Barry M Glitterati Collection

*Purchased by me

Hiya lovelies!  Today I have swatches of the whole Barry M Glitterati Collection to share with you.  It's not very often that I want to/can afford to buy an entire collection, but I really loved all 6 of these in other peoples swatches, and since Barry M's have a very affordable price point, I was able to do exactly that.  So, let's get straight into it then shall we?


To save me repeating myself too much, all of these swatches show 3 thin coats, no undies, and 2 coats of topcoat, as they did dry a little gritty.  Application on all 6 was nice too - while they're not as easy as putting on a well pigmented cream polish, all of my swatches here are without any clean up......

* I also had massive issues photographing these.  My camera really couldn't handle the iridescent and holographic effect together, so in real life, the holographic glitters are more prominent than they appear here.  It was all I could do to get a couple of shots of each that weren't blurry as shit. :D

So, we'll start with what has to be one of my favourites - Fashion Icon.  This is a gorgeous purple jelly base, with fine blue/purple glitter, silver holographic glitters, and blue-purple iridescent glitters.  The shift on this is definitely the most prominent.  Looking at it straight on, it seems a very cool toned purple, but at funny angles, like the one below, it shifts to a much warmer shade of purple.  

The formula on this one was a little bit thicker than the others, but not too hard to work with.  I added a couple of drops of Orly thinner before the second coat, and it was a lot nicer after that.   I love purple, I love holo, I love iridescent glitters, and I love jellies.  Need I say anymore?

 Second up is Starlet, a bright pink jelly base, with fine pink glitter, golden iridescent glitter, a tiny sprinkling of blue iridescent glitters, and silver holographic glitter.  The base is very much pink, but the gold iridescent glitters give it more of a coral leaning look overall.

I was initially going to leave this one, but I figured I might as well complete the set, and I'm so glad I did. I adore it on the nail, it's so bright and girly.

 Next is Catwalk Queen, a teal jelly with fine gold glitter, gold-green iridescent glitters, blue-green iridescent glitters, and silver holographic glitters.  This was the sheerest base of all 6, so I did have to be a little more careful with my application so it didn't turn out too patchy.  This was also the thinnest of the 6 for me, so that may have something to do with it too.

 Nonetheless, the tiny bit of VNL is negligible in my eyes, and the end result is very pretty.  This is just the perfect mermaid polish, as Emma from Imagination in Colour said, it seems like it should always have existed.

 Next up is Rockstar, a charcoal grey base, with ALL the iridescent glitters.  I'm pretty sure there's some fine glitter in here somewhere, as there is in the others, but I'll be damned if I can spot it.  It also has holographic glitters, and looks like it could be a dupe for OPI DS - Titanium.  I don't have the OPI to compare the 2, but have a look at swatches.  It seems pretty close, if not identical. :D
A £4 OPI DS (possible) dupe, huh?  That would be very nice! :D

The formula on this was a little on the thicker side, but I didn't have any issues with application.  The jelly base on this was definitely on the more pigmented side of the collection.  I love this, naturally.  It's (almost) black, and insanely sparkly.

 Next up is Socialite, a pinky purple jelly, full of fine pink glitter, blue-purple iridescent glitters, and silver holographic glitter.  This one also had a slightly thicker formula, although again, not unmanageable.

The pigmentation was pretty good, and I adore this colour. Hot pinks with blue shimmer are a particular weakness for me, and this is just perfect!  The pink is the perfect shade, the blue is extremely visible, and it's super sparkly to boot. <3

 And last, but by no means least, is VIP.  A gorgeous vivid blue jelly, with bright blue fine glitter, blue-purple iridescent glitters, and silver holographic glitter.  This had one of the nicest formula's out of them all.  It was nice and thin, but not so thin it pooled, and the pigmentation was spot on.

The ONLY issue I had with this polish is that it won't show it's pretty purple flashes on camera for me.  This was definitely a surprise favourite for me. Don't get me wrong, I expected it to be pretty from swatches, but I wasn't expecting to fall in love with it the way I did when I put it on. It's just so frakking pretty.  Sploosh!

So, this collection gets a massive thumbs up from me.  Firstly because of the complexity of the glitter mixes. Some of the jelly bases have their colour completely altered by the shimmer they contain,I actually had to apply a super thin amount of each polish onto white paper, just so I could pick out what colour came from the base, and what came from the glitters in it. That's the sort of detail you'd expect from an indie polish, not really from a budget brand you can pick up in Superdrug.  I also like the fact that using silver holographic glitters allows them to be altered by the colour of the jellies.

They do seem a little bright for an Autumn/Winter collection, but with the earthy tones in the new Gelly's, and the deep autumnal colours of the new silks and core nail paints, I think this was a good call on their part.  A lot of us don't feel the need to have seasonally appropriate nail colours on, and it's really refreshing to see a brand take that into consideration.  Well done Barry!  Good show old chap! :D

I purchased my bottles from the Superdrug website, but these are also available at nailpolish.co.uk (free 1st class delivery), Boots, asos, and of course, direct from the Barry M website.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at these swatches.  I'll be back over the weekend with an awesome Halloween nail art design to show you.  It's my Nan's 80th birthday tomorrow though, so it may not be until Sunday, depending on what time I get back.  See you then lovelies!