China Glaze Ruby Pumps Polish & Barry M Instant Nail Effects: “Wild and Unwise, I Wanna be Mesmerising Too”*

Today I was rocking Ruby Pumps polish by China Glaze,  a gorgeous red glitter that brightened both my all-black outfit and my disposition. 

As pretty as this looks in the bottle, it’s so much prettier on the nails; the red glitter under its bright red jelly base sparkles and shines without looking too over the top. I found it really easy to apply, too -- I gave it two coats over a Nails Inc base coat, skipped the top coat and was still happy with the finish. I noticed a bit of tipwear today on a couple of nails so I’ll give it the full works next time, which will be soon, because this colour just makes me really, really happy.

But as much as I was loving my nails, I had a sudden brainwave that would make them even better.

This picture does not do either polish any justice!

As soon as I got home I lashed on a coating of  Barry M Instant Nail Effects in Black Magic.  I won this as part of Karen’s fabulous blog giveaway over at the very aptly named lovelygirliebits and was delighted -- I got her gorgeously packaged goodies on Friday and the only reason I haven’t slapped this on sooner was because I accidentally left it in work over the weekend. 

This stuff rocks! It applied in no time at all and dried in seconds to leave a really cool, snakeskin type effect on my nails.

Unfortunately I failed to capture its beauty in these photos, but I completely adore this combo. I think it looks great with how short my nails are at the moment and it helps that it’s the party season, when you can be a little more tacktastic than usual.



Trying to show you how my nail looks
 compared with the illustration on the bottle...





I’m not sure it’s one I’ll be wearing all year round, but for me, it feels very right for right now.

  

(My bottle of Ruby Pumps was a gift from my friend Toni --  bought, I think, in a Dundalk salon -- but you can purchase from Amazon here, at £7.95 plus p&p. Barry M  is widely available in Boots, Superdrug and other stockists around the country and, according to beaut.ie, the Instant Nail Effects comes in at €5.95.)

*Post title: Lyric from Liz Phair, ‘Mesmerising’