Monday 23 April 2012

Barry M Croc Nail Effects Review

Most people seem to be 'over' crackle polishes, but not me! I love them, I'm still not over the novelty of watching the little fissures appear in my nails and they're brilliant for livening up a polish I've gotten bored of or hiding smudges/chips/tip wear and stuff. I was really excited when Barry M came out with the 'Croc Nail Effects' polish because it was a new kind of crackle! The idea of it basically is a crackle that looks like crocodile skin, so rounder with smaller gaps. I waited ages to get it because it was never available anywhere near me but recently I picked it up.

Unfortunately I'm a bit disappointed. 

When I applied it to the first nail I did it as I would any other crackle, over a completely dry base coat of colour (in this case Barry M Nail Effects Silver Foil). After a few minutes this was my result:


It just wasn't what I was hoping for, there's hardly any cracks and lots of lines that aren't making the round 'croc' shape it's supposed to.
Then I read the packaging and iscovered I was applying it wrong, with this it says you're meant to put it over slightly wet polish, so for my next few fingers I applied another coat of the silver, waited about a minute, then applied the croc effects. This was my result:


...Oh dear.

So then for the last nails I tried leaving the base coat for a few minutes, so it was basically dry but not completely:



So these are... about the same as the first one.

Maybe I'm just applying it badly somehow (if anyone has any tips please let me know) but as it is I can't recommend this to people, it's too messy and I just really don't like the effect. Big disappointment. But I'll try it again sometime and will update if I can make it work.

13 comments:

  1. I bought this too and it's awful, couldn't get it to work at all! x

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  2. I'm really glad now that I passed on this and went for Barry M's Coral this morning instead :-)

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  3. OH man! That truly does suck. I agree. I think you're better off getting the cheapo sinful colors and applying some smooth red polish to those fingernails!
    :D

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  4. This stuff seems really hit or miss! It looks really good here: http://emilysnailfiles.blogspot.com/2012/03/scaly-fingers-barry-m-croc-nail-effects.html but in a lot of the pictures I see mostly weird little spidery cracks that just look stupid. For every person that says it worked well for them there's at least one that says it didn't for them LOL.

    I think I'll save my money.

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  5. What a shame. I love crackle nail polish too and I'm definitely not over it.

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  6. You have to follow the instructions to the letter.
    I use the clock on my Mac to time a minute and then apply the Croc. I find it works perfectly. But you have to time it accurately and then it's perfect IMO.

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  7. Wow, what a palaver! Boo Barry M. And I still love crackles as well!

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  8. Oh my, these did not quite turn out, did they? Even if it DOES work if you put it on at EXACTLY the right time, that would be really irritating because if you screw up one nail, then what do you do?

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  9. I just bought this and was disappointed too :( it didnt look quite the way yours does. On mine the cracks were almost too tiny to see and didnt reveal the cute colour id bought to go underneath, it just looked like black polish that was worn or applied badly, very disappointed :(

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  10. I'm definitely not over crackle yet.. I'm wearing grey crackle over black polish right now! XD

    That stuff... yeah that just looks weird, dude :| Would not try.

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  11. I think ur applyin it wrong... ��
    I hav this and mines gone great, like it's meant 2
    I just bought mine 2day
    U r meant 2 paint ur nails as usual, so I did a base coat and then 2 coats of any colour. Then wait until they r kinda dry, but a bit tacky and paint on a THIN COAT of croc effect polish!
    Works great...
    X0x0

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  12. Mine works amazing, literally do one hand in one coat of a base coat after doing first hand start straight away with the croc nail polish after then start on your other hand. Your either leaving base coat to dry too long or your croc coating is wayyyy to thick! Seriously try it - one hand at a time - base coat croc coat - next hand.

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  13. Try putting a much thinner coat of the croc effects and then it should work fully. I have this nail polish and it works fine with me if you apply a thin coat!!!

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