Although Cheap Thrills is first and foremost a blog revolving around my personal style and thrifty scores, I do like to indulge my penchant for beauty products once in a while. So when Nail Polish Canada gave me the opportunity to review a couple of China Glaze’s Magnetix nail polish, I jumped at the chance–mostly because I wanted to try something different, but also because the inner 4th grade science geek in me has a magnet obsession.

Having never done a beauty review before, I enlisted in the help of my nail art-obsessed little sister, Krisine, (the one who convinced me on galaxy nails) who thankfully obliged to be my hand model and gave me some nail guru insight on the nail polish itself.

China Glaze Magnetix nail polish in Attraction is a dark grey metallic polish with little silver chunks. When applied, the silver chunks become very apparent against the darkened black/grey background, which is quite different from the other shade as the obvious silver glitter gives it more sparkle.

You Move Me is a pale bronze colour with silver swirls (possibly the magnetic bits) when you look at it in the bottle, but once applied with use of the magnet, turns into a darker brown, with the end result looking like tiger’s eye or in my sister’s words “like hard candy”.

The formula of both polishes are very good. Both had a not too thick/not too thin consistency that applied easily and streak free, however, You Move Me needed a couple of coats as it was sheerer than Attraction (which only needed one coat). The dry time on these polishes are very quick, which would be great if they weren’t magnetic polishes, but because you need make the designs before it dries, it becomes a bit of a disadvantage. We had a bit of trouble with making the patterns, too.

To begin with, in order to create the design, you must hold the magnet as closely as possible (without touching) it to a freshly painted nail for about 5-10 seconds (as the instructions suggested) as it dries. Unfortunately, it’s difficult when the polish dries very quickly, as you really have to rush to get the magnet to your nail–which can result in accidentally touching the magnet to the nail and having to start all over again. Another thing we noticed is that it’s hard to get a consistent pattern going on. Because the magnet is flat and some nails have a slight curve to them, it’s difficult to fully magnetize your nails. Also, the magnet doesn’t seem very strong, we found we had to hold it over the nail far longer than the recommended 5-10 seconds, it was more like 20.

PROS:
-Nice colours, with a wider variety on Nail Polish Canada’s website.
-Nice formula, applies well, dries quickly.
-The magnet comes with three designs in one, and is sold separately: great if you already own other magnetic polishes that come with magnets.
-BIG bottle size, a far more economic buy than some of the other magnetic polishes I’ve seen, such as the Nails Inc and LCN, both of which are more expensive with way less product.

CONS:
-It will take practice to get the timing and magnet-holding act right, especially if you’ve never tried magnetic polish before.
-The magnet’s a bit weak so you’ll need to hold it over your nail longer than the time recommended.
-The flat magnet is not ideal for very curved nails, it’s better recommended for those with flat nail beds.

OVERALL:
It was fun to experiment with magnetic polish! If you like trying out new nail polishes and don’t mind taking your time when giving yourself a manicure, I’d definitely recommend China Glaze Magnetix. The price point is great ($10.50 for 15mL and $10.50 for a 3 in one magnet) and there’s a nice variety of shades to choose from. Alternately, the colours are unique enough that if you end up not liking the magnetic effect, you can use them on their own.

NOTE: these products were sent to me by the company for consideration. I was not paid to do this review, but chose to do so by my own accord. In doing this review, I gave my honest opinion based on my experiences with the product.