Mystery solved: Why my magnetic mani suddenly became hard to see after top coat

A little while ago, I posted here about how I had done a cat-eye manicure with Cadillacquer's Extraterrestrial, and it looked nice until I put top coat on it. I was confused because I used Holo Taco Glossy Taco, which does not contain toluene and which I've used for magnetics before. I magnetized the top coat for a minute or two as soon as I painted it on. And the magnetic line didn't "disperse" like it might with a toluene topcoat… it just kind of became dull and hard to see.

Several people commented that some purple, violet, and blue pigments can activate with top coat, float to the top, and "overwhelm" any metallic or other special effects pigments in a polish. Apparently that's what DRK's Seal Glaze was developed for… it's a top coat that has alcohol as the solvent, so it doesn't activate those types of pigments.

This seemed like the most likely culprit… but then why did I see other people doing manis with this polish and having normal results? How did the brand's swatch photos look so nice?

I realized I had painted one coat of Sinful Colors Let's Talk under Extraterrestrial in an effort to not have to do so many magnetized coats, and THAT was the culprit for the migrating purple pigment. When I did my initial test swatches to see what combos I liked – pictured above in spots 2 through 5 – I had put Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear clear polish on them in an effort to not waste my nice top coat. That clear polish takes approximately 1000 years to dry, so it didn't soak through the layers right away and cause the purple pigment migration. I decided which one I liked better on the spot, and went on my merry way to paint my nails. When I went back to check these swatches a few days later, I could definitely see the difference in the swatch on the far right which has Let's Talk as the base.

Just to double check, I did the swatch on the far left. I painted Let's Talk on the bottom half of the oval, let it dry, then did two magnetized coats of Extraterrestrial, and one magnetized coat of Glossy Taco, over the whole thing. You can see the difference between the two halves!

So now I know. I may experiment in the future with "de-magnetizing" polish for my first layer if I want a really clear contrast-y cat-eye. I've seen people do that with gels, where they push the pigment around so none of the magnetic pigment is visible in the first coat, and then do the line for the second coat. But I sure won't put a purple polish underneath any magnetic from here on out!