Temptalia

Barielle Style in Argyle Collection Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 13:00:52 +0000

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Cashmere or Loose Me, Tight Knit, Cowl of the Wild

Barielle Goes Brown for Fall

For fall, Barielle’s Style in Argyle Collection is quite literally autumnal in tone. It’s a myriad of shades you’d see in fallen leaves. It includes six new shades: Cashmere or Loose Me (soft brown with copper pearl), Tight Knit (purple brown creme), Cowl of the Wild (mushroom taupe creme), Aura Angora (royal gold creme), Wool You Marry Me? (plum brown creme), and Unraveled Rust (burnt rust creme). All but Cashmere or Loose Me (soft brown with copper pearl) are creams. Each retails for $8.

Cashmere or Loose Me is a warmed-up red-toned medium brown with a soft sprinkle of pale gold shimmer. The shimmer is very subtle in the creamier base. Two coats.
Tight Knit is a rich, plum-tinged brown cream. You barely need two coats, because one coat is so rich, but I did two.
Cowl of the Wild is a medium-dark chocolate brown with a little taupe cream. Two coats.
Aura Angora is a yellow, mustard-y cream. Two coats. It’s darker and more orange-based than Butter London’s Bumster.
Wool You Marry Me? is a deep burgundied brown cream. This one was my favorite, because it looks very decadent in color. Two coats. This one reminded me a bit of Essie’s Sexy Divide.
Unraveled Rust is a rich, almost molten dark chocolate brown cream. Two coats.

Barielle’s formula is on the thicker side, though it applies very evenly and never streaks. I found all shades except Cashmere or Loose Me to be nearly opaque in one coat. I ended up using two coats for all colors, but the creams are quite pigmented. These felt like they took longer to dry than the average polish, and I think that might be due to the thickness of the polish itself.

Honestly, I don’t own many brown polishes for whatever reason, so I don’t have a full range of shades to pull from for dupes. Given that Essie does a lot of creams, you may want to look there first (assuming you have a large Essie stash, of course).

These are colors you may love or hate, and they’re not your typical shades, regardless of the coordination with the season. I’m kind of digging Aura Angora and like Wool You Marry Me? the best, but none of these shades are must-haves based on my color preferences.

Any of these shades catch your eye?

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!

Product: 26/30
Value: 8/10
Ease of Use: 4/5
Packaging: 4/5

RECOMMENDATION: The formula is a little thick and takes a bit longer to dry, but the creams are incredibly pigmented and apply beautifully.

AVAILABILITY: Barielle

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Cashmere or Loose Me, Tight Knit, Cowl of the Wild

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Cashmere or Loose Me, Tight Knit, Cowl of the Wild

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Cashmere or Loose Me, Tight Knit, Cowl of the Wild

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Aura Angora, Wool You Marry Me?, Unraveled Rust

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Aura Angora, Wool You Marry Me?, Unraveled Rust

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Aura Angora, Wool You Marry Me?, Unraveled Rust

Barielle Nail Lacquer: Aura Angora, Wool You Marry Me?, Unraveled Rust

Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me Nail Lacquer (Natural Light)

Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me Nail Lacquer (Flash)

Barielle Tight Knit Nail Lacquer (Natural Light)

Barielle Tight Knit Nail Lacquer (Flash)

Barielle Cowl of the Wild Nail Lacquer (Natural Light)

Barielle Cowl of the Wild Nail Lacquer (Flash)

Barielle Aura Angora Nail Lacquer (Natural Light)

Barielle Aura Angora Nail Lacquer (Flash)

Barielle Wool You Marry Me? Nail Lacquer (Natural Light)

Barielle Wool You Marry Me? Nail Lacquer (Flash)

Barielle Unraveled Rust Nail Lacquer (Natural Light)

Barielle Unraveled Rust Nail Lacquer (Flash)

Barielle High Steppin' Collection for Summer 2010 Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:55:44 +0000

Barielle High Steppin’ Collection for Summer 2010

For summer, Barielle is releasing six shades of summery shades in late April/early May. There are quite a few metallic finish shades in this collection, which made me a bit wary, as I cannot seem to minimize brushstrokes enough to feel good about wearing a metallic finish polish. Freestyle has only a slight metallic finish, so I was able to work with that one, but Passion Pirouette and Slow Motion are both distinctly metallic and were less easy for me to work with. Electric Boogie is absolutely divine and if you’re a fan of dark blues, you might just have to get this shade.

Passion Pirouette is a reddened fuchsia-purple with a metallic finish with a silver-ish overlay. If you take your time with this shade, I think you can bang out a pretty fun, metallic-look with minimal brush strokes. With metallic finishes, less is definitely more — you don’t want to have to go back over the same area, because you want to minimize the brush strokes as much as possible. It is an opaque shade, though, as it only requires two coats for a good, opaque color.
Slow Motion is a gray, lilac-tinged shade with a metallic finish. This shade takes about three coats to go opaque, but I found it was harder to disguise the brushstrokes, because the color itself is on the light side.
Belly Dance is a slightly grayed fleshy beige with champagne shimmer. This applied beautifully; it was easy to apply and went on smoothly. I found two coats was about right, though I applied three for good measure.
Night Moves is a silver with an almost pewter cast and a very glittery, more foil-like finish than a metallic-finish. Because the glitter is noticeable, it helps to disguise any brush stroke issues. This really did remind me of foil… but way, way more intense. It’s like foil met a disco ball and they had a glitter-tastic baby.
Electric Boogie is a rich, deep water blue with night sky sparkle. This is truly the standout shade of the six. This is a seriously lush color that looks kind of sexy on nails. It has sky blue shimmer and larger, more obvious blue-teal flecks of glitter. Beautiful!
Freestyle is a pastel mint green with champagne gold micro-glitter. This shade was the sheerest of the bunch and definitely needed three coats to look opaque, but three was good. It has a slightly metallic finish, so some brushstrokes are visible, but much less obvious than with Passion Pirouette and Slow Motion.

LOVE Electric Boogie, LIKE Freestyle and Night Moves, but would SKIP Passion Pirouette.

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!

Product: 26/30
Value: 8/10
Ease of Use: 4/5
Packaging: 4/5

Recommendation: It’s not a solid collection, because not all shades are made equal, but there are some nice shades to be found within the collection as well. If you do like metallic finishes and have no issues working with them, though, then you may enjoy the entire collection!

Availability: May 2010

Passion Pirouette, Slow Motion, Belly Dance

Night Moves, Electric Boogie, Freestyle

Barielle Passion Pirouette Nail Lacquer

Barielle Slow Motion Nail Lacquer

Barielle Belly Dance Nail Lacquer

Barielle Night Moves Nail Lacquer

Barielle Electric Boogie Nail Lacquer

Barielle Freestyle Nail Lacquer

Barielle Wildflower Collection for Spring 2010 Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:48:52 +0000

Barielle Wildflower Collection for Spring 2010

Barielle’s Spring collection is called Wildflower and consists of six spring-y shades. All but Snap Dragon apply pretty well, with Blossom being a little goopy but manageable. Daring Dahlia and A Bouquet for Ava had the best application–very smooth, pigmented, and perfect consistency. My favorites were Daring Dahlia (the way the fuchsia shimmer sparkles is gorgeous!) and June Bug (so different!), but I also really liked Myrza’s Meadow, too. Snap Dragon was my least favorite from the runny consistency to the way brush strokes are really apparent.

Each bottle retails for $8 a pop and is available through barielle.com (though I swear, I only saw Daring Dahlia there at present). By the way, 100% of the proceeds from A Bouquet for Ava, June Bug and Myrza’s Meadow purchased at OCRF.org will be donated to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund!

Daring Dahlia is a bright hot pink with fuchsia micro-shimmer. This one had a phenomenal texture and feel–it applied nearly opaque in just one coat and was a dream to apply.
Blossom is a creamy, bright orange-peach. It’s not neon, but it’s not tame either. This one I had a little trouble with the application; definitely need to use thinner coats initially. It went opaque in two coats, though.
Myrza’s Meadow is definitely one of the standouts of the collection. It’s almost like a soft, pastel pickle green with particle glitter spread throughout a creamy base. Application was good on this, though I should have used thinner coats (went a lil’ thick!). Two coats was good, but a third coat was perfect.
Snap Dragon is a metallic grassy green. I just don’t dig metallic/chrome kind of finishes, because dealing with the visible brush strokes is a pain in the butt. I wasn’t loving how this applied (a little runny), so this was my least favorite shade of the six.
A Bouquet for Ava is a beautiful shade of slightly darkened sky blue. It’s a creamy shade and goes opaque in one coat, though I did two for good measure. Application was perfect with this one.
June Bug is a periwinkle blue with an iridescent teal-blue shimmer-sheen with small red glitter. I loved this one, because it’s completely unlike anything I have already. It has the same finish and look/feel as Myrza’s Meadow, but it’s more exciting, because the contrast is greater. Application was good on this one as well.

Which are you favorites? Are you going to grab any of ’em?

See more photos & swatches…

Barielle Daring Dahlia Nail Polish

Daring Dahlia

Barielle Blossom Nail Polish

Blossom

Barielle Myrza’s Meadow Nail Polish

Myrza’s Meadow

Barielle Snap Dragon Nail Polish

Snap Dragon

Barielle A Bouquet for Ava Nail Polish

A Bouquet for Ava

Barielle June Bug Nail Polish

June Bug

Barielle's Sugar Rush Collection for Summer 2009

Christine — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:01:29 +0000

Barielle’s Sugar Rush is a vibrant collection for the upcoming summer season. There are six shades (each retailing for $8.00) in the collection:

Cotton Candy Vibrant pink sparkle
Lemondrops Electric yellow
Sweet Addiction Minty green
Swizzle Stix Robin’s egg blue
Decadence Metallic turquoise
Grape Escape Plush purple hue

This is my first time trying out Barielle’s nail polish, and I was impressed by the pigmentation and creaminess of the polishes. I found most of the polishes applied nearly flawlessly (despite my rushed application), which is a huge plus!

Cotton Candy is a soft medium pink with lots of pretty pink sparkle. It is a little sheerer than some of the other shades in the collection.

Lemondrops is a creamy, bright primary yellow. Great texture, finish, and extremely opaque.

Sweet Addiction is a deep green-teal cream. Again, the finish and feel of this polish is fantastic, and there is lots of color in each coat (no more than two required).

Swizzle Stix is a creamy, sky blue. I didn’t have such great application with this, but I think it is because I applied too-thin of a coat on the first go round, which ended up in a streaky finish. I think if I wasn’t so quick on the draw, this would look dreamy.

Decadence is a rich, jewel-toned turquoise. It’s incredibly stunning, and even though it’s quite deep, I think the shimmer in it makes it perfect for summer.

Grape Escape is a really intense royal purple cream. It’s so opaque and creamy–it’s stunning in person.

See swatches…

Cotton Candy, Lemondrops, Sweet Addiction

Swizzle Stick, Decadence, Grape Escape

Cotton Candy

Lemondrops

Sweet Addiction

Swizzle Stix

Decadence

Grape Escape