Barielle Holiday Hustle Collection for Winter/Holiday 2010

I was at Costco this week and noticed that they had already taken down the Halloween decoration aisle and put up the Christmas decoration aisle! It's September! I've never seen them do that before. I feel like I'm being rushed! Luckily that is not the case with Holiday polish collections... I'm the opposite with those- I want them in June! Ha!

Here's Barielle's Holiday offering:


Coaldest Day Of The Year. Yes, Coal-dest. I know. *groan* I think it wants to be OPI's Baby It's "Coal" Outside, from the looks of things. This is a black/charcoal with blue-toned silver large particle shimmer. It's not round shimmer, it's more like broken pieces of shimmer. Icy.



Elle's Spell. My favorite of the collection. This is a dark candy apple or light wine red sheer base with red/orange toned opal flakes, a la Nfu Oh. This is rather sheer and not quite as jelly like as I had thought from looking at it in the bottle so it may look better layered if you want a stronger flaky effect.


Get Me To The Party. A deep bronzy gold. Looks sort of duochrome, doesn't it? Has the lighter gold area in the center and the deeper more bronze color on the edges. A little frosty but more metallic than pure frost, but definitely not chrome.



Jess' Champagne Toast. This one is painful. Look how AMAZING it looks in the bottle! It's spectacular! I could barely believe what I was seeing when I held the bottle up in the sunlight. It's a periwinkle leaning toward light lilac frosty metallic base with lots of pink microglitter. Sadly, it doesn't translate on the nail. It looks lumpy and bubbly because the frost base is too, well, frosty? And the glitter is too delicate to be seen through the thick frost. It always makes me wonder when I see a polish like this.... Did they actually wear the color on the nail before they decided to release it? This totally could have been saved with a thinner, more sheer metallic base!


Snow Day. This one is more like a chrome. It's a super reflective metallic blue-toned silver. Very blue toned... Maybe it's actually a silvery blue! Ha! But yes, you will need to be careful with brushstrokes. Frosty.


Wrap Me In Ribbon. This does remind me of ribbon. Pretty. It's a mauve metallic frost, again not a plain frost but more of the China Glaze Romantique Chrome reflective type of frost. You can see how reflective it is in the picture but you can also see some brush strokes.

The formula on these was odd. Elle's Spell and Coaldest Day Of The Year were really thick and a little goopy but the rest of the colors were oddly... soft feeling? I can't even describe it. It's like they're oily or too soft or maybe airy? Know what I'm talking about? They feel strange going on. Maybe it's the too-soft brush. I'm really not digging Barielle's brush lately, it doesn't conform to my nail and I can never get a nice application with it. Drying time is long.


I don't know what to say about this collection. I like some of the colors like Elle's Spell and Get Me To The Party. It just seems like Barielle is making so many frosts lately. I miss the Barielle I fell in love with in 2008.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Barielle Style in Argyle Collection Fall 2010

I've been wavering on posting these for a couple weeks... Interesting collection....



Aura Angora. My absolute favorite of the collection. I am a fan of mustard shades and this is a mustard shade if I ever saw one. It's a gold color- yellow and brown- creme finish.



Cashmere or Loose Me. I don't even know what to say about the color because I can't get past the name. I don't get it... The only thing I can get out of it is "Catch Me Or Lose Me"? And in that case, if it is actually 'catch me or lose me', did they really spell it wrong on the label? I sure hope that's not the case... Maybe it's just an even more elaborate and horrible pun- because cashmere sweaters are often loose? This is one of those rare cases where a really awful name will actually make me dislike the polish (which is not actually a bad color, it's warm milk chocolate brown with red pearl).


Cowl Of The Wild. A dusty milky brown. Bordering on that grey-taupe-brown-beige thing, but this is definitely more in the straight brown category than grey/beige/taupe/current-trendy-color. This one is rather nice, very calming shade.


Tight Knight. A warm plummy milk chocolate brown.



Unraveled Rust. This doesn't really strike me as a rust color- it's more of a deep dark chocolate with slight wine tone.


Wool You Marry Me? This is a brown with plum-burgundy tones. Seems to be on the cooler side of brown.


The formula on these was decent. Thick, as Barielles tend to be, but opaque. Good coverage, two coats are pictured here. Some of the brushes had stray hairs that I needed to be mindful of while applying. Drying time is long.

Um... I'm really not sure about this collection. All browns? If you want to do an all brown collection the right way and make it really good, you should take notes from Nubar's Chocolate Truffles Collection. That was a great set of browns- nice variety of shades and finishes, something for every skintone. This Style in Argyle collection, though... I can't say it excites me. None of them really look very good on my skintone and the names are pretty cheesy (and possibly even misspelled!). I do really like Aura Angora, Unraveled Rust and Cowl of the Wild. I would actually wear them.

I don't want to be harsh, but I do want to give my honest opinion... I am disappointed. Do I need to whip out the 'Son, I am disappoint' man again? I look forward to every brand's fall collection as the fall collections are usually the best ones, and for the past two years, Barielle's fall collection has been amazing. 2008 was that epic set with Date Night, remember it? And 2009 was the All Lacquered Up collection with twelve whole shades (designed by a blogger, to boot!). Now in 2010 we have... six browns. Though, this year's collections this year haven't quite rocked my world, either, but this is just the icing on the brown, frosty cake. I'm just having a hard time imagining someone at Barielle saying, "Hey, let's do an all brown collection." "Yeah, everyone's going to love that, it'll be a huge seller!"

But, whatever, that's just this girl's opinion. I am a person who does actually like brown polish. I do, I wear it often, my first true brown polish love was OPI Espresso Your Style and I've loved it ever since. Yet, as much as I do enjoy brown polish, having the entire fall collection consist of nothing but brown is a disappointment for me. Based on their past fall collections (I've only known about them since the 2008 fall) I had intensely high hopes for this year's collection. And, that's what I have to say on the topic.

These should be available now on the website, and they are in a perpetual state of buy two get one free.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Barielle High Steppin' Collection for Summer 2010

Here's Barielle's collection for summer!

Belly Dance. This is interesting- it's that taupey-mousy-putty color with a touch of purple that's been so popluar the past few years, but instead of being a creme as they usually are, this one has a little bit of very fine silvery shimmer. It's subtle shimmer, but it gives the polish a little something extra.



Electric Boogie. Hell yeah!!! Shimmery deep blue with green glitter!! Thanks for making this, Barielle! Easily my favorite in the collection, though this polish does have one tiny flaw. It is very thick. You may need to add a little polish thinner to this to make it usable.



Freestyle. A different take on this year's mint trend. This is a silvery, shimmery frosty pastel mint with tiny silver microglitter. You may have to enlarge the picture to see the glitter, but it's there and it's fairly abundant. Usually when you have a frosty polish plus glitter you end up with a chunky/lumpy end result, but this one works. The glitter is so fine that it seems to float in the polish instead of adhering to the nail and becoming lumpy, and the frosty base is sheer and light enough to allow the glitter to show through. So, what you get is a light ethereal green that sparkles like crazy.



Night Moves. Silver foil. Super sparkly. Not as dense as say.... Zoya Trixie or Orly Dazzle.


Slow Motion. Super light frosty metallic pink. It's not totally pink- it's a little silvery and just barely lavender toned. Now normally these types of colors send me screaming and running in the opposite direction, but when I was applying this one for this picture I couldn't help but think that this looked really clean and bright. It still looks that way to me... bright and clean and shiny.



Passion Pirouette. This is a purple metallic frost. This one is pretty unique, too. I haven't seen many frosts in this particular shade. It's really rich, not faded or too soft looking. Metallic grapes!


The formula on these was okay. Electric Boogie gave me trouble because it was so much thicker than I'm used to, even from Barielle which tends to be on the thick side anyway. Like I mentioned above, you may need to thin yours. Other than that, these applied very well. I did three coats of all, most only needed two but Night Moves and Slow Motion needed three. Unfortunately, the drying time on this is very long. I was still denting Electric Boogie two hours later with Seche Vite. Maybe cause it was so thick? I haven't worn the other shades as full manicures yet, so I don't know.

This collection looks really retro to me. Judging from the names, I'm thinking that was the point. Kinda disco-like. Frosty. Sparkly. Luckily they aren't all frosts! Electric Boogie is gorgeous, I haven't seen a color like this since... since... Uh... When was the last time someone did a dark blue shimmer with glitter in it? Sephora Metallic Sapphire? I don't even remember, it's been a while!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Barielle Spring 2010 Wildflower Collection

A Bouquet For Ava. This is a really pretty bright aqua/turquoise/teal creme. It's a little more green than my picture shows- my camera keeps wanting to turn this into a bright sky blue, so this is the closest shot I have. It's not too off though. It reminds me of China Glaze Shower Together/Aqua Baby, to give you an idea of the tone.



Blossom. Soft pinky-peach creme. I think I've mentioned that I don't own many peach polishes, and after seeing how good this one looks on me, I don't know why I don't have more! I know, it's a pretty safe color, but this just looks so... so... cute? It's cute. It's like a kitten nose. Undeniably cute!
Daring Dahlia. This is an extremely red-toned purple (maybe even magenta) and it's half-neon. I say half-neon because it's not super neon bright like its neon cousin Essie Bermuda Shorts, but it is pretty bright and dries matte, so it's at least a little neon. It also has a really nice looking hot pink shimmer that's visible in the bottom of the bottle, but it doesn't seem to transfer to the nail. If anything, it's 'secret shimmer'.

June Bug. Soft slate-blue with electric blue shimmer and red-purple and silver glitter. I like this one in the bottle more than I like it on my nails. It's a cool idea for a polish! The dark colored glitter in a light contrasting base. On my nails it seems more like a flat speckled grey, maybe like a bird's egg or that floor paint with the speckles that people put in their garages. There's a tiny amount of silver glitter that makes it look like white specks or imperfections. The pretty bright blue shimmer doesn't seem to show on the nail. Could just be my skin tone, though.


Urza... um... I mean... Myrza's Meadow. Light mint/jade green with a sprinkling of hologram glitter. This is totally unique. Very fascinating. You would think that the holo glitter would be the focal point of the polish, but it's really not! Once it's on the nails it's a very subtle effect. The overall effect is a very soft mottled jade green with the occasional multi-colored glint coming off the buried glitter. Makes my hands look red but I'm still going to wear it cause it's cool!

Snap Dragon. Chrome green. Maybe not 100% chrome, more in between chrome and pearl. It's pearly and a little brush-strokey like a pearl, but it's very reflective and metallic like a chrome. I like that it's green, but it's a little too frosty for my tastes. I've never seen a frost flatter anyone's hands.


The formula on these was thick, which is par for the course for Barielle. Thick, but not necessarily hard to control. The thickness tends to add opacity, which usually allows for fewer coats. I did two coats of all except Myrza's Meadow where I did three. Drying time is a little on the slow side, but not too bad with a quick-dry topcoat.

The important detail about this collection which must be highlighted: 100% of the proceeds from A Bouquet For Ava, Myrza's Meadow and June Bug go to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. One hundred percent. That's AWESOME. You can order them here from the OCRF's website.

I'm proud of you, Barielle. Not only do these polishes help a worthy cause, but 100% of the proceeds!! That's rare. Usually it's a small percentage, or it's not even specified at all how much goes to a cause, but Barielle puts it right out there in plain letters. 100%.

This collection really says 'spring' to me. It reminds me of budding plants and flowers. I guess that was sort of the point... so... woo, spring! I am rather fond of Blossom, it's not even a 'me' color, but it looks so nice and pretty and dare I say.... girly? Despite the fact that it's girly, it's flattering and I like the way it looks on me.

I believe these are available now on Barielle's website (which has a permanent buy two get one free sale).

(These were sent to me for review)

OMG super awesome sneak preview SPRING 2010 BARIELLES!

UPS man just totally surprised me with this package! A Festivus miracle!!

Darling Dahlia, Blossom, Myrza's Meadow (someone at Barielle plays Magic: The Gathering? Oh wait... that's Urza.), Snap Dragon, A Bouqet For Ava and June Bug.

Click to enlarge.

Two of these have GLITTER!!

I'm on my way to a Christmas party so I have to post and run... More info soon!

EDIT: Forgot to post these, too excited!


Myrza's Meadow


June Bug

100% of the proceeds from A Bouquet For Ava, June Bug and Myrza's Meadow purchased at www.orcf.org will be donated to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund

Oops... Barielle sale

I was totally disappointed by the lack of good Cyber Monday sales. So disappointed that I completely missed this email sitting in my inbox...

Until December 2nd, get 20% off your entire order at Barielle! Plus buy 2 get 1 free and free shipping over $50 as usual.

The email doesn't specify a code, so it might just apply automatically.

I don't have too many Barielle swatches (Fall 2009, Fall 2008 and Summer 2009) but you can take a look here if you need help.

The only other polish-related Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal I saw was Essie giving away a sheer pink polish on Friday and a 2oz lotion on Monday. lol. Better than nothing I guess!

EDIT: Holy crap, apparently Zoya had an awesome 'Green Friday' sale too.... I totally dropped the ball on that one. I guess that's what happens when I don't pay attention to my email or Twitter over a long Holiday week/weekend! Boo :(

Barielle Fall Collection is up!

Hey everyone- the Barielle All Lacquered Up Collection is available now on Barielle's website! You can see my swatches here: Barielle Fall 2009 Swatches

And just a little reminder- If you click on the Barielle banner in the right sidebar to order your polishes, it helps me. I am quite embarrassed about even mentioning it, honestly! But I know you might not even know it's there, so I guess it can't hurt.

Also, you get all polishes buy two get one free, free shipping on orders over $50, 10% off orders over $60 and free samples with every order!

Barielle Shades Fall 2009 All Lacquered Up Collection

This year's fall collection from Barielle Shades is a collaboration between Elle (Barielle's celebrity manicurist) and fellow blogger Michelle from All Lacquered Up! Blogger power!!! Woohoo!!!

Please ignore the tiny, stubby broken nail. My right hand suffered casualties while cleaning the garage earlier this week but thankfully my left hand was spared.


Blackened Bleu. A black base with strong blue shimmer. Really neat effect! Little sparkling blue particles. I think I'd call this one glass-fleck like China Glaze BLK-BILA-BONG.

Falling Star. Medium blue creme with copper glitter. This is really cool! I'd say it's the most unique in the collection, I don't think I've seen a polish like this before. The combination of blue and orangey-copper glitter is really fascinating. Very unusual and that's a good thing.



Get Mauve-ing. Mauve creme. I'd almost call this purple as well. It's one of those muddy, faded 'fashion' shades like OPI You Don't Know Jacques, but this time it's mauve!


Glammed Out Garnet. Deep red sparkle. This is really pretty- it has that same Ruby Pumps effect of looking like hot coals under water but it does it without glitter. I'd call this one glass-fleck, too. Lots of sparkles but no frustrating glitter removal.


Lava Rock. Deep purple shimmer. Lava Rock is a dark blackened purple with the tiniest hint of gold shimmer. It looks like it *could* be on the verge of duochrome but the effect is only visible in the bottle. It has that same multi-color dark look like Rimmel Hard Edged / Night Before / Art Of Noise.


Make It A Latte. Warm brown shimmer. This one surprised me! I love brown polish, and this one is a medium warm brown with shimmer that shifts from gold to red. It was significantly darker on my nails when the polish dried than it appeared in the bottle.

Out-Grey-Geous. Light grey metallic shimmer. Very pretty shimmery grey with a bit of a twist- instead of just having silvery shimmer particles, this has little golden flecks in it as well. Reminds me a bit of OPI Brand New Skates. It also gives me a Slick Idiot earworm....


Pin Up. Red hot red with golden shimmer. This is a bright, loud red with beautiful gold shimmer. In the sunlight some of the shimer takes on a warm pinkish tone as well, so there might be two colors of shimmer in this. Or it has duochrome shimmer like Make It A Latte.


Polished Princess. Warm golden green shimmer. YAY green!!! I had expected there to be more green in this collection, I was surprised to see only one green. That's okay, one green is better than no green. This is sort of a swampy warm green, it reminds me of aquatic vegetation. It's super shimmery, so shimmery it borders on frosty. There are hints of gold and blue in the shimmer. It reminds me a wee bit of Zoya Irene with that kind of warm, murky-swampy green shimmer look.

Putt-E On Me. Warm taupe-grey creme. This pulls really cool on me, but in the bottle it's definitely more warm and mauve-tinged. My skintone does weird things to these types of colors Another mousy, faded fashion shade of taupe. I like these types of shades and I'm happy we're seeing more of them. I'm not sure I understand the name of this one. I've been repeating it to myself trying to figure out the joke.. All that comes to my mind is, "'Putty' on, Wayne!"

Slate Of Affairs. Slightly greyed-out blue with bright blue shimmer. I love this. So pretty and serene. It's like a less-faded version of Zoya Jo with stronger blue shimmer. Calming and fascinating at the same time.

U-Concrete-Me. Medium grey creme. Not much to describe about this one! Pretty straightforward. Grey creme. It seems darker than Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy and China Glaze Recycle, I'd say it's closer in tone to Obesessive Compulsive Cosmetics Dangerous and possibly Illamasqua DWS, though I haven't done a side-by-side comparison to be sure.


The formula on these is decent. They're very thick and opaque. All of these were two-coaters with the exception of Blackened Bleu which needed three coats. These seem more three-free textured than previous Barielles I've tried. Like I mentioned before, they're very thick but this time they're slightly runny. I had a little difficulty applying some of these evenly due to a combination of runny formula and a brush that didn't quite flare out and flex the way I'm used to them doing. Drying time was good, it seemed shorter than other Barielles I have. The opacity and thickness of the polish is great because it allows you to do fewer coats, which in turn allows the polish to dry faster and wear longer before peeling.

Overall, I really like this collection! I would wear pretty much every color in here. I like them all. Barielle seems unafraid to use color to its full advantage and that makes me happy. They consistently release great collections. I always look forward to hearing about Barielle's new colors because they're always something I like!

The press release states, "This collection boasts unique twists on colors and combinations that are truly firsts in the industry." I can't say I agree with that, as anyone as obsessed with nail polish as all of us are could tell you differently, but there is something I really love about that statement. Unique twists on colors and combinations and firsts in the industry are something to BOAST about! Right on!! They're not something to fear, they're something to flaunt and strive for. I wish more companies would color outside the lines a little more and not keep re-releasing the same shades of red and pink for all eternity.

I don't have a release date for this collection, but based on usual Fall release dates, my best guess would be later this month or possibly early August. I don't know if these are going to be available in CVS like previous collections have, because the press release only mentions the website. If you are planning to order from Barielle.com, I would like to draw your attention to the small Barielle banner in the right sidebar. If you click through that ad to order your Barielles, it helps support me in keeping this blog running. I feel a bit embarassed for even mentioning it, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to explain why it's there.

Anyway, getting off topic... Barielle Shades retail for $8.00 and are available directly from Barielle's website or the occasional CVS Pharmacy (I would call for availablity since it seems a little spotty).