Sometimes there's that one polish, even in a collection full of jewels, that just draws everyone's attention like bees to honey. KBShimmer released a slew of utterly beautiful multichrome magnetics earlier this year, and a whole lot of the buzz went straight to Solar Flair, both because it was the LE out of the group and for its uniquely fiery look. I originally passed on this one, thinking it was too yellow & orange, but the consistently stunning swatch pics I came across convinced me otherwise.
Y'all, the hype is real.
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| indoor, CF lighting |
You see how there's 2/3 of a rainbow in that bottle? Deep carmine red straight on, that tilts to burnt orange, then a hint of coppery gold, and finally peridot green that's reaching toward blue around the curve of the bottle? And how all of those colors come right on out on the nail, left to right, from pinky over to index on that bottle shot above? Yup. Shifty AF IRL, no special tricks required.
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| window-filtered overcast daylight |
As with most multichromes, and as a distinct difference from most magnetics, Solar Flair is fairly sheer on the first coat. The deep charcoal-tinted base lends this polish very well to being used as a topper in one coat over black. Typically, I like to see what the base color looks like on its own for polishes that could go either way, so I'm wearing 3 coats here, with only the top layer and the topcoat layer magnetized. A black base would probably have made the colors pop with a touch more drama, but this is plenty dramatic on its own and I didn't have to deal with the hassle of cleanup of black polish.
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| outdoor, direct bright sunlight |
Solar Flair was on fire in the sun, seriously "heart of a dying star in the outer reaches of space" territory, with all the multichrome particles giving off an amazing shimmer reflection.
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| indoor, bright CF lighting |
In slightly lower lighting, that effect came down to molten metal, glowing instead of flaming, but still keeping a metallic gleam even in complete shade.
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| window-filtered overcast daylight |
The formula was just a touch thicker than I wanted, but not at all goopy, and not so much that it got sticky or pulled up the underlying layer. I did thin this very slightly before doing the 3rd and final coat.
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| outdoor, bright sunlight |
Instead of my typical thin-edged bar magnet, I tried out my brand new ring magnet to get this look. It's quite a bit thicker than my standard polish magnet, leaving a broad zone of pattern instead of a crisp thin line, plus it additionally repels the shimmer instead of attracting it. The end result of these magnet properties was plenty of times where the multichromatic shift showed up as interwoven stripes. Super cool!!
To get the look I'm showing here, follow these steps:
- Paint your base layer(s), either one coat of black or 2 coats of Solar Flair, over your usual basecoat. If your magnetic nail polish isn't a sheer multichrome, then a single layer is all you need. Let this step dry fully.
- Paint a thick layer of magnetic nail polish on only one finger, then immediately slip the magnet over the end of that finger and hold very still for 45 seconds like so:
- I held the magnet so that the curve went straight across my nail, rather than the more typical diagonal pattern. The thickness of the magnet plus this positioning is what resulted in shifting cat eye bands of shimmer down my whole nail surface. I think this magnet would work fine on a diagonal, too, since the opening is larger than the size of my finger and leaves plenty of room to work with.
- A huge bonus for people with less steady hands, or those of us that keep smudging the polish by accidentally touching the magnet to our nails is that this magnet is powerful enough to work great even when resting your finger on the bottom of the curve, as in the above pic. I didn't have any troubles or accidental smudges when holding my nail closer to the magnet surface, though, and I did get as close as possible for 45-60 seconds on both the last layer of polish and when topcoating.
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| window-filtered overcast daylight |
Using this magnet & technique, the bands of color stayed as crisp as when I applied things for the whole time I wore this polish - there was absolutely minimal softening of the magnetic pattern. And OMG these stripes!!
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| office fluorescent lighting + a nearby window = multichrome + magnetic goodness |
Ring magnets can be used in a few other creative ways, according to a few other tutorials I've seen about this type of new tool. I tried it out 90 degrees differently by holding it flat side over my thumbs to create a rainbow arc - this looked cool IRL but absolutely refused to photograph, and wasn't as bold a pattern as the horizontal stripes. Other people have tried wearing the ring on one finger and bringing a freshly painted nail to the outer surface of the ring - this is really ergonomic and comfortable, since you don't have to hold the ring in a pinch grip, and might be ideal for people with less than steady hands.
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| indoor, CF lighting |
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, easily one of my most amazing magnetic polishes. I wore this for a week straight, and it wore absolutely like iron, with very minimal edgewear after several days.
~Michelle
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