Barry M Ridley Road – Textured Nail Effects

Barry M have kindly sent me the new Textured polishes and the new Gelly polishes from their Spring 2013 release, as well as the three gel eyeliners (which are amazing) and the Lash Vegas Mascara. Not sure yet when I’ll write about the eye products as I feel they need a bit more of a road-test than nail polish!

I’ve decided to do a post for each of the textured polishes as I don’t think they all fit the same boat – some are more sheer than others, some are more matte, etc etc. Ridley Road was the one that had me with baited breath, so it comes first!

Ridley Road, named after one of Barry Mero’s old market stall haunts, is a bright minty green. It actually dries quite matte (the photos show it being more shiny than it is in person – I was taking advantage of a snippet of gorgeous sun!). The finish of all the textured polishes reminds me of sugar frosting on sweeties like Fruit pastilles and Sour Patch Kids and on cocktail glasses – only less rough – yum! It has that same slight glisten as sugar. I find myself staring at the finish quite a lot – I’m not totally certain whether I even like it that much but it is fascinating! The one downside is that I have found the polish gets quite dirty quite easily – it seems to magnetise lint and miniature hairs and bits of eyeshadow and all sorts!

Application:

Ridley Road applied quite well – it was a little hard to control where the polish was going due to the density of the grains in the polish but it applied evenly and was opaque at 2 coats. It did leave little gritty ends hanging off the edge of my nail but I found by wrapping my tips I got a fairly even finish on the tips. As I said before, it’s a kind of matte-effect finish but it glints as the lights hit the polish. In terms of wear, I got a little chip on the first day on one very weak nail, but the rest were fine. I’m not sure whether the textured effect causes more chipping as there’s more grip? To remove, the polish wasn’t too bad – no way near as laborious as a normal glitter, but still a little more tough to get off than your average shimmer.

What do you think of Ridley Road? Which texture do you think it most closely resembles; that of Nails Inc Leather or of Nails Inc Concrete, or neither? Even if they are similar, I’m glad that Barry M chose to make the colours relevant to the season rather than just plain duping!

Personally I’m quite happy to be able to try out a trend for cheaper – Barry M Textured Nail Effect polishes cost £3.99 and will be available in Superdrug and on barrym.com from 13th February, and in Boots from 20th February. Don’t forget to look out for the launch on the Barry M Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest pages! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Barry M sent me Ridley Road for unbiased review consideration.