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Thursday, July 12, 2012

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.

23 comments:

  1. I'm sure you are right about the slow drying in the PP being the reason, too bad.
    The fishnet is a very fun pattern though, the magnetics I have from Nails Inc. are a great quality, and I love to work with their magnet :)

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  2. It's such a disappointment when expensive polish doesn't live up to the expectations. But at least one of them worked! I like the fishnet design!

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  3. I really like the fishnet effect!I wish it worked better especially when its spendy!!

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  4. Oh man! I'm totally in love with the Nails, Inc. fishnet - color and pattern! Now I'm going to have to buy that one too!

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  5. wow, that fishnet magnet is really something, love it :-D

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  6. Loving the fishnet magnet...not sure if I'd get enough use out of it though for $16. And you would not believe how many times I wished I had 'man hands'...or man nails at least...I often think I could get more stamping design outta some of the image plates if only my nails were larger...I have little nails I think. And sometimes I think who are they creating some of these image plate designs for as they are a full nail design with detail but my nail only fits a small portion of it...the design looks nice on the plate but too large to fit on my little nail.

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  7. Totally agree with you!! Nails Inc. seems to be much more worth!

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  8. that piggy polish is so disappointing.

    LOVE how nails inc turned out (=

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  9. I Love the fishnet one! It actually reminds me of fish scales!

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  10. Boo for the piggy polish! I almost bought it but I was not in a good mood that day and didn't lol. I do like that fishnet magnet design! I don't think I could get around the price though.

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  11. Hi! First stop by here for me and I love you already. So glad I'm not the only one still gaga over magnetic polishes. (or with unreasonably mannish hands) Have you tried the Ulta magnetic polish yet? I just saw it the last time I was there and *almost* got it... but didn't. It was a mini set with a magnet ring and I couldn't find any full size. Ok, done rambling. Love your blog!! <3

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    1. Lizzy, I haven't tried those yet, but I have seen that mini set and was intrigued. I've never seen any full size bottles of those, either--my guess is they won't make any like seems to happen with a lot of the Ulta mini colors.

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  12. oh that is too bad that piggy polish was a disappointment, the magnet looked like it would work. But loooove nails inc.

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  13. I haven't come across a fishnet magnet before...it looks great!!

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  14. I haven't tried magnetics yet. It's good to know about the odor. I hate to inhale fumes, and will avoid it if I can. You never know what your body is metabolizing. From what I've seen online Color club's magnetics seem to have the most contrast. Excellent post!

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  15. Seriously, the Nails Inc looks amazing! Sure, it's pricey... But hell, what an effect!

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  16. I saw a magnet very similar to the Piggy one today, but now I'm glad I didn't go for it. One, because I already had the stripe design, and two, now I can see it's not very strong. I like the fishnet magnet, very different. (On a side note, typo's like that always make me smile!)

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  17. oooh the fishnet design looks awesome!

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  18. Wow that much for this mess? I'll pass!

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  19. I like the second one. I've never see a fishnet magnet before :)

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  20. Ooh I am definitely loving the fishnet magnet! Pricey, but seems worth it! :D

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  21. I have some magnetics from finger paints and the magnets don't work on them. I do like this new magnet design though!

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  22. :D magnet master!! I'm really fascinated about these polishes, too. My husband's colleague brought me just a Finger Paints one from US (actually he was a sort of sloppy polish buyer) but I'm happy all the same because it has the "wavy" magnet on cap.
    It's a pity the magic slice doesn't work with its polish.
    BTW I saw Born Pretty sells such "handled" magnets but I'm still resisting the temptation to "add to cart" :-P

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