I ONLY get these bubbles with BKL magnetics. This is Floral Maiden, it was part of my black Friday order. I love the colors, but I have no idea why it's only BKL magnetics that do this. I sat and swatched 4 polishes from that order (not magnetic) and 3 from HHC and only this one did this. I just feel like I'm always a little disappointed in them. My K-Pop Demon Hunters polishes -Rujinu and Miromabby- did it as well. I assumed it was because of the reflective glitter but this doesn't have that glitter. Anyone else experience this?
by turbomama16
16 Comments
I get this if my QDTC isn’t thin enough.
Have you tried nail polish thinner? Some polishes are just really thick even when they’re new, and that can cause bubbling. I had this problem with my KB Shimmer magnetics until I dumped a bunch of thinner into them
I’ve never had this issue with BKL and I have 32 of their polishes purchased over about 9 months. I struggled to apply some of their reflective glitter shades due to thickness, but a little thinner improved that significantly.
I wonder, if like @doilysocks mentioned, this has something to do with your top coat or ambient heat/cold/humidity.
I’ve noticed this happens more with thicker gloopy topcoats. Mooncat TC gets gloopy really fast for me and this happens. But I just swapped to BKL top coat and have used it on bog dweller and goddess of spring and have had none of this happen. Sally Hanson insta dri TC also didn’t really cause this issue.
No, I didn’t thin this as it *seemed* like their usual consistency. Would my ambient conditions interact with only this polish, and not my Cuticula, Moonshine Mani and Rogue? Like, could it be strictly the formula BKL uses? My ILNP magnetics don’t do this, neither does my Clionadh. Just BKL.
Do you shake it perchance? The thickness of a polish can trap bubbles created by shaking before application. Not saying this is the culprit but it might be?
I get bubbles with BKL magnetics as well unless I really take my time letting layers dry (like 10-20 mins between layers). It only happens with BKL for me too so I feel your pain!
Did you use a ridge filling base coat? For me I feel like those take longer to dry than a regular base and I wonder if that could have caused the bubbles?
Maybe your basecoat doesn’t go well with BKL? It’s hard to tell cause I never had an issue with BKL. But I had this problem with one other brand polishes 😅
I’m sorry this is happening to you. I have many magnetics by BKL and I’ve never experienced bubbles. Pretty sure I’d feel the same as you if I had.
Same! I have over 400 polishes and have been doing my nails for over 20 years and it’s ONLY these fine particle magnetics from BKL that do this. Base and top coat doesn’t seem to matter either.
I have this issue in four cases:
1. one of the coats i applied is too thick (polish doesn’t dry as evenly and thus creates bubbles to be trapped). solution: thinner coats next time.
2. the polish could use some nail polish thinner (polish is too goopy/has partially lost evaporating agents that help with drying and thus doesn’t dry evenly and thus causes bubbles to be trapped)
3. bottle got shaken up and hasn’t settled yet – try again in 12-24h (bubbles in the polish during application)
4. the air is drafty and/or humid, so the polish doesn’t dry as well (usually a problem I experience during humid summer days). Temperature doesn’t matter, but it seems to happen more during summer days in my region, which might be because winter is generally less humid here thanks to indoor heating making indoor air extremely dry. (again, reason for the bubbles being the polish not being able to dry out evenly between layers). solution: wait for better weather, sorry.
I get bubbles regardless of brand if one of those four cases fits.
i get these bubbles with BKL, i’ve also gotten them with holo taco in the past. i live in colorado, so very high altitude and very dry and warm. i need to do some experimenting with different base coats and layer thicknesses, time to dry between layers etc. and see what works
I thought it was a really cool Ursula manicure at first glance if that is any consolation? This happened to me once due to a specific combo of one of my top coats and one polish brand’s formulation. It just really hated that top coat, any other top coat was fine. Have you have the opportunity to try it with different base or top coats at all or is this without any of those?
I get this, and it’s a base coat issue for me.
My new strategy is to do a first layer of a polish that matches the magnetic base (for instance a jelly polish), put on my QDTC, and just deal with having a plain manicure. Then, the next day, I do the magnetic polish right on top of the QDTC. This eliminates any off-gassing from the base coat since it’s fully cured.
Then I do one thin coat of my magnetic, without magnetizing, then one thicker coat that I magnerize, before using a more fluid/thinner QDTC like the red bottle Sally Hansen.
I have never had this problem, personally. I use Out the Door QDTC for magnetics usually with good results unless I ruin it somehow. Maybe what you’re using isn’t compatible with their formula?