It’s a veritable rite of passage to stand in the make-up aisle of Boots deliberating over which £2.99 Barry M nail polish to buy. Ask a British teenager, they’ve been there, and they still do that.
Since 1982 Barry M has been selling fast-fashion coloured cosmetics that don’t break the pocket money bank. However, the brand is shrouded in mystery. Their camera shy founder, Barry Mero, has been likened to the secretive, faceless designer behind couture house Maison Martin Margiela for being a household name yet having genuine lack of public profile. As the brand readies itself to celebrate 35 years stocking our make-up bag, we’re lifting the lid on Barry M’s big secrets. Here are 35 facts you probably didn’t know about the cult label:
1. The ‘M’ in Barry M stands for Mero after the brand’s founder Barry Mero.
2. Barry M was nearly called ‘Jo-Dean’ after the founder’s children Joanna and Dean.
3. It was also briefly named ‘Bar-Max’.
4. Rumour has it, the name was shortened to Barry M because the polish labels were so tiny, that’s all they could fit on.
5. Aged 16, Barry got his start working on his mum’s stall on Dalston’s Ridley Road Market on the weekends selling hairspray he got cheap from his weekday job working at a wholesaler.
6. In 1960, he started selling six nail polishes.
7. Barry expanded in 1975 with a shop on Brixton Market.
8. Officially speaking, Mr M founded the company in 1982.
9. He saw a gap in the market because no one was selling fashion colours as nail polish. He told The Guardian, ‘Colour has always excited me, so in 1982 I went to some nail people and ordered 72 colours. They said: “Nobody orders that many!” But if you buy a yellow blouse, you might want to buy some yellow nail varnish to go with it.’
10. Crackle Nail Paint is Barry M's best-selling polish to date, selling over 1mill bottles in six months.
11. Mind, the brand never refers to them as nail polishes, only paint. Mr BM said: ‘You don’t just polish your nails, you paint nails. You don’t just apply your lipstick, you paint your lips.’ Hey presto, Nail Paint and Lip Paint were born!
12. Now it’s the HQ team that give the polish’s their wacky names like ‘Pinking Out Loud’ and ‘Peanut Butter Gelly’.
13. They now sell 35 bottles of polish every minute – that’s 3 bottles every 10 seconds!
14. Back in the day Barry and his wife Maxine use to mix the Dazzle Dusts using palette knives on their kitchen table.
15. Barry M is a 100% cruelty-free brand – always has been, always will be.
16. It’s also 100% vegetarian....
17. ...and most of its products are vegan too!
18. All their products are ‘Big Three Free’, meaning they don’t contain three nasty chemicals, which are commonly found in cosmetics: Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene.
19. Lip Paint 54 is the longest serving lip paint product on our stands – it’s classic in the collection, has a very loyal following and is not looking to retire just yet!
20. They’ve had a lot of firsts…they were the first to launch black nail polish
21. …first to launch black lipstick
22. …first to launch white kohl eyeliner
23. It’s not for the indecisive, Barry M now sells 100 plus nail paint colours.
24. Every 30 seconds they sell a Molten Metal Nail Paint.
25. People use to think it Barry Manilow was the mysterious M behind Barry M.
26. It’s a family business - although Barry sadly passed away, his son Dean Mero now runs the company as MD.
27. Barry M’s packaging has changed more than you’d think. They use to have retro, round nail paint bottles but have moved with the times and now have liquid and bullet formed lip paints.
28. It’s only currently available in the UK and Australia, sorry US mates.
29. It’s a London-based company with production next door it’s HQ in Mill Hill East.
30. They were one of the first brand to sell colour changing lip paint on the UK…
31. They quickly garnered a drag queen fan base in the 1980s thanks to their eye-popping pigments
32. Dazzle Dust launched in 1988 with more than 50 different shades.
33. Eagle eyes will remember the brand logo used to be red…not pink!
34. Colour changing Unicorn Lip Paint is a thing, and it’s coming out in May.
35. To celebrate their big birthday Barry M are launching a birthday Matte Me Up Liquid Lip Kit called Blow Out.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.