Nails Inc - Houses of Parliament

Purple won my Facebook survey last week, so I am bringing you this magnetic nail polish from UK company Nails Inc.

Magnetic polishes are one of 2012's hottest trends, but this one is actually from last year. I believe it came out in the Summer, but my husband bought it for me for Christmas. He chose Houses of Parliament, the purple shade; it also comes in chrome (Trafalgar Square), blue (Whitehall), red (Kensington Palace) and gold (Big Ben).

The name is great, despite not having anything to do with purple in my mind. It does, however, remind me of walking along the south bank on warm Summer evenings and seeing the Houses of Parliament in warm lighting across the Thames.

When I first tried this nail varnish I thought it wasn't as easy to use as I'd anticipated. My experience was that the formula was lovely, smooth and dried very quickly, but once I had to use the magnet it all went wrong and I had to re paint several nails.

How does it work? You apply the first coat on all ten nails, leave it to dry and then do each nail individually. The cap comes off so you can handle the supplied magnet separately. This magnet only works on wet polish: you need to hold it at the right distance, by placing the lip on the cap just below your cuticles, for approximately 10 seconds. 

I had read that it was better to move it around a little to cover the sides and hold it for longer to have a more prominent 3D effect, but my experience proved that when I tried this I only got what looked like a burnt design, full of black parts and very messy indeed. I also held the magnet too close to the nail on a couple of occasions, lifting the whole lot and having to start from scratch.

When I did it again today for the photos below, I just followed the instructions to the letter and I was much happier with the results. Some people recommend using a black/dark nail varnish as a base, but I didn't think this was necessary.

I love this product. I think it's like nothing else I've tried before and it reminds me of those 3D rulers I had as a child, because every time you move your hands it's as if there are waves in your nails. It's mesmerising! Having said all this, it chipped within two days, which was very disappointing, especially after all the effort I'd put into getting the magnetic effect to look right.

Last but not least, it can also be used without the magnet and it looks fantastic with just one coat.

Click to enlarge

Brand: Nails Inc

Name: Houses of Parliament

Type: Magnetic

Pantone equivalent: 668

Make Up Alley rating: N/A

Potential dupes: Haven't seen any yet! There are other purples out there but they don't look similar.

Buy it from QVC (pack of three plus topcoat) £21.97

I used:

1 x OPI Natural Base Coat

2 x Nails Inc Houses of Parliament

Metadata:

Canon EOS 450D - 50 mm - f/1.8 - ISO 400 - indoors - no flash - overcast