Magnetic Polish in Practice

This magnetic nail polish trend seems to have really taken off. I was really excited about it when I first heard and couldn't wait to try it. So many brands are launching their own version I wanted to try as many as I could to let you guys know which was best value.. so far I've tried two and I thought I'd share some pictures and my experience so far...

17 Magnetised in Gun Metal £5.99

&

Nails Inc Magnetic Polish in House of Parliament £13.00

I would like to point out I bought my Nails Inc polish from BuyaPowa last week in their deal. It ended up going for £7.00 so I paid 46% less than the RRP.

Here are some pictures of my nails...magnetised....

Ok... now you've seen them I have some thoughts I'd like to share. Firstly...Magnetic nail polish... not easy! It looks like it would be a piece of cake, right? Like the simplest nail art ever... not so! It is really really tricky to master. I've only done it twice and I can tell you that one formula was definitely easier than the other but I haven't perfected the application just yet. I haven't read anything about how the polish actually works but if I had to guess I would say it contains tiny iron particles (like the games you got as a kid where you could move the guys hair around... remember?) so when you hold a magnet over-top it draws those particles to the surface. I had a real tough time with the 17 version, You have to get the magnet (in the detachable lid) very close to your nail to draw out the pattern and I was convinced I was touching my nail and messing up my polish but it turned out the polish was touching the magnet... not the other way around...

From what I can tell the thickness has a lot to do with this. This is where it gets really tricky. You really only have one chance to get a full coverage per nail and you're advised to use a generous coat of polish but I think that's a mistake. The thicker the coat of the polish the more the iron particles lift toward the magnet and smudge your nails. Unfortunately if the application is too thin the magnet wont pick up any pattern at all. This is where the two brands differ. The 17 version needs a couple of coats or one really thick one if you're going to get an opaque finish, the Nails Inc is a one coat job. It's so difficult to explain in a blogs post which is why I have a video review in the works but I hope you don't find this totally pointless.

You can see from my pictures the Nail Inc polish gave me much better results.. the 17 was smudged due to the lifting problem I experienced. I have seen lots of positive reviews about the 17 version so don't think my review is the be all and end all... it's just my opinion. Perhaps these people have laid down one thin coat first and then another coat which they've gone on to magnetise.. I don't know. I will keep at it and once I've perfected it I will do my best to produce a How-To, right now I just wanted to share my experience so far.

Neither brand made this an easy effect to achieve and both chipped quickly which was very disappointing given how long it takes to apply. I like the effect, it changes depending on the lighting, the angle, allsorts. It's very unusual but I don't know whether it's worth all the effort.

Have you tried any magnetic polishes yet?

Thoughts?

Fashionista Arrives at Superdrug

You may already have heard about the new Fashionista range that hit Superdrug this week. I'm not sure if it's available in stores yet or just online (nowhere near me has it yet that's for sure). If their site is anything to go by the range will be a comprehensive one but right now all that's launched are the custom palettes. Lucky for me that's what I was most interested in!

The palette itself retails at £5 and there are 49 eyeshadows and 12 blushers which fit in the palette each at just £4. You could create a seasonal blush palette, an eyeshadow quad or mix and match for travel. I LOVE customisable ANYTHING as you know so this is what really has me excited about the Fashionista brand. You may remember I posted about The Saturday's magnetic nail polish? Well that's part of this range too! I'm interested to see everything else they introduce and will be getting my hands on a palette as soon as they arrive in my local store.

For now you can buy it from Superdrug online here

Have you tried anything from this range yet?

*EDIT*

I've since bought a palette..

you can find my swatches and review here

Nails Inc Magnetic Polish 40% off

I was approached yesterday by the company BuyaPowa. I get a lot of emails from companies regarding sponsored posts as you can imagine and most I disregard as they are irrelevant or I just don't like the look of them. This was completely different. I intend to do a full post about the company at a later stage... possibly even later today but the deal that just went live is too great to miss so I wanted to get something up as quickly as possible. You can view all of the information and how it works on the site itself but to give you an overview it's kind of a cross between Bid-up TV and Groupon. There is one deal at a time and the more people that buy it the cheaper the price gets until it reaches it's "best price". Best price is achieved at 75 buyers and the deal ends once there are 100. You buy at one price and then spread the word (much as we do when there's a great Groupon deal) in the hope you will lower your price. Once the deal timer ends or  100 people have bought you all pay the same price (much like Bid-up TV).
Another great perk is the leader board for referrals. If you refer the most people you get your item for FREE!
Like I said I really want to get in to this in more details and talk about what the company is all about and how it will hopefully work for budget-hunting consumers like you and I but this post is just to make you aware of the general idea and todays offer. I'd like to point out at this stage I have bought this myself with my own money, it was not provided to me and you can see me on the site as the 5th person to buy. You guys know I was already uber-excited about the launch of Nails Inc's Magnetic Nail Polish but I hadn't bitten the bullet and purchased yet and that is because of the price. You can see my original post about the launch and how the polish works etc here.
I've bought the deal at £10 which is a £3 discount already (postage is free) and if 70 more people buy it we will all get it for £7 which is an absolute bargain! The downside is that they only have 1 shade on offer and although I would have probably chosen the silver to get more wear I have more purple polish than anything else so it's safe to say it still appeals. You will also have to wait for the deal to end for the item to be posted to you but as we bargain shoppers know that is a small price to pay for 40% off a recently launched product.
If you've already heard of this site I'd be really interested to know whether you've bought from them before or what deals you'd like to see them offer in the future, that's another great thing about BuyaPowa, they want US to tell THEM what we want so they can get it for us (again... I'll add more detail later)
Anyway I've rambled enough for what was supposed to be a very brief post but I'm really excited about this. If you are interested in the deal you can view it here and if you have any questions leave me a comment or tweet me @msbudgetbeauty for a quicker response.

The Saturdays Launch Magnetic Nail Polish

A few days ago I blogged about the uber-hyped Nails Inc magnetic nail polish that hit the beauty world this week.. well now there's something new! Since I put up that post I learned Boots 17 have their own version coming out AND The Saturdays are launching a range too. It's an exciting time for your fingertips!

Now I don't have all of the information yet but I couldn't wait to share my glee in anticipation of this arriving in Superdrug next month. There will be 5 shades available retailing at £6 each, the magnets will be available separately at £3 each. What I'm hoping is that there will be 5 different patterns to choose from (magnet-wise) because that's what I think its really missing from the Nails Inc line, the ability to create different effects in the shade of your choice. I'm also very interested to see whether these magnets will be interchangeable from brand to brand. You'd expect so, I mean a magnet is a magnet, right? But if a brand can make it exclusive to their product I know they will. I can't wait to see how these work in practice and you can be sure I'll be trialling as many versions as I can get my hands on but these are the one's I'm most looking forward to.

Have any of you tried magnetic nails yet?

Magnetic Nail Polish????

Excited? Me too!

Nails Inc have launched this fabulous new polish and you can buy online here

At £13 a bottle it's not cheap but is it not the coolest nail polish EVER???

There are 3 shades to choose from,

Big Ben : Metallic Gold

Trafalgar Square : Metallic Silver/Chrome

Houses of Parliament : Metallic Purple

I'm finding it really difficult to choose between them but I'm leaning towards the silver.

It's not on the boots website yet so I'm not sure if it wil be in their stores. I'm putting in my order online now.. not risking missing out in store... must try this as soon as humanly possible.

Have any of you managed to get your hands on this stuff yet?

Tell me it's as awesome as I hope!!!

Can you keep a secret?

I "borrowed" the images above from the Nails Inc website...

I'm advertising their product for free... I figured they wouldn't mind