Essie Snake It Up

Essie Snake It Up is from the recent Essie magnetic collection.  This is a nice dark steely navy blue, and comes with a snake-skin pattern magnet.  I had a hard time with this one - the polish is very pigmented and is only a 1 coater, but it is hard to control and therefore my gap is very uneven. I like the color of the polish, and I think I would have liked this more had I not used the magnet at all.

I applied 1 coat then immediately used the magnet; the magnet is rectangular in shape and is in the top of the removable cap, and it does not reach all the way to the edges of the cap.  I tried several ways of using the magnet, and never got the look I was hoping for.  I started with my left hand, which is the hand I take pics of, and placed the tip on my nail on the table next to the magnet and leaned my nail in to the surface. I never touched the surface of the magnet, but more than once I could watch the magnet literally pull the polish right off my nail and create a string to the magnet!  The pattern only shows up where the magnet was placed, so since the magnet didn't extend to the edge of the cap / to the table, I ended up with a band of non-patterned polish at the tip of my nail, like an unintentional French effect.  The pattern only showed up down the center of the nail, so when I switched hands I tried to rock the magnet from side to side while holding it above the nail to get all of the nail covered, but the pattern didn't come out evenly at all.

I'm not one for nail art, stamping, etc - so maybe this just isn't for me.  I don't have the desire to sit there and work at making it perfect when I don't really love the end effect anyway.  Into the swap / sell pile...     >^..^<