To say I am late to magnetic nails is a slight understatement! But to be fair I have never been very keen on 'nail art' the easy way so I put off crackle nail polish when it first came out, only to later realise that I quite liked it... maybe. I'm basically very on the fence about nail polishes that give nail effects really as I enjoy creating my own nail art!
But that aside I thought it was about time I tried magnetic nail polish and with receiving the Nails Inc offering of the magnetic trend from my sister at Christmas I thought it was definitely time to write a blog post giving my own thoughts on the now not so new nail look!
I also thought it would be good to compare two magnetic nail polishes with two very different price tags to see how they perform... I may also do this with crackle/shatter nail polish next week.
17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Blue (10ml) - Available from Boots £5.99
So the cheap one first (well cheaper one first as £5.99 isn't that um, cheap really!). First impressions were that there wasn't very many instructions, WHICH I know sounds a bit dense of me to say... but the bottle has no images to show the results you can expect and it basically just suggests you paint your nails, hover the magnet over the nail until the magnetic effect appear. Now I may very well of been a bit of a simpleton here.. but that little ridge thing on the cap there - well I didn't figure out that it was for resting just below the cuticle until I had unsuccessfully done three nails and touched the wet polish with the magnetic. So I think it's fair to say that if I didn't instantly get what the odd little lip was for, then I'm sure other will do the same.
I found one coat actually to be enough but it did apply too thick on some nails which meant the magnet actually pulled up the nail polish slightly (you can see below on my middle nail) and even though the process of painting my nails and then hovering over them with the cap was easy enough I did find I would do one nail quite well and then the next wouldn't really give the same effect.
But overall it did the job and gave a magnetic effect and I do actually quite like the shade... I think I would prefer the grey one though for a more striking finish.
One thing I really did like about this nail polish was that it only needs one coat so you can quickly paint them and hover over each nail and you are done! The only let down really is the price as 17 aren't really that pricey and I think £6 for a nail polish - magnetic or not, is slightly too steep. Would of been happy to see this at £4.99 really!
Nails Inc Magnetic Polish in Houses of Parliament - Available from Look Fantastic (here) £10.40
Onto the more pricey version! Now I am slightly going on about this but I was really pleased to see full instructions (they even mention what the lip on the cap is exactly for) and actual images of the results you could see with this. Also I instantly liked the shade, just slightly more chic and grown-up. Plus I think when it comes to magnetic nail polish the results maybe show up better the darker the shade - I may be wrong though!
Application wise I followed the instructions and applied one coat and let it dry and then applied a second coat and used the magnet whilst they were wet. So slightly more time consuming than the 17 one but I think giving my nails one coat first gave a better finish and it definitely wasn't too thick unlike the 17 one seemed to be on a few nails. Also I did notice the magnetic did work better and quicker - which I really do think would be the point in spending that bit more... and then of course you have the magnetic cap and can use it with other cheaper magnetic polishes as it does seem to be a stronger magnet. Yes, I am rambling now!
I definitely did make less mistakes with this polish and as you can see my nails do look neater but that could just be from learning how to use the magnetic cap properly?!
I also liked the glossy finish to the Nails Inc polish and didn't think it needed a top coat, were as the 17 one was slightly too dull for my liking so I would of used a top coat if I had of kept it on (I removed it to apply the Nails Inc one).
So which would I pick...
This is a bit of a tough one as I like the effect of magnetic nails but know I wouldn't personally do it that often so for that reason I would chose the cheaper 17 version but maybe in a darker shade so the results were a bit more obvious. But if you really do like the effect then the Nails Inc Magnetic Polish wins hands down as the application is nicer and the results are just better - so it's worth the splurge. So no real winner... I'd just say it pretends on how much you like the trend!
One a side note...
I may be pointing out the obvious here...
It is worth noting that without using the magnet on the cap all magnetic nail polishes are basically standard nail polishes, which is great as it means you can get a lot more use out of them and all the shade that are magnetic are quite different and nicely metallic.
Also the same applies to crackle or shatter nail polishes.. which I tweeted about last week and quite a few people seemed surprised at this! Basically the crackle effect is a chemical reaction when it coming into contact with the base nail polish that you are using. But it you apply crackle nail polish onto naked nails (so no nail polish on the nails at all) then the crackle nail polish just won't crackle at all, which means you can enjoy it as a normal nail polish are well as a crackle one!!
This is also good if you have bought a crackle nail polish and decided you don't like the effect or you just want to use it more than you would if just using it for the crackle effect!
So hopefully that little tip is news to some of you and I'm not just pointing out the obvious!
Let me know how you feel about magnetic nail polishes.
Fee xo.
