Barry M Aquarium Collection Swatches

So these polishes were released just last week, and being a sucker for anything Barry M or duochrome I rushed straight out to buy them. I actually got the whole collection, I think this is the first full nail collection I've ever bought!

The official description of these from Barry M is

The new Aquarium collection from Barry M includes 4 mirror two-tone Nail Paints that allow your nails to glisten from every angle. For the ultimate under the sea effect try wearing them under one of the 2 large particle glitter topcoats.

The collection can be split into two halves, warm and cool tones, with pinks and golds in the warm and blues and greens in the cool. The duochromes are all subtle ones, named for seas and oceans, and whilst they look fairly sheer when you first apply are opaque in two coats. As with many chrome type polishes, you do see the brushstrokes in these - though some are worse than others. The glitters do drag a bit and sometimes you need to push the flakes around to get a nice finish. As per usual with Barry M these dry pretty fast and wear well (on me anyway). The shard glitter is a massive pain in the arse to remove without using a special base, I like PVA glue personally. The foil method would probably also work, but it's not one I've used.

 

Mediterranean: (index and pinkie fingers) A pink to orange duochrome with subtle sparkles in it. This polish applied the smoothest and gave the strongest duochrome effect. Mediterranean is my favourite from the collection.

Caspian: (middle and ring) this is a very subtle tan/gold to pink duochrome, which didn't want to photograph at all and is hard to spot in real life. The bottle looks like a work of art though.

Treasure Chest: (glitter) Gold, silver and rose gold shard glitter. Does need some slight placement on application, and a top coat to smooth the roughness from the shards. It looks like you dipped your hand in precious metal shavings though, gorgeous.

Arabian: (index and pinkie) Golden green to darker green duochrome, this is the stronger of the two cool-toned duochromes. It does show brush streaks a bit more than the others.

Pacific: (middle and ring) Blue to dark teal duochrome, very very subtle (as in, it was really hard to spot out of the bottle), but a gorgeous blue none-the-less.

Mermaid: (glitter) blue, green and gold shard glitter. As with Treasure Chest this needed some pushing around to sit well, and a top coat to smooth the roughness of the glitter. But it is beautiful and very reminiscent of fish scales (or broken glass bottles).

Overall I do like this collection, though I wish the duochromes were stronger and more dramatic (shifting between two shades of blue or green is very reminiscent of the ocean, but very hard to spot) and I'm still deciding where I stand on shard glitter, beautiful though it is. Mediterranean is my stand out favourite.

Each polish in this collection costs £3.99 and they are available online at BarryM.com and in Superdrug where it's currently 2 polishes for £6. Boots release is pending.