Masura Condiments & Spices

I absolutely loved my last Masura magnetic polish - it was super easy to work with, very reactive, and wore well.  I have one more super shifty Baroness X topcoat to share, and wanted to choose something a little unusual to swatch it over, and this ended up being the perfect choice

indoor, bright CF lighting

Condiments & Spices is a deep, cool, smoky brown shimmer in the bottle, and much like Mint & Basil, would be plenty pretty on its own if you didn't feel like using a magnet.  One caveat - while C&S applied perfectly smoothly, this dried in an irregularly patchy satin pattern that a single layer of topcoat smoothed right back out (in other words, topcoat is a necessity for this polish). 

I used my newest super strong neodymium magnet held in a diagonal across each nail to attract the pearly shimmer particles.  I'd bought this magnet after a recommendation that this was more powerful than my standby Dance legend flat bar magnet, and though it sticks tighter to metal surfaces, I didn't notice a difference in the effect on the polish between the two.  This one is longer but narrower, noticeably heavier, and slightly thicker than the DL magnet, so they are different enough that you might have a preference for one feeling more comfortable to hold than the other.  It was kind of a wash for me, since I found this one much easier to pick up off the table, but didn't like the added weight.

indoor, bright CF lighting

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  This showed wear at the tips after only 2 days, and I had minor chipping on my more active right hand after several days.  The formula here was just as nice as the last Masura I tried - it has that ideal thickness that's easy to work with and stays right where you put it.  The magnetic stripes softened up a little more over the next 24h but always showed that super cool 3-D cat's eye gemstone effect when tilting my fingers. 

Where to buy:  check out Masura's list of international stockists here.

~Michelle