I Tried It… Magnetic Nail Polish

Magnetic nail polish review and application tips. Does Nails Inc. magnetic polish work? Does it look good? Find out here.

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There’s always a new trend in the world of nail polish – greige! Yellow! Konad! Neon! Crackle! Duochrome! Nail Polish Strips! Ombre! – and it can get hard to keep track of all of them. However, when Vogue dedicates an entire article in its October issue to one of these trends, you know it’s here to stay – cue magnetic nail polish.

Although it’s been available in Europe for the past few years, it only recently became available stateside. The formula actually has magnetic particles in it, and when you hold a magnet (conveniently located on the polish bottle cap) over your nail, the polish ripples and creates a 3-D effect. Yeah, yeah, that’s all great, but does it actually work?  Here is my review of nails. inc. Magnetic Nail Polish:

The Product:

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I purchased the nails. inc polish from Sephora- at $16 a bottle, it is definitely not cheap so I hoped it would be great to justify eating up my weekly coffee budget. There were only two options on Sephora’s site – “Houses of Parliament”, a purple, and “Trafalgar Square”, a silver chrome, the latter of which I bought. The bottle itself comes with an overcap with a magnet on top, which makes it easy to apply.

My only issue with the bottle is that the directions on the bottle are solely in French, so they’re useless for the majority of US customers – thankfully, that’s what this instructional video, on the Sephora YouTube channel, is for.

Magnetic Nail Polish – My Attempt:

Applying this product is simple. You apply the first coat like any other polish – and as I hoped, the nails, inc. formula was opaque, pigmented and quick-drying. The next part is trickier. After your first coat is dry, apply a liberal amount of polish for your second coat. Immediately after, take the overcap with the magnet and place it above your nail – making sure not to touch your wet polish – and wait for 10-20 seconds, and poof! Instead of silver nails, you’ll have 3D-ish black chevron-patterned nails:

Photo on 10-20-11 at 11.24 AM #5

Obviously, you repeat the process with each nail. It sounds time-consuming but I promise, it isn’t – it’ll take maybe 10 minutes longer than another manicure. I’d wait twice as long as you usually do before putting a top coat on, though, as putting it on too soon can ruin the design.

My Verdict:

I absolutely love, love, love the magnetic effect – literally, I have not been able to stop staring at my nails. If you’re adventurous with your polish, then I’d totally splurge on this. I promise, people will want to know what’s on your nail and how you did it.

However, I did have some complaints with the product, though. One, the magnet will basically make the same pattern on each nail- moving the magnet around won’t yield any results. Also, you only really have one chance to do it right – if you mess up somehow, you have to take off both layers and start from the beginning.

Is it worth the $16? Yes, if you’re into flashy nails. Personally, I really love this trend and I’ll definitely be rocking this in the fall/winter- will you?

What do you think about magnetic nail polish?

Would you try this trend? What’s your favorite crazy nail trend? Tell me everything in the comments!

28 thoughts on “I Tried It… Magnetic Nail Polish”

  1. @Lottie- I don’t think so, you need the magnetic particles from both ions to get the effect, sadly.

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  2. Do you need a special base coat to use this? Does the magnetic nail polish come with the base coat or do you have to buy it separate?

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  3. I bought it from my hospital gift shop on clearance. They were initially priced at $10.50/bottle. I got four of them for a total of $10.50. I can’t wait to try them with my daughters. They will love it.

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  4. this polish is awesome! More and more companies are starting too make their own so you can actually find it at walmart for like $8 or $9 & walgreens for $10 which doesn’t hurt as much to experiment I recomend everyone try it. the one I tried was made by sally hansen & it looks just as cool as everything I’ve seen on line they all have the same basic idea. I’ve also tried several magnets from my fridge & some of them really surprise you with crazy stripey patterns from the cheapest magnet on my fridge it s from a drs office & won’t even hold one piece of paper! Be creative have fun & if you mess up you really don’t have to start over some of mine I did 3 to 4 times and would just paint over the mistake & try again once they dry you can’t tell how many coats you did just don’t glob it on.

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  5. this polish is awesome! More and more companies are starting too make their own so you can actually find it at walmart for like $8 or $9 & walgreens for $10 which doesn’t hurt as much to experiment I recomend everyone try it. the one I tried was made by sally hansen & it looks just as cool as everything I’ve seen on line they all have the same basic idea.

    Reply
  6. For instructional video, go to You Tube and type in Magnetic Nail Polish. My favorite is the Italian lady. Her accent cracks me up. Sally Hansen is usually $8.99 at Walgreens. Directions say two coats. We only did one coat and it worked beautifully. The magnet is in the two-part cap. It’s great!

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  7. So I’ve just discovered magnetic polishes and have found a few things that might be surprising. First off, the brand Finger Paints (found at Sally’s Beauty) has the exact same bottle and polish (it works just as well too) but they sell it for only $6.99. Secondly, though you might have to do one nail at a time, it is important to keep the coats thick in order to get the best possible results with the magnet.
    Hope these tips help anyone who is looking to try magnetic polishes!

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  8. Just bought a plum colored bottle at Hot Topic for only $7! It’s called Magnetic Force by Color Club and works absolutely amazing.

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  9. Hey just read this and saw that you loved the outcome but had a few complaints and felt I could address them for you; wanted you to know that China Glaze has their own version of this type of polish! But in my opinion, better.
    1. It’s $10 instead of $16, you do have to buy a magnet separate (also at $10) but the good news is that one magnet comes with 3 different designs!
    2. You only need 1 coat, not two! Same process; apply to single nail, use magnet 5-10 seconds.
    3. If you mess up, well just paint over it right away and try again, works just as well as the first time!

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  10. Wish i could of seen the whole video about the product… I have bought two bottles & neither worked… Didn’t know there is two caps, i tried taking the one w/ magnet off it didn’t come off,,,I couldn’t get the polish to do what it was supposed to do… I wish i could find out what is wrong…

    June Van Drew

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