Magnetic Nails?

[Trendzilla] Kind of—combine lacquer and magnets, and you have fun!

Comments (0) By VICKIE CHANG Thursday, Sep 8 2011

Fashion's Night Out is upon us (and please, Californians, it's really just not the same here), and that means one thing for the lacquer fanatics out there: The special, limited-edition FNO releases from Chanel.

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Fashion's Night Out

This year's collection has a denim theme, and to be honest, it's actually pretty snoozy when compared to the previous years' Jade and Les Khakis. Blue Rebel is a sort of midnight-dark denim, coco blue is a faded pale blue, and blue boy is somewhere in between those two.

Seeing as these FNO Chanel lacquers are supposed to be our barometer for what's really in style this coming fall/winter for nails, I'm pretty bored. These shades are all already on the market and just seem to echo other high-end brand predictions—see Dior's Blue Denim and last year's Chanel powder blue Riva. Meh. And on the other side of the spectrum of the nail thing, nail art is still very much in style, with DIY-ers continuing their domination of Tumblrs and blogs everywhere—the crazier, the pointer, the sparklier, the more fun, the better.

With 2010's crackle trend still rearing its ugly head, there's another nail trend from a few years ago on the resurgence: magnetic lacquer. Available in mostly metallics, you apply magnetic polish just like any other kind of polish, except once you're done painting, you hold a special magnet over your nails to achieve a rippling effect. The magnetic particles in the lacquer form star shapes (or maybe asterisk shapes) or even stripes. The best part? If you mess up, just apply a new layer of polish and magnetize away again. Wait five minutes before applying your final top coat. The end result is a really fun, almost candy-like pattern with little effort.

The polish is currently available in eight colors, from fuschia to copper, and can be purchased online at LCNBoutique.com for $9.90 each. The bad news is that you have to buy the magnets separately at $19.90 apiece. Sorry.

Follow me on Twitter: @VickieChang!

This column appeared in print as "Magnetic Nails?"