Review & Swatches: Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Colors

Even though there are other magnetic polishes available at the drugstore these days, there's no doubt that the Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Colors are the most widely-available and easiest to find. I received six of the eight shades in the range for review, so I'd love to share my thoughts with you in case you've been thinking about a purchase:

Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color

(retail: $9.99, 0.31 oz)

If you're new to magnetic polishes, the concept is simple: you apply the polish to your nail, and while your nail is still wet, you take the magnet (located on the top of the outer lid above) and place it above the nail. After about ten seconds, you simply lift the magnet and you'll see a design on your nail. Looking at the picture of the outer lid above, you can see that there's a little ledge located next to the magnetic strip. This is where you rest the lid on your finger (right below your cuticle) so that the magnet does not touch your wet nail.

I've played around with all six polishes for a few weeks now, trying them in a variety of ways, so I'd like to give you some tips about each particular shade.  These colors are not all created equal, so there are some things you should know about each one that will (hopefully) improve your results:

 Electric Emerald

Electric Emerald gives a nice, crisp design after just one thick coat. You don't need two coats for this one, and I find it's best to apply this polish to clean nails (no base coat) for maximum wear. In the above picture, I applied one layer of clear top coat to my nails after the polish had dried, and if you look closely, you can see that the brush on my top coat caused some lines and streaks that distrupted the magnetic pattern. If you're going to apply top coat to these polishes, you should wait until the polish is fully dry because it's very easy to disrupt the pattern even if you use a soft touch when applying your top coat.

 Silver Elements

Here's a better example of what happens when you apply top coat too quickly after painting your nails with these polishes. See how my top coat made the magnetic pattern look cloudy and blurry? Silver Elements produces a strong magnetic pattern after just one coat, but I recommend skipping top coat altogether with this one. I tried a second manicure with this polish and, even after waiting a few minutes for the polish to dry, I got similar results after applying my top coat. As for the color itself, there's lots of unexpected sparkle in this polish that comes out after you use the magnet. So pretty!

For the rest of my swatches, I did not apply any top coat, so that you could see the true patterns of each color:

 Golden Conduct

For this swatch, I wanted to show you what happens when you hold the magnet sideways instead of the way it's recommended. Notice on my first and third fingers that you get a vertical wave pattern instead of a horizontal wave pattern. The effect looks really cool in real life, but I think you get the idea in this picture. Golden Conduct was a bit thinner than the above two polishes, so it's best to use a nice, thick coat before using the magnet. Also, this polish has some beautiful sparkle to it that makes it a nice color to wear on its own (even without the magnet).

 Graphite Gravity

Graphite Gravity surprised me--I didn't expect the magnetic pattern to come out black (the bottle color is steel gray). Again, this one's on the thin side, so it's best to try and get a nice, thick coat on the nail before you use the magnet. Other than that, this was an easy polish to work with.

 Ionic Indigo

This is such a pretty blue, and I love the wave pattern because it actually reminds me of real ocean waves. But, I had some issues with this one. The polish itself has probably the nicest formula of all six colors--it's perfect (not too thick, not too thin) and it flows onto the nail beautifully giving great opacity in one coat. Also, it removes very cleanly (all of these polishes do, actually) with NO staining or "smurf hands" left behind.  However, sometimes the magnet works and sometimes it doesn't. It's finicky! I gave my mom a manicure with this one and even though I tried a dozen different techniques, I couldn't get a consistent look and some of her fingers looked great, while others were not so great. So again, the best method, after much trial and error, seems to be to use one thick coat of polish, quickly apply the magnet, and hold it steady for at least ten seconds (fifteen seconds is even better). That's what I did for the picture above it looks pretty consistent across all for fingers.

 Polar Purple

This is such a pretty color, but I'm afraid that no matter what technique I use, I cannot get a crisp, clean wave pattern with this one. As you can see, the lines are thick and blurry and they actually get even more blurry over time. I'm wondering if it has to do with the purple pigment in this polish (I know that good purple eyeshadows are notoriously difficult to make, so maybe it's the same for magnetic polishes??). Also, this polish is on the thin side (you can see the streaks above).

After using many different techniques and much trial and error, here are my tips for the Sally Hansen Magnetic Colors:

• Try using just one coat of polish. I find that one thick coat works best, because the magnet has to do less "work" to pull the particles up from the polish after one coat (two coats makes the polish heavier so the magnet has less power). One coat results in stronger, more defined lines.

• After you paint your nail, immediately hold the magnet above the nail and keep it there, as steady as you can, for at least ten seconds. You don't want to move the magnet even by a hair, because that will result in a blurry, messy line. Also, don't paint all of your nails and then use the magnet. Paint them one by one, using the magnet after painting each nail.

• Try skipping both base coat and top coat. The reason why I suggest skipping base coat is because these polishes wear like GLUE for me without a base coat. Seriously, I wore a single coat of Golden Conduct for six days straight with zero chips, and when I tried to peel it off, it wouldn't budge.  The reason I suggest skipping top coat is because, depending on the formula you use, your top coat can create brush strokes on these polishes that will disrupt the magnetic pattern (see Silver Elements above). If you absolutely have to use top coat, try to wait until the polish is fully dry before applying. 

FINAL VERDICT: All in all, there are some lovely colors here that you could wear even without the use of the magnet (although that wouldn't be as fun, of course). Like I mentioned at the beginning of this review, not all of these colors are created equally, and some perform better than others. The only one that I would not recommend purchasing is Polar Purple because, after numerous attempts, I just could not get a clean, crisp pattern with that one. But if you follow my tips, I think you could make any of the other five shades work for you. Just remember that it can take a few attempts before you get the hang of magnetic polishes, so be ready to experiment and have a bit of patience with these. As for application, formula and dry time, all shades rank good-to-excellent in those categories. Some of the colors are a bit thinner than others, but none are difficult to apply and they all dry pretty quickly. Also, all six shades remove easily with no staining left behind (even without using a base coat first). If you can catch these on sale, I think they're worth a shot if you're new to the world of magnetic polishes and would like to see what all the fuss is about.

Do you already own any Sally Hansen Magentic Nail Colors? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

A sample of this product was given to Nouveau Cheap for editorial purposes, either directly from the manufacturer or from the agency that works on behalf of the manufacturer. All reviews on NouveauCheap.blogspot.com are the honest opinion of its author and editorial samples do not, in any way, affect the outcome of product reviews.