LCN Magnetic Green Temptation...GRRRR!!

First of all, I will gloss over that my stuff arrived with half the bottles open part way. MESS. I had started to attribute this to the fact that we're having record high temps and I don't believe that UPS trucks have a/c.
Which, speaking of, the other morning at work a package arrived being borne by the seriously cutest UPS guy. I never really bought into the UPS guy adoration thing that was going on...decades ago **suddenly feels very old**. I mean...I just didn't. Those little shorts are really kinda dorky. However...this one Was. Cute. He gave me a couple big smiles and if I wasn't an old bat I'd think he might have been flirting with me a little bit. **insert Cougar roar here**
Anyways. Where was I? Oh yeah. I had got the magnetic starter set, which was hella expensive, and even more so once I realized I got minis. Are all LCN polishes minis? I honestly do not know. This is my first experience with their stuff. It's a little bit better than that when you take into consideration that $40 was wrapped up in the two magnets, which was why I went the starter set direction. It contains minis of all 8 magnetic polishes, the two magnets and comes in a cute little bag. The bag really is cute:

However, when I opened mine:

This was the kind of mess I had and no, that's not all of it. I'm not out to get the company here. I am just relating my experience. These were plainly made in Germany, as you can see there, and I'm wondering if something weird happened in the shipping process. I spent much time, cotton and acetone cleaning this up:

And am now just hopeful I can open the bottles without a pipe wrench as the lacquer was squishing up into the caps. Ick. We are hoping for the best. I did write them a note to alert them that they may have a production problem thing happening but I've not heard back yet. I offered these pics if they request them, as well. If I were supplying this product, I would want to know this had happened, you know? I'm not wanting anything for my time in writing, but if they offer, I will request new caps so I don't have a total freeze up when it all dries up in there and I can still use those bottles.

Know what I'm sayin'?

So I tried the green temptation, in case you didn't catch the title here. It really is very pretty, I'm pleased with it. The problem is the magnet process. You know I have the mad drunken monkey skills, right? Yeah. I created a big ole mess!! This takes practice, lads.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Check that out! They're all over the place, and uneven as all get out. It IS a super cool look, though. It looks like you should be able to feel bumps, like it's 3-D, but it's smooth as silk, seriously. And it dries like NOW. That was part of the challenge. I was thinking about that as I struggled with it and it makes so much sense for these to be quick drying because, honestly, those metal particles creating that look could just swim elsewhere. So, after reading up on some other blogs with peeps who have done this I did as they recommended and only did one nail at a time. Ideally, you'd have three hands, to be perfectly frank. I do my lefty first so the right hand does look better. I will show you as I write here.

Here's the trick to this. Work fast and I mean FAST. Thick coat of lacquer, grab the magnet and position it. I did a couple practice runs on my thumb, one requiring a total do over and I shmeared the polish all over WITH the magnet...my advice is keep a cotton swab and acetone near by for the first attempts because you're gonna need it. To clean the magnet. I actually contemplated creating a little bridge with the magnet and something, like a couple unopened packs of post-it notes or something, just slide the nail under there. I may yet try it because I do love this so much that I will try again. It IS a learning curve, though. You will botch them a couple times, just gird your loins and suck it up. Look at what happens when you get it right:

K, mostly right. that star like thing in the middle? Yep. Tapped it with the magnet. This was maybe my third try? Even though this became a contact sport, you can see that this isn't bad. The design is centered and clear. With a top coat over this that shmear isn't so obvious.

My other advice is...rarely did I find that shmacking on another coat of shellac did a damn bit of good. I think there is a too thick point. Maybe the particles just can't slug through too much paint because this stuff is thick. I suppose it has to be. You're only going to get one good crack at it.

I did improve, here's a shot of the righty:

Please don't mind the over spray there. I hadn't cleaned this up, just shot the swatches. Check the ring finger...that is how it should look, if you get good at this. It's really not hard. You just need to move fast and practice so you get a feel spacially: how far to hold the magnet from your nail, where to center your nail under it....the magnets are small, so I appreciate the cute bag all the more because it gives me a way to keep everything all together.

I applied this Wednesday night. The ButterLondon wasn't doing too badly wear-wise, but in cleaning up all the bottles that arrived leaky I basically removed the butter in the process and was SO excited about these that I just finished the job up and did a do-over. I did a full mani like I always do:

Mechanics:

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
1 coat (in most instances) LCN Green Temptation
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat

I had read on CultNails (have her collections coming as well! YAY! They look amazing!) where she had tried it there and found that putting top coat on too fast will drag the particles and mess your magnet look up so I didn't risk it and waited. I had no problems. Thanks for the advice!

I also have the star shaped magnet but I thought the lines were tiger like. Rower!

So far this is performing very very well. I have been doing tons o dishes lately, lots of cooking. I got it in my head I needed brownies so I did that and cleaned the kitchen. Then we were starting to get what looked to be a storm so I went out and picked veg for dinner because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back out there if it stormed and had 3 gigantor zucchini to use so I cleaned one and cut it, made dip, cleaned the kitchen up again....so that's 2 sinks of dishes. Then I decided...zucchini bread...yeah....so I made zucchini bread...and cleaned the kitchen. One more HUGE sink of dishes. Get the breads in the oven and then...time to make dinner. Cooked dinner, ate...yep. Cleaned the kitchen. I can't stand a dirty kitchen, can you tell? Sum total, 4 sinks of dishes, plus the water involved in cleaning vegetables and I made fried yellow squash as well, so that's egg and stuff, plus all that hand washing....my skin is feeling drier just thinking about it. Here is what the polish did for all that:
Left hand

You can see a hint of tip wear, a little bungle there on the inside of the index finger...

Right hand

One teeny chip on the index and a little tip wear on the middle finger. Here's another shot:

 I don't know about you guys but I can pretty much live with that for a couple days. The really amazing thing is that after round 787 of dishes today, the middle finger was almost bubbling, like the lacquer wanted to peel up but it didn't and once my hands were out of water for some time, it looks normal. If that were still there, you should see evidence of it in these pics because I took these just a short while ago and it looks normal. That is pretty awesome.

Overall, I am reserving judgment on whether or not LCN gets any more of my money until I hear from them on the leaking issue. I don't expect a new set of polish or anything like that. I'd just like them to acknowledge the problem and offer to make it right. I sent an email, which probably wasn't the right thing to do, but I wanted to let them know ASAP and it was after their customer service lines are closed so I emailed their info address. Probably I should have called today to follow-up.
Otherwise, the polish went on easily and well, it is completely opaque in one coat and even if you didn't want to bother with the magnet, this is a really pretty color. The black in it gives it a certain...sinister gleam that I love and I think this green is really pretty on me. I had compliments on it already at the drug store. The chick loved it and wanted to know where I got it, she'd never heard of anything like it. It is pretty striking but not in an in-your-face way. These pics are really large because I was able to reformat the blog layout to allow me to use much larger pics and on my monitor at least, these are NOT life sized! LOL You'll catch the effect if you're watching me do something with my hands but it's not going to reach out and smack you.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else tries this!! It's really pretty cool.

Happy Talons!