Review & Swatches: essie RepStyle Collection (magnetic collection)

Magnetic attraction….

New from essie, you’ll find their first ever magnetic polish collection in stores this month! These magnetic polishes are embedded with micro-iron spheres, which come to life by using the special included magnet that leaves a snake-like pattern on the nails. Once known for more demure, sheer shades, essie is now one of the brands I look to for more fashion-forward polish hues. Ready to take a closer look at the RepStyle Collection?

Sssssexy, Snake It Up, Lil’ Boa Peep

Crocadilly, Snake Rattle & Roll, RepStyle

See more photos, swatches, and details…

These metallic shades differ from traditional nail polish, due to a unique cap which holds a magnet. When the polish is still wet, you flip the cap over (it detaches from the top of the bottle), and get it as close as you can to the nail without touching for about 5-10 seconds. Easy enough, right? With RepStyle, it took some experimenting for me to get it right.

My recommendations for application…

essie’s instructions state that you should apply a RepStyle shade to all of your nails, then apply a second coat individually, nail by nail, hovering the magnet immediately after that second coat. But here’s what I discovered!

Shake bottle well.
Apply two coats of RepStyle polish to all nails.
Apply top coat on one nail, then immediately use the magnet. Do this one nail at a time for all 10 nails.

For me, RepStyle actually worked better after I applied top coat!

Swatches…

Crocadilly is a metallic hunter green shade, and I found it to perform the best out of the six shades in the collection. The magnet worked easiest here—and if you were to pick only one shade in the collection, I’d recommend Crocadilly!

RepStyle is a gorgeous metallic bronze that reminds me of a tiger’s eye gem. The magnet seemed to work well here too, just not quite as well as Crocadilly. Even without the magnet, this is a stunning shade that I would wear without the snakeskin effect.

Sssssexy is a deep metallic aubergine that was a little bit thicker in consistency than the rest of the collection. Luckily, it gives good coverage, so I would try to use the thinnest coats possible to avoid a longer dry time.

Lil’ Boa Peep is a metallic titanium shade with a nice flow.

Snake It Up is a metallic pewter-sapphire blue that was a little more challenging to work with. You have to make sure the polish is very wet when using the magnet here, due to the lesser contrast of a darker shade.

Snake, Rattle, & Roll is a metallic oxidized silver shade, which seemed to work the least of the bunch. I wasn’t able to achieve a very distinct snakeskin pattern with this one, but it’s still a great shade when worn solo.

Will you be picking up any shades from the essie RepStyle Collection?

Bottom Line…

While this may seem odd, I found that applying the top coat before using the magnet acted as a catalyst for the snakeskin pattern effect. The pattern seemed to develop much faster and more distinctly when applied that way, with Crocadilly and RepStyle performing the best.