LCN Magnetic Nail Polish in Green Temptation

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have something a little different for you, one of LCN's magnetic nail polishes.  It's the green one, named Green Temptation.

It came with two magnets, so I tried both out.  I'd gotten reasonably good at using magnetic polishes with the magnet on the bottle, and it turns out that I'm not nearly so good at using a loose one.  When it's on the bottle, there's a little ledge to anchor the tip of the nail to hold it really close to the magnet, and that's handy.  Using these loose ones, it's hard to get and stay close enough to the polish without bumping into it, which you'll see I did to two nails.  I applied base coat to all ten nails, then a coat of Green Temptation to one nail, did the magnet thing to it for about twenty seconds, and moved on to the next nail until I was done, then top coated all ten.  I used a diagonal stripe magnet on all but my ring fingers, and there I used a star magnet.  These didn't turn out so great...

LCN Magnetic Nail Polish in Green Temptation, One Coat

It's frustrating to put a lot of effort into a manicure that looks this half assed upon completion...

That's it for today Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

L'Oreal Star Magnet Red

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

The mailman arrived nice and early this morning, and saved me from my resentment toward Yves Saint Laurent. I had a package containing some L'Oreal Star Magnets that I was able to get for a much better price than when they were originally released, so I could pick up the Red and Purple that I had to pass on previously due to their prohibitive original cost.

You'd think I'd go for Purple first, but the Red was so striking that after accomplishing a few things this morning, I changed my manicure to it. I'll show you the results and then tell you how they work, in case you don't know, after the pictures.

This is two coats of L'Oreal Star Magnet Red.

L'Oreal Star Magnet Red, Two Coats, with Base and Top Coat

I think this is the best I've done with a magnetic polish. The right hand turned out better, all nails perfect, but we've recently been reminded of what a poor job I do taking pictures of it, so I cannot prove that to you!

Here's how it works: there's iron in the polish, and a magnet attached to the bottle cap. Here's a close up picture of the magnet, which I'll refer to in the directions below.

L'Oreal Star Magnet Bottle Cap, Attachment with Magnet

To do a manicure, the first coat goes on as usual. I know to stretch these, since they're small, some people match the color and use regular polish for the first coat. Since I have not done that, I cannot tell you how well it works. I always use the magnetic polish for both. The second coat is where the magnet come in. In the picture, it's the little circular part on the top-facing side (in the picture - facing the top of this page) of the black attachment, parallel to the side of the bottle. I have not read actual directions for the Star Magnet brand, I go by the directions for the Lancome Le Magnetique brand of magnetic polish, and have modified the time with the magnet to what works best in my experience.

So here's how I do coat number two:

1. Paint the first nail as usual.

2. Quickly close the nail polish bottle tightly.

3. To use the magnet, I hook the center of my freshly painted nail on the crescent-shaped ridge at the bottom of the magnet attachment. Do you see it there in the picture? It's like a little shelf with a ridge to place your nail properly. Having centered the nail on the ridge, I raise the rest of the nail to be parallel to the magnet (and thus the bottle cap).

4. Hold there, very still, for 20-25 seconds. The Lancome directions say 5, in my experience that's sufficient to produce a smudge, not a star. Remove the nail in one quick motion and admire you nice neat star.

5. Repeat nine times.

6. I have no idea if this is necessary, but I give the polish 2-3 minutes to dry before top coat. Better safe than sorry - I'd hate to mess up a pretty star!

So how easy is that, really? I think the results look kind of intimidating, but it's really not hard to do. The hardest parts for me have been (i) centering the star, which I discovered is easiest to do by getting the center of the nail hooked on that ridge properly before raising the rest of it up, and (ii) getting a good star by disregarding the five second instructions. So now you know what I know about getting around the parts of the process that I had to learn through trial and error.

That all there is for today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

L'Oreal Star Magnets in Silver

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I have a tentative announcement of the winner of the Black Tie Optional: it was Sunny.  I have yet to receive a reply to the notification email, so I'll wait until next Friday to hear from her.  If I don't be then, I'll randomly select another winner, but in the meantime, I'll hope for a reply.

Today I continued my efforts to take advantage of my new nubbins by using polishes differently, and today I chose L'Oreal Star Magnets in Silver.  A friend of mine got these for me a while back, and I had yet to use Silver, so it seemed like it was worth a try to see if the star pattern would center on my nails.  Indeed it did!

To use these polishes, I apply one coat as usual.  Next time I'll use a regular polish that matches the color as the first coat, as it's been established that using the precious 9 ml Star Magnet as the second coat only works just as well as using it for both coats.  It's the second coat where the trick comes in.  Here, I apply another coat to one nail, hold the nail up to the magnet for eight seconds, then move on to the next nail until all ten have been painted and treated with the magnet.  I took pictures of the magnet for you to show you how it works - there's a little ledge on it to anchor the nail, and I use that holding my nail parallel to the magnet.

Here's the front view of the magnet, which is on a ring around the lid of the bottle.

Here's the side view if the magnet, which shows the little ledge upon which I anchor the tip of my nail.

That's the process I used, and now I'll show you my results, which I admittedly prefer over the Funky French I had using another Star Magnet on longer nails.

 

 

I'm a sucker for a good silver, which this is, and I really love the strange effect the magnet brings to it.  This is a mani that makes me happy I have nubbins, at least for today!

That's what I have for you for now, Dear Reader.  Until later, love and nail polish to you!

I'm Back!

Hello, Dear Reader!

I bet you thought I'd abandoned you forever... Never!  I got sick last week and ended up in the hospital, and just got home this afternoon.  Right before I left, I got my magical package from Finland, which had three L'Oreal Star Magnets in it.  I used one right away, and it's been my mani for the last five days.

You know I'd never normally show you a five-day-old mani, but I made an exception for this one because I got so many compliments on it.  Here's L'Oreal's Star Magnets in Purple.

 

 

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader, and I have lots of good things to come in the coming days.  I'm off to bed for now, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Magnetic Magic

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm pleased to say that I have a few of L'Oreal's new Star Magnet colors on their way to me from Finland - they began their journey yesterday.  Nail polish ain't cheap outside the US, so I had to select only three of the available colors - I chose Purple, Prune, and Silver.  The ones I'm missing out on are Red, Grey, and Chocolate.

The special property that all of these polishes possess is that the polish is iron based, and they come with a little magnet.  When the magnet is held up to the the nail, the polish creates a star pattern on the nail.  This is the same principle as last year's Lancome Le Magnetique, which came in only one color, was more expensive, and is super tiny.  In anticipation of the arrival of my new pretties, I took out my Le Magnetique and used it.

The way it works is that I applied one coat normally, then for the second coat, applied polish to to a nail, held the magnet up to it for about five seconds, and repeated that process for the remaining nine nails.  For the pattern to be centered, nails have to be much shorter than mine, but for me it created a pattern pretty well centered on the free edge of my nails.  This is what the finished manicure looks like:

I love the effect, and am really fired up about receiving the three that are on their way to me.  As soon as they arrive, I'll show them to you.  The only (big) down side to them is that they've only been spotted, as far as I know, in Sweden and Finland, so they're well into the "hard-to-find" category.  I am fortunate enough to be blessed with an online friend from Finland who procured them for me.

Speaking of hard-to-find, this month's giveaway!  I managed to get my hot little hands on a brand new bottle of China Glaze's Moonpool for you, Dear Reader, and will be taking entries for a random drawing for two weeks.   We'll find out on December 4th who the winner is.  Your name will show as you enter it on the form (so you don't have to enter your full name), and your email address will only be used to contact you if you're the winner.  If you haven't put your name in the hat yet, please do!

 

That's all for now, Dear Reader.  Until later, love and nail polish to you!