Let’s talk fine-particle magnetics

You know the ones. The Bog Dwellers. The Fiery Attractions. The (seen on my nails here) By the Moonlights.

In short, polishes that have a reputation for being unfairly gorgeous – but also, all too often, difficult to work with. BKL is known for these, but other brands have them too – Emily de Molly & Haunted Polish as mentioned above; I’d also put the ANLAC Precious Ones collection here (e.g., Fuyu).

I know lots of people who struggle with streaking. Some with smudging. My personal demon with these polishes is bubbles, to the point where I have too often removed a freshly done mani and slapped on a shimmer or a jelly instead.

So, let’s discuss. What are your struggles? Have you found anything that helps? If you tend not to struggle with this type of polish, what’s your secret?!?

Seen here is my first successful application of Haunted Polish By the Moonlight. I’ve applied this polish two or three times before and had to almost immediately take it off because it looked horrible! So here are the things I did differently:

• Basecoat: I usually do 3 coats of ridge filler if I want a really smooth surface. I think this contributes to the bubbling unless I let it dry completely first, as in at least a few hours. This time I switched to a faster-drying, but IMO less effective, basecoat, and I only did 2 coats. This seemed to be an acceptable compromise between smoothness and quickness.
• As has been recommended here before, my first coat of lacquer was quite thin, and I “demagnetized” it – pulling the magnetic particles to the bottom. The side of a horseshoe magnet or the flat of a neodymium bar magnet works for this. Helps with the streaking.
• Clean-up: I struggle with this. I find that cleaning up around my cuticles after magnetizing disrupts the effect on fine-particle polishes, leaving the bottom of my nailbeds looking messy. I’ve now realized that if I wait until my polish and TC is dry, I can get in there and clean it up without creating the bumpy look if I do it while my polish is wet. If I were very fast at cleanup, I’d do it before I magnetized and I think that would be fine too.
• Topcoat: If my polish bubbles before I topcoat it, I assume my base coat is to blame. But all too often, what happens instead is that I have a fairly decent looking manicure, but then I topcoat it and get instant bubbles. My typical go-to for magnetic is Cuticula Limitless, but I recently tried BKL’s QDTC, thinking perhaps their TC would work best on their polishes. No luck. I finally wondered what would happen if I used a thinner topcoat, and dug out my Sally Hansen red bottle Insta-Dry. And…it worked! I still have a few bubbles, but nothing like usual.

I’m too busy enjoying this manicure to test it on another polish, but I’m hopeful.

Product list:

• Base: Vibrant Scents Level Up ridge filler x2
• Lacquer: Haunted Polish By the Moonlight x2, magnetized with spinning horseshoe
• Topcoat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dry (red bottle)

So…what are your tips and tricks? What do you struggle with?