty rose for this one. Whatever you call it, it has a subtle shimmer and I used two coats over basecoat for my swatch. Very Bare is a very pale pink. I used three coats of it over basecoat and still saw a few streaks when I was done. Barielle calls Very Bare "an opalescent pink" but I saw no shimmer in it at all.





I Got a Headache, a warm shimmery brown, got paired with Pillow Talk, a pale peach creme. Both were three coats over basecoat.





Looking at it in the bottle, I wasn't especially drawn to I Got a Headache (and I definitely didn't like the name—you got a headache where? at the store? from your kids? oh, you meant "I Have a Headache"? why didn't you say so?). Once it was on my nails, I was rather taken by it—the shimmer in it is quite nice. It shows up fine in indirect light, and take a look here at how it glowed in the afternoon sunlight coming in the window of the room where I was swatching:



In Good Taste is the polish both collections have in common. It's a deep warm taupe creme. I swatched it at two coats and added layered dots with No Not Now and I Got a Headache on my accent nail (I put topcoat over the dots but not the rest of my nails).





These 5-packs can be purchased for $25 each on the Barielle website; individual bottles list for $8. If you sign up for their e-newsletter (there's a box near the bottom of the main page) you'll get notice of periodic sales and special offers.

The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.