Nude nails: Review of Mushroom and Beige Style

As we all know, I've been obsessed with nude, taupe etc tone nail polishes recently. My regular readers will know how nuts I was abo9ut getting my hands on Boots No7 Beanie (which i still don't bloody have!!!!) but I've done my best in trying to fulfill that need.

[Pictured below we have: (L-R) Barry M's Mushroom (rrp £2.95), Rimmel's Beige style (rrp....under a fiver) and Nail Inc's London (rrp freebie with 2 bottles of diet coke). Please see older post for review on Nail Inc's London. ]

(EDIT: In the phto Beige style and London look the same but they are not. London has a slight lilac tinge to it once on, esp with just one or two coats, Beige style is pretty much beige)

Barry M's Mushroom: Generally speaking I am a fan of Barry M's nail paints. A good price for the colour range available and in the past I've found the quality pretty good. I say 'in the past' because my latest nail paint purchases (mushroom and f*cking lemon icecream) were a let down. I've already ranted about lemon ice cream (and I went easy, I could easily have put in about a million curse words!) and now it's the turn of mushroom...not really, it's not that bad!

Basically I went in Superdrugs and it was the last day of the Barry M nail paint 2 for £5 promotion and amazingly they had mushroom in stock which I've been wanting for ages, and so I picked up lemon ice cream (which i was also mini lusting over for a short while) - never turn down a bargain! Got home very excited and put on lemon ice cream first, and we all know how i felt about that. Then I put on mushroom on my toes......

....what do i think? Well....I haven't tried it on my finger nails yet and I find that what works (or doesn't work) on toes might not work on fingers and vice versa but at the moment I'm so-so. Colour wise its much darker on application than in the bottle and it's a very 'on trend' colour and personally it goes with my skin tone well. I was a bit disappointed in the consistency of the nail paint because it seemed a bit watery but I can't really pass judgement until I put it on my hands. I don't regret picking up mushroom but I am not over the moon about it either. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, only the crazy nail polish people like myself.

Rimmel's Beige Style: I LOVE IT!!! It is not the colour I thought it would be but it's a colour that I have always wanted in the back of my mind. This is a true true nude, absolutely gorgeous. HOWEVER, this enthusiasm comes from a nail polish junkie. For some it may clash with their skintone and for others I fear it may be a bit too bland and blaaah. But for me I think it's beautiful and consistency wise it's worth the money (not absolutely fantastic but its under a fiver so *shrugs*).

I think the fact it comes with Rimmel's new maxi brush really helps the application too. With one coat you have a nice clean look. Two coats you have a nice nude, everyday sort of colour and with 3 coats you have a on trend sexy nude. Below I've taken a picture of the regular Barry M brush (on the left) and the Rimmel maxi brush (on the right).

I am trying to ease off the nude/taupes colours now because I think at the moment I have enough. For me red's have really fallen off the radar but I'm thinking red toes and nude nails are the way to go, or today I've got mushroom on my toes and urban princess (pink) on my finger nails and people are making nice comments.

I think that because I am such a plain jane when it comes to colour in my wardrobe having a pop of colour is important and shows that I've made a thought...or maybe I'm thinking about this too much! lol

For me, buying and wearing a pretty nail colour is a easy and relatively cheap way to brighten my mood. People ask me why I am so smiley: well, you can't be miserable if you have nails the colour of cupcake icing!!!