Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, you will have no doubt heard about the new nail craze, magnetic nail polish. I've seen a few brands doing these polishes now (and have more to show you in the near future) but today I'm showing you Nails Inc's offering in Houses of Parliament, a gorgeous purple that I have fallen in love with.
The polish bottle directs you to apply just one coat of polish (but a fairly generous layer of it) and immediately hold the magnetic lid against the cuticle above the nail, doing one nail at a time and taking care not to touch the nail with the magnet (something I've done one more than one occasion, whoops!) and then wait for about 10-15 seconds before removing the magnet.
I followed the instructions for application, and whilst it is a bit trickier than applying a normal polish, I actually got very good results, even on my first attempts... I actually gasped a little when I saw how stunning the end result was!
Little finger has Models Own's Beetlejuice Collection in Aqua Violet!
The magnetic particles get drawn towards the magnet and give the effect that you can see on the nail in the process - I shan't go into the scientific reasoning behind it, but the result really is spectacular, it almost appears holographic in some areas - prepare to get compliments and questions about your nails when wearing this kind of polish as they really do demand attention!
Now, because you put one thick coat on, you need to be prepared to wait much longer for your polish to dry than usual (I have no idea if Seche Vite will get on well with this polish, it is something I will try next time though), you also need to be much more precise so that your edges look sharp - so don't do what I did and apply it on a moving, wobbly train as you end up with the wobbly cuticle lines that you can see on my swatches (apologies for that) and also multiple failed attempts where the magnet touched the polish!
The polish lasts fairly well, considering it is a one coater - I got the tipwear that you can see after about 3 or 4 days, and that isn't too bad when you consider I had one drunken night out (all night of fun and frolics), travel back which included carrying lots of bags and also a lot of typing at my computer too!
My mum and both my aunties have been coveting my magnetic nail polish ever since they saw me wearing it, bare in mind that they are all above the age of 60 (the oldest being 76!). I actually ended up giving them all magnetic manicures that they were over the moon with, which shows that this is a trend that anybody of any age can pull off - I have bought them a Nails Inc magnetic polish each as part of their Christmas present so they can recreate the look at their leisure!
As a quick note before I end; I have a feeling that a lot of the brands that are offering this kind of polish are more or less the same product as the colours are generally the same kind of shades, and the bottles, well they seem to be exactly the same but with different branding.
When you consider that these polishes range from £6 (17 and FashionistA) to about £14 (Nails Inc), that's a huge difference in price to pay for a name... luckily I managed to get my Nails Inc polishes (purple, silver and gold) from Buyapowa for the bargain price of £7 each! They seem to be making reappearances on Buyapowa, so it might be worth keeping your eye on the site, just in case!
Have you used a magnetic polish yet? What do you think of the effect? x
