I have relatively long natural nails and I like to take care of them. I do also like to enjoy my girly moments when it comes to painting my nails and deciding what colour (of the many I own) that I want my nails to be on any particular week (so watch this space for further nail related reviews!)

The Product

I had heard of this Barry M nail effects (as I'm sure many of you have), but when a friend in work had some on it inspired me to actually go out and purchase some for myself. There are different Barry M nail effects out there, but the effect I am reviewing is the crackle one as these are the ones I currently own. I initially purchased the blue one, but have since bought the white and pink too as I really like these nail effects polishes. There are currently 6 colours in this range - black, white, pink, blue, gold and purple. Each bottle will set you back approximately £4. I purchased mine for £3.99 from Superdrug. The bottle itself looks like any other standard nail varnish bottle with the lid pattern reflecting the cracked effects.
For information purposes, the other effects Barry M have out at the moment are foil effects, croc effects, chameleon colour changing effects and magnetic effects - I really want to try the chameleon and magnetic ones, but with funds a little tight at the moment that is something that will have to wait...

Application

In order to get the cracked effect from this nail varnish you first need to pick your base colour. Once you have applied this and let it dry you paint one coat of the Barry M nail effects on top... And then you watch in amazement. The cracked pattern appears before your eyes in approximately 30 seconds. It's actually quite cool to watch. The 'cracks' appear in the nail effects layer, allowing the base coat to show through. It is important to only apply one coat. I find it is easy to apply, glides on nice and smoothly - isn't too runny or too thick.

My Experience

As mentioned, I own a few of the cracked nail effects at the moment. I currently have a emerald green colour as my base coat, and the blue effects over the top. The green and blue go together pretty amazingly I think, and I have been complimented a few times this week in regards to the colour combination! As a general guideline I seem to get about 7 days wear before I feel the need to remove due to chipping. In order to investigate how long this product lasts for the purpose of this review I have left this colour combination on longer than I normally would. I applied this particular combination to my nails 11 days ago. And it's still going strong (mostly anyway!). When I applied this I used a base coat, then 2 coats of the green, 1 coat of the blue nail effects, and finally a final clear top coat to prolong the varnish and prevent chips. 7 out of 10 of my nails are still pretty much in perfect condition (asides from at the bottoms where you can see where my nails have grown!). Granted this result is due to a combination of things, including the fact I did apply a clear top coat. I feel as though this top coat is needed if you want a 'shiny' effect as the nail effects stuff itself does have quite a matte finish to it. Also, as this product gives a cracked effect it would not be noticeable if you managed to just chip some of it without chipping the base coat.

Summary

Overall I would certainly recommend this product. It's fun, it's quirky, it's that little bit different that having a plain colour on your nails. I used to work in a relatively relaxed office environment and was fine wearing my blue/green combo (as well as others) in the office, but I would agree that the look is possibly more suited for a night out than the workplace. Another combination that I got lots of positive comments for was around the time of the queens jubilee I had my alternate nails painted red and blue with the white crackle effect on all 10 nails. The actual combinations are endless!
I do find this product very versatile. The cracked effect created is never going to be exactly the same and the variety of looks with different base colours is endless. I have also found that when applying the product you can get different effects to how fast you apply it - so if you apply the coat quickly you will get a different effect to if you brush it on at a slower speed. At £3.99 I would say it is worth it, especially if you enjoy playing about with colours and the different effects you can get.

Website

Barry M's website has things like full lists of product ingredients and video tutorials for the nail effects if you are interested in them. The link to this section of the website is:
http://www.barrym.com/products/nails/eff&#820 3;ects.html