Barry M Aquarium Range - Part 1 - Pacific and Mediterranean

As part of the Be Cruelty Free competition, I won the entire Aquarium range of polishes from Barry M and I was very excited to try them out. Here's some swatches of two of the colours from the range, Pacific and Mediterranean.

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Pacific is a stunning ocean blue metallic polish with a slight duochrome.  It probably has the smallest colour shift between all of the colour polishes in the range but the colour is stunning to say the least.  The finish of the polish gives the effect of molten metal on the nails and is highly reflective, catching the eye of many a person (or customer while I was wearing it during work).  As it has quite a metallic finish, be careful in application of this polish as brush strokes are quite visible (as you can see in the pictures above).  For these swatches, I used one base coat of black polish (following the instruction of Allie from Brit Nails) and two coats of Pacific with a layer of top coat.  I wore this for about 5 days with only tip wear and some growing out (again, as you can see!)

This shade is by far my favourite from the collection.  The colour is so pigmented and definitive and the only problem with application is the visible brush strokes.  You could probably do without using a layer of black but I thought I would use Allie's advice to get the best results from this truly stunning shade.

Mediterranean is a warmer hued, shimmer polish which is a more visible duochrome shade, moving from coppery orange/brown to pink.  For the above swatch, I used three coats of Mediterranean by itself (no black undercoat) and the pigmentation of the polish was spot on.  I also used one coat of top coat for a glossy finish.  I really like the colour shift in this polish.  I find it is a bit more of a shimmer than a metallic polish like Pacific so the formula is a touch thinner but it's buildable, as you can see.  I think this is the perfect shade for when you're holidaying, something warm, glittery and just a little bit interesting.

So far, I'm really loving the Aquarium range from Barry M.  These shades are probably the most colourful of the collection (apart from the glitter shades perhaps) and attracted me like a magpie, hence why they're popping up on the blog first.  In the next week or so, I'll pop up some swatches of the other shades from the collection.

What do you think of Barry M's latest release? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to follow me by the sites below to be kept up to date with all things Flails and Nails, until next time :-)

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