Chromatic Nail Powder: A Review

As a reminder that not all nail products are created equal, and that sometimes a completely gimmicky item is just precisely that, I gave a trendy nail product a go today, with regrettably disastrous results.

I had super high hopes for the Mirror Chrome Magic Powder I purchased back in the spring.  I pre-ordered my little pot from Daily Charme, but there are a number of nail supply shops offering their own variations.  If you spend any time hanging around the nail art corners of Instagram, you’ve seen the positively hypnotic videos of nail techs applying this powder.  Functionally, it’s supposed to break down like this – paint your nails to opacity, top with a gel topcoat, let dry/cure, buff Mirror Chrome Magic Powder onto nails with a simple eye shadow applicator, and finally, stand back and be dazzled by your efforts.  The videos I’ve seen show the most pristine chromatic manicures, perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

But this product in practice?  I won’t mince words – it’s garbage.  First, compared to my beloved Seche Vite, gel topcoats are quite terrible.  This one from Sally Hansen bubbled fiercely on its first use and took over half an hour to fully dry.  Ain’t no one got time for that.  Secondly, contrary to the very information given about how to use this product, I don’t believe an air-dry gel topcoat like the one I used will get the job done – I think it’s UV-cured gel topcoats or nothing.  Because this topcoat was no tackier (to the touch) than my regular topcoat.

Because, thirdly and ultimately, the powder would not completely adhere to my nails.  To my skin, to my hair, to my keyboard, to my sofa, to my t-shirt and to my cat, yes, absolutely – all of the above is positively spackled with pixie dust.  But I could not get it to stay on my nails where it supposedly belonged, each feather light – and not so feather light – touch swiping off that which I had somehow managed to pat down before, particularly around the edges of my nails.  It was also next to impossible to photograph, perfect for a nail blogger, of course!

Which raises an interesting question that I had not thought of before now. You’re not to apply topcoat with this powder, either of the gel or regular variety.  So how precisely are you supposed to keep it on your nails for any longer than, say, one two-hour holiday party where you touch nothing and no one and don’t wash your hands?  Even still, your gracious hosts will be finding sparkly, glittery stuff from one end of their home to the other for the next six months – micro glitter gets in your everything.  You’d do just as well to go to the craft store, purchase some fine gauge glitter and sprinkle it over your not-quite-dry nails. Or purchase a proper chromatic polish outright and save yourself a bundle of trouble!

And so I apologize for the lack of pictures of the entire patchy outcome, but there wasn’t much to see – just a nice manicure I otherwise ruined with a product whose cons (or implausibilities) I should have seen coming from a mile away.  Eh, no harm, no foul, but I definitely won’t be jumping on their new holographic powder, that’s for sure.