poor-mans-polish

[poor-mans-polish]

I tried magnetic polish for the first time. A friend gifted me one of Holo Taco's.

And I'm so confused how anyone has managed to make it work as advertised.

I shook the polish before applying each coat to each nail. I held the magnet still above the nail for 90 seconds for every single coat including the top coat, IMMEDIATELY after re-capping the polish for that single nail. I made sure both hands were even braced against my desk to make sure they wouldn't move. I held it so close that I actually messed up a couple nails by touching the magnet to the polish. And yet the simplest cateye just wasn't happening at any step, on any nail.

Did I get a bad batch? Is the magnet they sent with it really weak compared to others? I don't know what else I could possibly be doing wrong. I watched all the instructional videos. I leave the magnet in place longer than any of them recommend. I haven't heard of anyone else having these problems.

I'm way more disappointed than I think the situation even merits. I was looking forward to it so much.

Edit: I got the purple one, Queen's Curse. Some reddit threads seem to say it was the worst to work with and needed 3 whole minutes for any effect. Ugh. No wonder it's being retired.

#holo taco #magnetic polish

[poor-mans-polish]

About “PEEPS White” from Sally Hansen

This is the best white I’ve ever used. It’s opaque in 2 coats, and it applies as smoothly as a dark cream/creme. It’s not gloopy or chalky. I’ve been using OPI’s Alpine Snow until now and I wish I could exchange all the bottles I have of that for more of PEEPS White. Seriously, this is an amazing white polish. It’s such a shame that it’s limited edition. If you use a lot of white, pick up as many of these as you can find before they’re gone.

I should also say though that I haven’t tried the normal, non-limited edition white in Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri line, out of fear of it being even gloopier than what I’m used to. I may have to give it a try, though.

#nail polish #sally hansen #review

[poor-mans-polish]

About “Center Stage” from Kokie

The pigment used in the glitter itself starts to seep into the base after not too long, so the base becomes purple-tinted. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up to the individual.

I don’t have one of those fancy setups, so any picture I take to demonstrate won’t be accurate to how it looks in person. One coat of this glitter over white looks about... #ffcff1.

#nail polish #kokie #review

[poor-mans-polish]

Two colors from Bettina, which somewhat recently became available at Walgreens.

Espresso (left) is almost completely opaque in 1 coat, applies super smooth and self levels well. However, it’s darker on the nail than it is in the bottle. In most lighting, it looks almost black.

Salinas Beach (right) is opaque in 3~4 coats on long nails. It has a slight pearlized finish, which seemed easier to get nice and even than most pearlized finishes. The color seems more vibrant on the nails than in the bottle. It reminds me of the vibrant pink in cheap satin halloween costumes. It’s not a bad thing!

#nail polish #Bettina Nail Enamel #review

[poor-mans-polish]

About “Slicks and Stones” from Sally Hansen’s Color Therapy line

It looks great in the bottle. It looks a little less great on the nail (the shimmer isn’t quite as strong), but still pretty good. It applies wonderfully, and is almost opaque in 1 coat even on long nails.

But don’t use top coat, or it’ll become nearly black and almost all of that nice shimmer you see in the bottle will be gone. I haven’t tried a whole lot of top coats on it, but I’ve tried both Sally Hansen’s “Dries Instantly” top coat and Seche Vite’s “Dry Fast” top coat on it and it’s just melted the whole formula both times. No matter how gentle I am in applying it, it just kills the finish. I need to shine a flashlight on my nails to see any amount of color or shimmer. If I used glitter on top, the color bleeds to cloud or entirely cover up the glitter. (Ruined all my glitter gradients!)

I haven’t tried wearing it without top coat since I got tired of sheet marks, so I don’t know how it holds up on its own, but just... ugh. I’d say to stay away from it unless you wanted an almost-black purple that you didn’t plan on wearing with anything else.

#nail polish #review #sally hansen

[poor-mans-polish]

Just so this blog isn’t completely empty for a while, here’s my retro/flea market bootleg/foreign (for USA) nail polish collection.

Most of these were purchased before 1998. I don’t have exact dates, but I know most of them were gifted to me before I was a certain age where I lost interest in cosmetics. Some were new at the time, and some were old polishes that my mother had been rarely using for several years prior.

I’ll probably repost this later with the names/brands of each polish included.

#nail polish

[poor-mans-polish]

Reserving this URL for an upcoming nail blog focusing on reviews of cheap (dr♡g store) nail polish, retro nail polish (20+ years old), and amateur nail art.

My avatar is a warning to those using nail polish remover/acetone in place of nail polish thinner. Just use thinner!