So, despite me reading every post about magnetics on here I haven't done very many magnetic manis yet. I was excited to try Cadillacquer's Extraterrestrial for Halloween and get a nice purple with lime green moment.
The video shows my left hand without topcoat, and my right hand with. As you can see, the left hand has a pretty good cat eye line, but then it's almost completely gone on the two middle fingers of my right hand. I've since top coated the left, and despite long times under the magnet, the cat eye on both hands is barely there anymore. In low light I can't see it at all.
I thought this only happened with top coats that contain toluene? I used Holo Taco Glossy Taco, which does not contain toluene. I'm also a bit baffled that it almost seems like it DE-magnetized my mani… it's not the same as the polish un-magnetized, which is an army green. It's like all the pigment got pushed into the "non visible" alignment, so you only see the purple. It's a lovely purple, but I did not just spend 3 hours of my night fixing multiple smash-my-fingers-into-things mistakes to get a nonexistent magnetic effect!
Any advice? Does Holo Taco Glossy Taco always do this? Do I need a different top coat? Is it user error?
- Holo Taco Long-Lasting Base
- Sinful Colors Let's Talk (because I thought I could get away with one coat of the magnetic, lol)
- Cadillacquer Extraterrestrial x 2
- Holo Taco Glossy Taco
I used the regular cat-eye wand, held as closely as possible above my finger for at least a minute (usually more) for all coats of the magnetic and the top coat.
by coastal_vocals
3 Comments
I’ve only used the regular top coat from OPI (with quick dry drops), QDTC from OPI and lately the QDTC from KBShimmer (Clearly On Top) and all of them work well with magnetics, so I’m not sure about the Holo Taco top coat… is it QDTC?
Also, how much time you magnetize the top coat? I usually try to magnetize it for 1 minute at the very least.
Take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt because I haven’t done like side-by-side testing and analysis of my top coats. Glossy Taco was the first top coat I bought, but since then I have also tried Seche Vite, Essie gel-setter, and just got KBShimmer’s Clearly On Top a few weeks ago. I didn’t put the connection together until now, I thought it might have just been me discovering the polishes I like.. but I have been MORE in love with my manis, most recently the last two I called “the best manis I have ever done” because they were magnificent and I think it was because of the top coat!
Edit: My first magnetic was Holo Taco’s Once in a Blue Moon and I was really disappointed with it (using Glossy Taco on top). I did it recently with a KBShimmer top coat and the difference was STARK and its now in my top 3. I know this doesn’t help your toluene question but maybe some sort of help will be gleaned from my experience XD
I have no answers, but I’ve experienced this with one particular polish, Vanessa Molina’s The Judgement. It’s an intense violet holo magnetic- the holo looks spectacular before topcoat, but afterwards (Essie speed setter, no toluene), there’s only a hint that there’s a magnetic element there. It’s still magnetised, and still a cat eye, but it’s like it sank beneath the purple pigment. Your polish has a purple base as well, maybe it’s interacting weirdly with the topcoat?