Barry M Gelly Nail Paint - Blood Orange

The latest buzz trend in the manicure world is undoubtedly the rise of the gel manicure. Guaranteed for over 2 weeks, safe for your nails and with a high gloss finish, gel manicures offer a new (and arguably low maintenance) way of keeping your nails ultimately groomed. Hot on the heels of this trend came the high street version, gel nail varnishes.  I think they were meant provide an 'at home' option which is cheaper than buying the proper gel manicure kit (with UV lamp etc).  The high street nailvarnishes dry like any normal nail varnish but are said to offer a high gloss, gel finish.

One of the first companies to bring out a gel nail varnish was Barry M. Their 'Gelly Hi-Shine' nail paints cost just £4.99 for a standard 10ml size.  The color range (in my opinion) is a tad restricted at just nine colours, suggesting this is more of a 'testing of the waters', or (dare I say it..) a gimmick?

But what the hell, I'm a sucker for a gimmick..

I got the 'blood orange colour for my birthday and I'm quite pleasantly surprised!

I found the consistency of the varnish a tad on the gloopy side - I get the impression this might quickly go reeallllyyy gloopy and be unuseable, but we'll see.  The first thing that struck me though was how rich the colour was after just one coat.  You could easily get away with just one coat if you're in a mega rush. I'd say it's worth doing a second coat though, as it still gives a noticeably improved even-ness and depth of colour. I've put photos of the first and second coat below and you can see there isn't much between them, but the second coat makes the colour 'pop' a bit more.

First coat

Second coat

I did find the brush a bit thin...this is a common complaint I have about Barry M nail varnishes. Their brushes always seem thin and rigid making it tricky to get a nice even sweep of colour.  Having said that, this gel formula is quite thick so the brush is not as annoying as with their normal varnishes.

Colour-wise, I do enjoy this. It's quite a rich, classic red - although it's more of a pinky-red rather than an orangey-red like the name suggests. It is also slightly on the darker side - it definitely isn't an fluro bright red, it's more of a classic, rosebud red.

Colour without the flash (more accurate)

Colour aside, the winner with this is by far the finish.  I'd say it definitely lives up to its 'gel' heritage as it has a nice glossy finish. You don't need a top coat, which for lazy people like moi, earns it a bonus point.  Don't get me wrong, it isn't in-your-face, mirror-shine gloss, but it does have a much shinier finish than your bog standard nail varnish.

Overall, for the price and the finish, I like this range.  But unfortunately the red is the only colour I like. If Barry M persevere with this range and bring out more colours then I'd definitely purchase more, but none of the current range excite me much. I quite like 'grapefruit' but can't find it aaaaanywhere.

If one of the colours do catch your eye though, I'd say do it. It's a quick little nailvarnish which has a finish that suggests you spent a lot more time on your nails than you actually have...and that's always a winner.

---UPDATE-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry M have now brought out some new shades in this range.  I say some..I mean 4..but that's four more than the 9 they originally had!

Hopefully though, this tentative release of 4 colours is the sign of things to come, and suggests the 'Gelly' range is doing well. The range could do with a deep, dark colour but I guess they'll probably wait until Autumn to bring out those kind of shades. 

The new shades are all tutti-frutti type colours, with a coral, an aqua, a very pale taupe and a barbie pink.  None of them appeal to me massively colour-wise, although if I was going on holiday I'd probably purchase the aqua as it seems a really vivid colour that would look gorgeous with a tan, and generally this would make a perfect, low-maintenance holiday nail varnish.