Lacquer or Leave Her!: Review: Barielle Summer Fun Collection

Friday, February 21, 2014

Review: Barielle Summer Fun Collection

(Press Sample)

Hello everyone!

How's it going? Having a good week? Glad it's almost over? Tomorrow's Friday, woo-hoo!

Today I have a lovely collection from Barielle to show you. It's called the 'Summer Fun' collection, and while it would be fun for summer, I personally think it's also perfect for spring. Take a look and tell me if you agree. :)

Today I'm going to start off with my favorite of the bunch, Dusty Lavender, a soft, shimmery, well, dusty lavender:

Barielle Dusty Lavender

I have two coats on here, and the same for all of the polishes in the collection. The formula and application on this were excellent, with no problems. Shimmers that border on frosts like this can be streaky, and in the extreme close-ups that you see here, you can see some brush strokes if you look. But in real life this wasn't noticeable at all.

I love spring colors that have a muted aspect to them, and I think this is a perfect example of that. It's a beautiful color if you like pastels, and a beautiful color if you're not a huge pastel fan. I'm finding that over my nearly two years as a nail blogging polish fanatic, I'm coming to appreciate pastel polishes more and more, but I still prefer mine in a slightly dusty package, like this. :)

Next we have Mint Ice Cream Cone, a pistachio creme:

Barielle Mint Ice Cream Cone

The formula and application on all of the cremes in this collection (and the rest are all cremes) were ah-maze-ing. I have a love-hate relationship with cremes because I love the look of the finish, but application can be truly, truly horrific. So many cremes will drag and pull and be patchy and refuse to level. But these were a joy to apply, were smooth, leveled easily, and had no patchiness after the second coat. And as for this color, I like that it is more along the lines of a sage than a mint--I have a ton of mint pastels, and I think this shade is a bit more interesting.

The third offering in the collection is Pink Flip Flops, a Barbie-ish pink creme:

Barielle Pink Flip Flops

This is for all you pink creme lovers out there; this is a solid contender for a basic in your collection. Application was good, and the color is soft enough to get you through spring. I used this as a base for my Valentine's Day contest mani; you can see that by clicking here if you missed it. I used Dusty Lavender on that one, too. :)

I don't think any spring or summer palette is complete without a beautiful peachy-coral, and Peach Popsicle is just such a polish:

Barielle Peach Popsicle

I really love this coral--it's not too bright, but it's not washed out. It gives a splash of color without being obnoxiously bright. For me, this is a basic neutral sort of polish that makes me feel pretty and is highly work appropriate, too. Again the formula was wonderful.

And the last pretty in the collection is Ocean Breeze, a sky-blue creme:

Barielle Ocean Breeze

This one is the one that forms the most fluid bridge into summer, I think--it looks like summery skies and swimming pools. Application was wonderful, and while blues like this can wash me out sometimes, even Mr. LHOLH commented on how pretty this was. :)

If you're looking for a collection of pastel cremes for this spring and summer, I highly recommend this collection. I have never before had such a uniformly wonderful application experience with cremes as I had with this collection. The quality is great, and you can't beat the Barielle price. :)

Thanks for taking a look! Big hugs,
M.