ICEGEL Star Galaxy Magnetic Gel Polish

Sample provided for review

 

When I posted the Haruyama gel polishes that NashlyNails sent me for review, I teased that I liked another polish they sent so much I wore it as a full mani. Today I'm sharing that polish: ICEGEL IM POLY Star Galaxy magnetic gel polish in 1153, a warm tan shimmer. I used a ring magnet held diagonally to make the pattern. On some nails, the pattern spread a bit more than others before I cured the polish. I used two thin coats for full coverage.

 

I was just fascinated by how the silvery design pulled out by the magnet shimmered and shifted as I moved my nails to different positions.

 

 

 

I discovered this one also glows orange under black light. That's a fun bonus!

 

I added a spider design on one nail from a second set of IBDI water slide decals NashlyNails sent (see the other set in last week's post).

 

 

When I did my second hand so I could wear this polish as a full mani, I held the ring magnet in place longer and cured sooner, so the lines are more focused. The great thing about magnetic gel polish vs. conventional magnetics is that until you cure it under the light, you can move the magnet around and get just the look you want, no fear of it starting to dry while you work.

 

I wore this polish for a full week. I did get chips on some nails, which I attribute to not pulling the polish over the ends of my nails (capping) on the first hand because I didn't plan to do a full mani at that point as well as my usual issue with not paying attention and jamming my fingers into walls/cupboard doors/etc. which is hard on nails and polish. Removal was no problem when the time came. Here's what one hand looked like mid-week, in the filtered sunlight in my car.

 

There about 20 different colors of the Star Galaxy ICEGEL polishes, including a few purples and teals that I find very intriguing. They are $14.99 for each 9ml bottle; if you buy one of the sets, per bottle cost is between $13.50 and $14 a bottle depending on the set. Use code frazzle10 for 10% off your first order at the NashlyNails website.

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The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Haruyama Soak-Off Gel Polish and IBDI Decals

Sample provided for review

 

Today I've got something a little different: gel polish, courtesy of NashlyNails, who kindly sent me some products for review. While I do have some gel polish from Sally Hansen's foray into it, I've mostly just used their gel topcoat to add wear time to nail polish strips, so it's been a long while since I did a full gel manicure. I pulled out my light and got to work with these two Haruyama gel polishes. Because they're gels, you can't see the colors, but they're 964 (pink) and 254 (medium pink).

 

Because these coordinated so nicely with each other, I swatched them together; 964 is on my index finger while 254 is on my other digits. Any uneven coverage you may notice is my fault, not the polish's. It had been so long since I worked with gel that it took me a bit to adjust my application technique to the slightly different formula of gel compared to regular polish. Basically, I needed to use thinner coats of the gel, which I was doing better at by the time I got to my pinky finger.

 

When I was curing these, I noticed they had a glow to them under the LEDs in my lamp, so I hit them with my black light and was delighted to see both colors reacted. Good to know should parties with black lights become a thing in my life again one day.

 

NashlyNails also sent some water slide decals from IBDI.

 

I used one of the gold fronds on the light pink and black fronts on the medium pink. The decals were easy to work with. I just cut out the frond I wanted, dropped it in a little dish of warm water for about five or ten seconds until the backing paper was saturated, fished it out with a manicure stick, and slid the decal off the backing and onto my nail. I didn't have any issues with the decals tearing which I was worried about since it's been a while since I did water decals, too. I applied topcoat over the decals once I was sure they were dry.

 

 

Of course I had to see the decals under black light, too ... great contrast, even with the gold/pink combination that's more subtle in regular light. (The angle of the light is giving my cuticles a weird glow here, I see.)

 

When it came time to remove this polish, I used the 180 grit Staleks Pro nail file NashlyNails also sent. This has a metal base that a replacable pad is stuck to, so when the pad wears out, a new one can just be put on, reusing the durable metal base over and over. I "broke the seal" of the top layer of polish by filing across the surface of my nails, then put acteone saturated cotton pads on my fingers and covered them with some soak off nail caps I finally broke down and bought after getting tired of cutting up squares of foil. I didn't keep the caps on very long, maybe five minutes, and the Haruyama gel polish just slid right off onto the cotton pad when I wiped gently. Very easy.

 

There are a bunch of colors of Haruyama gel polish in 8ml bottles on the NashlyNails website, ranging from $6.99 for cremes and glitters to $7.99 for magnetics. As many colors of polish as there were, there were many many more sets of IBDI decals, which are $3.49. Use code frazzle10 for 10% off your first order ... though you may want to wait until next week after I post the other polish I got to try, which I liked so much I'm wearing it as a full mani as I type this.

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The products shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Sinful Colors Wicked Neons Collection

So yeah, today I'm having Halloween in June, with swatches of last fall's Wicked Neons collection from Sinful Colors. There were four cremes and four glitters in this group, all meant to glow under black light: W*tch Please, Glow for It, Techno Violet, Cyber Witch, Blue in the Dark, Magic Hack, Witchs Brew, and Wicked Gaze.



These seemed to split naturally into a warm quartet and a cool quartet, so that's how I swatched them, starting with the cool cremes: Blue in the Dark (blue) and Witchs Brew (green). I needed three coats of each, and even then could see a hint of nail line.



Under my black light, Blue in the Dark glowed white, while Witchs Brew turned more of a tannish peach color.



I then added the coordinating glitters: Magic Hack (blue) and Wicked Glaze (green). Both of these have metallic hex glitter in one size in a clear base. I tried each of them over each of the coordinating cremes, so top to bottom it's Blue in the Dark topped with Magic Hack, Blue in the Dark with Wicked Glaze, Witchs Brew with Wicked Glaze, and Witchs Brew with Magic Hack. I did two coats of the glitter, which layed pretty flat on the nail. The first pic below is without topcoat; the second, with. I did pop my nails under the black light before and after topcoat and noticed no change, so topcoat didn't interfere with the effect.





The glitter doesn't react to the black light other than the shiny surface of it reflecting and glinting. Topping with the glitter polishes didn't affect the glow previously noticed from the creme polishes. I did check the glow of the toppers alone by swatching on a nail tip (not pictured) and they all seemed to give a slight blue-white effect.



On to the warm cremes: W*tch Please (pink) and Techno Violet (purple). As with the cool cremes, I used three coats. I saw hint of a nail line with the pink but not as much with the purple.



Under black light, the pink glowed a warm peachy pink and the purple turned lilac.



Then it was time for the coordinating glitter toppers: Glow for It (pink metallic hex glitter and copper shard glitter) and Cyber Witch (purple metallic glitter). Top to bottom: W*tch Please topped with Glow for It, W*tch Please and Cyber Witch, Techno Violet plus Cyber Witch, and Techno Violet with Glow for It. All have clear topcoat.





Here are the warm combos under black light:




Though this collection is called "neon", these shades aren't bright and intense enough to earn that moniker from me (maybe the pigments had already started fading by the time I swatched them or maybe the name was approved by marketing without a concern for if it reflected the actual colors). Glow for It is my pick of this litter as it's the most interesting to me, with the contrast of the hex and shard glitter.

Wheel G12: Black Light Polishes

Taking a break from the yellow and oranges this week to share some of the latest polishes in my stash, along with one lone pumpkin from years gone by. I have all fifteen of the LA Colors Gel Glow shades the four black light creme SinfulColors from this year's big display at Walmart which was in my last post.



Under black light:




1. LA Colors Gel Glow Ghost (2 coats)
2. LA Colors Gel Glow Awe (2)
3. LA Colors Gel Glow Vampire (2)
4. LA Colors Gel Glow Zombie (2)
5. LA Colors Gel Glow Creepers (2)
6. LA Colors Gel Glow Alien (2)
7. SinfulColors Witchs Brew (3)
8. LA Colors Gel Glow Escape (2)
9. LA Colors Gel Glow Stalker (2) [almost a one-coater]
10. SinfulColors Blue in the Dark (3)
11. LA Colors Gel Glow Underworld (2)
12. LA Colors Gel Glow Haunting (2)
13. SinfulColors Techno Violet (3)
14. Unnamed pumpkin polish (2)
15. LA Colors Gel Glow Fearless (2)
16. LA Colors Gel Glow Panic (2)
17. LA Colors Gel Glow Rave (2)
18. SinfulColors W*tch Please (3)
19. LA Colors Gel Glow Darkside (1)
20. LA Colors Gel Glow Fallen Angel (1)


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:



11 through 15:



16 through 20:















A couple direct light shots to show the two shimmers better:





A comparison of this year's crop of black light polishes with last year's on Wheel D11 under black light; the 2018 LA Colors Color Craze Glows are numbers 1 through 15 on that.



I was surprised that none of this year's LA Colors glowed as brightly as the brightest of last year's, especially the yellow Creepers (number 5), which is so bright under regular light but a mustard yellow under black light. Some of the colors look like dupes of last years even though they're the gel-like formula this year: the white, the taupe, and one of the reds particularly.

It was also interesting to see how the greens from LA Colors and Sinful (numbers 6 and 7) resembled each other much more under regular light than black light, where the LA Colors went subdued but still green and the SinfulColors went tan. The SinfulColors blue (10) and purple (13) also had striking color shifts under black light, going far more pale than I expected.

Even though they're not as glow-y under black light as they might be, I'm not regretting getting all of this year's LA Colors. They weren't expensive and the formula is decent; they'll be fine for every day wear. I have Darkside on my toes right now as a matter of fact.

Wheel D11: Black Light Polishes

Since I had the LA Colors Glows bottles out to swatch, and fifteen is almost enough for a full wheel, I went ahead and found some more black light polishes and painted one. Except I could only find four more, so filled it out with a glow in the dark one that was in the vicinity. That was not my best decision ever but I can give that polish another shot on a different wheel someday, surrounded by other glow in the dark shades.



Under black light:




1. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Energy (3 coats)
2. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Vapor (3)
3. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Gleaming (3)
4. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Luminous (3)
5. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Ionize (3)
6. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Radiation (3)
7. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Fluorescent (3)
8. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Lucent (2)
9. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Nuclear (2)
10. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Wave Length (2)
11. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Ultra Violet (3)
12. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Electric (3)
13. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Radio Active (2)
14. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Spectrum (2)
15. LA Colors Color Craze Glows X-Ray (2)
16. Salon Perfect Glow All Out (3) [yeah, I don't know what I was thinking putting this on here, but I guess I now know that black light does nothing for glow in the dark polishes]
17. NYC New York Color Demon Glow Top Coat (2 coats over white and black bases)
18. Ulta Color Enhancing Top Coat (2, over white and black bases)
19. Cabaret Black Light Magic (2, over white and black bases)
20. Claire's Black Light unlabled purple glitter (3) [should have put topcoat on this one as it's a bit bumpy without it; seems to have lost any black light glow it once had]


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:


11 through 15:



16 through 20:




















I didn't take detail pics under black light ... my last post has all the LA Colors shades that way, and I think the black light wheel shot shows the others well enough (especially if you click to see it full size).