Nails: Special Effects

         Nail art is having a moment. Pull it off stylishly for a special event or just a night on the town. Either way, it's good to have some "special effects" in your nail polish drawer.

         Shatter. Brush a shatter topcoat over your existing polish, and it instantly starts to crack, revealing bits of your base colors it settles into a broken-glass pattern. Formulas can be a bit gummy sometimes, so you only need one thin coat A(too  much and it starts to look like globs of tar!). And thought they come in various colors, I recommend black with a colorful, gold, or silver base coat. Whatever matches your mood and outfit!

      

   Magnetic Manicure. These polishes come with a magnet that create ripples of a darker color in the actual polish. Here's how it works: metallic shades-gold grey and purple-contain iron powder. When you hold the magnet over it for 30 seconds, it reacts with the iron powder to form ripples. For best effects, paint one nail, use the magnet, paint another, use the magnet, and so on. 

         Press-On Polish. Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips are made from actual lacquer that contains plasticizer, allowing the color to stretch and conform to the nail and look as rich and reflective as polish from the bottle. In my test it took about ten minutes to apply the strips (smoothing them on a filing the excess), then I was  free to use my hands-and the color lasted about a week before showing a chip.