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!