I recently got a Helmer (the nearly universally agreed-on ideal storage option for polish fiends everywhere), and while my stash is arranged by color, I decided to pull out a few particular types of polish to file in these new drawers. This decision was partially launched by the fact that it takes at least twice as long to do a magnetic mani as it does to simply paint your nails - I might as well have all the magnetics in one spot when I have enough time to play with them, like I did for this look.
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| Indoor, bright CF lighting |
But first, the gorgeous base color by itself! Tonic released Quasi Stellar as part of a galaxy-themed collab box last year, and while usually only one polish in a box catches my eye, this trio was all fantastic. Quasi Stellar is a deep navy blue base, liberally scattered with holo flake, then overlaid with a ton of duochromatic shimmer that shifts from sapphire (above) to purple (below).
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| indoor, CF lighting |
Tonic more recently released a handful of magnetic polishes in sheer or clear bases, designed to be used as toppers over other base colors. One good Tonic certainly deserved another, and the royal richness of the blue and purple in QS called out for a good dash of gold, so I've layered a single coat of Here Comes the Sun on top.
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| outdoor, bright direct sunlight |
Here Comes the Sun shifts from copper to gold - note the brighter yellow tone on my pinky above vs the more bronze shimmer on my index finger - but this is very subtle shift that mostly appeared as a warm "old gold' tone.
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| outdoor, direct sunlight |
Because I wanted some of Quasi Stellar to peek through the shimmer, I used the small round end of a dual-ended magnet
of the type sold by KBShimmer here. The flat circular end repulses magnetic particles, creating a clear zone, rather than creating a focused line like the flat rectangle end would. I slid the circle end over from the pinky side of each nail, which ultimately left me with a cool C-shaped bracket of gold around a navy center. My fingers were more gold if I held my hand with the thumb closest to my eyes (below), but more blue with my pinky closest (above).
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| outdoor, direct sunlight |
This worked out just like I'd hoped, where the duochromatic shimmers of QS could shine through, flashing purple and violet in angled light:
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| little purple and violet sparkles on one nail, sapphire and almost turquoise on the other! |
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| outdoor, bright sunlight: violet purple framed with a touch of gold |
A single coat gave me plenty of gold shimmer... and almost too much. The only downside for me is that Here Comes the Sun isn't a powerful magnetic. Playing with it in the bottle and on a swatch stick, the gold dust didn't tenaciously cling to a regular bar magnet, leaving lots of shimmer covering any base color it's on top of. I always magnetize both the final coat of any magnetic polish and after applying topcoat, and I'm confident enough with this technique to work quickly, but even so I had a few nails that I just could not get to work out. On a regular magnetic polish, eh, NBD, slap another coat on and try again. If a topper doesn't work out, leaving shimmer covering the whole nail, ya gotta remove it... and end up re-doing that nail's base color too. Grumble.
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| window-filtered daylight |
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars for Quasi Stellar's rich color and painless formula. 2 easy coats and I was done, with minimal cleanup needed. 3 out of 5 for Here Comes the Sun - a truly unique polish that has plenty of potential with other colors, but I wish it was more reactive. This mani wore well, with only typical edgewear and no chipping after several days.
Where to buy: Quasi Stellar was a box exclusive - haunt destashes and blog sales to try and grab one. Here Comes the Sun is a core color that can be
purchased directly from Tonic.
~Michelle
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