Barielle Shades Fall 2009 All Lacquered Up Collection

This year's fall collection from Barielle Shades is a collaboration between Elle (Barielle's celebrity manicurist) and fellow blogger Michelle from All Lacquered Up! Blogger power!!! Woohoo!!!

Please ignore the tiny, stubby broken nail. My right hand suffered casualties while cleaning the garage earlier this week but thankfully my left hand was spared.


Blackened Bleu. A black base with strong blue shimmer. Really neat effect! Little sparkling blue particles. I think I'd call this one glass-fleck like China Glaze BLK-BILA-BONG.

Falling Star. Medium blue creme with copper glitter. This is really cool! I'd say it's the most unique in the collection, I don't think I've seen a polish like this before. The combination of blue and orangey-copper glitter is really fascinating. Very unusual and that's a good thing.



Get Mauve-ing. Mauve creme. I'd almost call this purple as well. It's one of those muddy, faded 'fashion' shades like OPI You Don't Know Jacques, but this time it's mauve!


Glammed Out Garnet. Deep red sparkle. This is really pretty- it has that same Ruby Pumps effect of looking like hot coals under water but it does it without glitter. I'd call this one glass-fleck, too. Lots of sparkles but no frustrating glitter removal.


Lava Rock. Deep purple shimmer. Lava Rock is a dark blackened purple with the tiniest hint of gold shimmer. It looks like it *could* be on the verge of duochrome but the effect is only visible in the bottle. It has that same multi-color dark look like Rimmel Hard Edged / Night Before / Art Of Noise.


Make It A Latte. Warm brown shimmer. This one surprised me! I love brown polish, and this one is a medium warm brown with shimmer that shifts from gold to red. It was significantly darker on my nails when the polish dried than it appeared in the bottle.

Out-Grey-Geous. Light grey metallic shimmer. Very pretty shimmery grey with a bit of a twist- instead of just having silvery shimmer particles, this has little golden flecks in it as well. Reminds me a bit of OPI Brand New Skates. It also gives me a Slick Idiot earworm....


Pin Up. Red hot red with golden shimmer. This is a bright, loud red with beautiful gold shimmer. In the sunlight some of the shimer takes on a warm pinkish tone as well, so there might be two colors of shimmer in this. Or it has duochrome shimmer like Make It A Latte.


Polished Princess. Warm golden green shimmer. YAY green!!! I had expected there to be more green in this collection, I was surprised to see only one green. That's okay, one green is better than no green. This is sort of a swampy warm green, it reminds me of aquatic vegetation. It's super shimmery, so shimmery it borders on frosty. There are hints of gold and blue in the shimmer. It reminds me a wee bit of Zoya Irene with that kind of warm, murky-swampy green shimmer look.

Putt-E On Me. Warm taupe-grey creme. This pulls really cool on me, but in the bottle it's definitely more warm and mauve-tinged. My skintone does weird things to these types of colors Another mousy, faded fashion shade of taupe. I like these types of shades and I'm happy we're seeing more of them. I'm not sure I understand the name of this one. I've been repeating it to myself trying to figure out the joke.. All that comes to my mind is, "'Putty' on, Wayne!"

Slate Of Affairs. Slightly greyed-out blue with bright blue shimmer. I love this. So pretty and serene. It's like a less-faded version of Zoya Jo with stronger blue shimmer. Calming and fascinating at the same time.

U-Concrete-Me. Medium grey creme. Not much to describe about this one! Pretty straightforward. Grey creme. It seems darker than Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy and China Glaze Recycle, I'd say it's closer in tone to Obesessive Compulsive Cosmetics Dangerous and possibly Illamasqua DWS, though I haven't done a side-by-side comparison to be sure.


The formula on these is decent. They're very thick and opaque. All of these were two-coaters with the exception of Blackened Bleu which needed three coats. These seem more three-free textured than previous Barielles I've tried. Like I mentioned before, they're very thick but this time they're slightly runny. I had a little difficulty applying some of these evenly due to a combination of runny formula and a brush that didn't quite flare out and flex the way I'm used to them doing. Drying time was good, it seemed shorter than other Barielles I have. The opacity and thickness of the polish is great because it allows you to do fewer coats, which in turn allows the polish to dry faster and wear longer before peeling.

Overall, I really like this collection! I would wear pretty much every color in here. I like them all. Barielle seems unafraid to use color to its full advantage and that makes me happy. They consistently release great collections. I always look forward to hearing about Barielle's new colors because they're always something I like!

The press release states, "This collection boasts unique twists on colors and combinations that are truly firsts in the industry." I can't say I agree with that, as anyone as obsessed with nail polish as all of us are could tell you differently, but there is something I really love about that statement. Unique twists on colors and combinations and firsts in the industry are something to BOAST about! Right on!! They're not something to fear, they're something to flaunt and strive for. I wish more companies would color outside the lines a little more and not keep re-releasing the same shades of red and pink for all eternity.

I don't have a release date for this collection, but based on usual Fall release dates, my best guess would be later this month or possibly early August. I don't know if these are going to be available in CVS like previous collections have, because the press release only mentions the website. If you are planning to order from Barielle.com, I would like to draw your attention to the small Barielle banner in the right sidebar. If you click through that ad to order your Barielles, it helps support me in keeping this blog running. I feel a bit embarassed for even mentioning it, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to explain why it's there.

Anyway, getting off topic... Barielle Shades retail for $8.00 and are available directly from Barielle's website or the occasional CVS Pharmacy (I would call for availablity since it seems a little spotty).