A Tale of Two Magnetics

My fascination with magnetic polish continues unabated. Today I've got two of the more pricey examples of the trend. Sure, I didn't precisely need to buy these, since I have plenty of magnetics already, but I was curious about these since I didn't have any magnets like them, and I had money left in my hobby budget so went ahead and got them.

Let's start with Piggy Polish in Create, a dusty burgundy shimmer. This comes with a good-sized flat rectangular magnet on a plastic wand and is priced at $12.50 at Ulta (I had a coupon for $3.50 off a $10 purchase so used that to bring the cost down; it's still way higher than a Nabi, though). The bottle is 4.5 fl. oz. / 13.2 ml.



The directions on the back of the magnet amused me; they instruct one to "put the magic slice above the nail".



I'm sad to say the magic slice didn't seem to be all that magical. I used two coats of the polish and held the magnet close to the wet polish for more than 10 seconds, closer to 20 in some cases, yet the design ended up being rather indistinct. I've had much crisper, clearer results from other magnetic polishes, both cheap ones and not so cheap. I suspect the issue might be that the polish dries so slowly that the magnetized particles have a chance to relax and spread back out some before they get fixed in place. Also, there isn't much contrast between the magnetized and non-magnetized colors so that makes it even harder to see the design.



What you see here is without top coat; I tried slicking on some quick dry top coat on thinking that might help the design set, but what I ended up doing was distorting the design because the polish dragged as I stroked the topcoat from base to tip. (I didn't get a picture of that mess because I was annoyed and wiped it off immediately to redo that nail.) I didn't try using just one coat of the magnetic, or another brand's magnet, because really, for $12.50 a bottle, it should not be this hard. It should also not be this stinky; this polish has the worst smell of any magnetic I've tried so far, even the Nabi, which I know a lot of people find unpleasantly strong.



I found the wand a little awkward to work with; the handle part is a bit too skinny to be comfortable to hold (at least with my man hands—and I'm not kidding about that; I have ski gloves that are a man's medium size and they fit fine). I ended up just holding the magnet part by the sides. It's a pity this polish doesn't behave better, because the magnet is big enough that it can make either rays or a starburst depending on how you align it above your nail. That's a plus; most magnets are too small to allow that sort of option. I might have to try the magic slice with another brand to see if it I can make that work.



So, sorry Piggy Polish; your magnetic did not wow me.

The other new high end magnetic polish in my stable is Nails Inc. Soho, which was $16.00 at Sephora, and that's for a for a .33 fl. oz. / 10 ml. bottle. I know, that's a lot. But it comes with a fishnet magnet in the cap, and I didn't have a fishnet magnet. Even so, I was a little hesitant to get this one because it's received some bad reviews on the Sephora site but I decided I was a magnet master and could make it work. After it arrived (I ordered online) and I held the magnet against the bottle and didn't see any effect, I got a little worried, but not all magnets and magnetic polishes show their stuff in the bottle. When I tried it, I was happy to see I did get a strong design on my nails.



It's definitely a different design than any I've tried before. It's not perfect; my nails curve enough that the flat magnet can't get the design down the sides of my nails very far, but I'm not sure that's as obvious in real life as it is in closeup photos.





Bottom line: the Nails Inc. was worth the money to me and the Piggy Polish wasn't, at least in these colors used with the magnets they came with.