It seems like the Barry M instant nail effects nail paint is a popular choice amongst Dooyoo readers as there are 117 reviews on the subject. I had never even heard about the nail effects paint before I read numerous reviews about and then I simply had to buy myself bottles of black and pink which were bundled together in a package on Amazon for £5, each bottle will normally sell for around £4.99 on the high street.

I will focus on the black nail polish first as it is the one I have used the most. To use it, you paint the black polish over a coloured undercoat and as the varnish dries it cracks and shows the colour underneath giving a stunning effect. I have used the black over yellow for a leopard print effect and it also works particularly well with luminous colours.

The effect itself is really nice but I found the nail paint really difficult to apply. A thin coat gives a smaller pattern while a thicker layer gives bigger patches of black. Unless you can get the thickness of the paint exactly the same on each nail then it can end up looking a real mess. I found that the paint dries really quickly on your nails and there is no room for errors or painting on a double layer. The crackle effect is extremely prone to cracking and chipping unless you paint a clear coat of nail polish on top to seal the pattern in but is also really easy to remove when you are bored with it.

I enjoyed wearing the black nail paint but got relatively few applications from the bottle before it dried out completely and became unusable, the paint giving a nice crackled appearance on the inside of the glass bottle. I did try to thin the paint down with nail varnish remover once but this didn't seem to work.

The pink nail effects polish was a disaster. It crackles in the same way as the black polish does but even then it seemed to leave a very thin layer of chalky pink over all of the base coat making the finish less striking. I used it over dark purples and blacks and the base coat seemed to show through the pink splodges and over whites where it just looked washed out and horrible. The pink itself is a nice dusky rose colour and would have been really nice as a base colour but as a crackle polish it just does not work.

I would probably buy the black nail effects again but would not pay full price for it but for £3 it would seem like a reasonable buy and I would just leave the pink on the shelf.