Already a lot has been written about ILNP – The Magician. It is a “unicorn pee” polish, which means that is apparently contains a super rare pigment (or at least, they want you to believe that). I bought mine a couple of months ago, when the Spring 2017 collection came out. I was afraid I would miss out, because it was advertised as a very limited and special edition polish. As it turns out, it’s currently still available at ILNP.com and their stockists (so not that limited edition after all). It is no longer available. I’ve worn this polish a couple of times now each time over a different polish to give a good picture of the unicorn pee like properties.
The magician is a sheer topcoat. In the bottle it has a pale yellow color, with sometimes a hint of green. When I would see this lying in a store, I would definitely not pick it up. The true magic happens when you apply it over a color. Especially dark colors bring out an extreme shift in The Magician, which I have never seen in a polish before.
In the picture below I’m wearing two coats of The Magician over OPI Visions of Love, which is a vampy red. When you look at a right angle to the nail, it looks like a shimmery red with golden tones. But once you look at it under an extreme angle (like on the right) it just glows green, almost radioactive! However, the lighter the base color the less this shift is visible. Still, I also quite like The Magician over lighter colors, although it is just less special that way.
The coverage depends on your own preferences. In the picture below I’m wearing one coat of the magician over Essie Master Plan. In all other pictures I’m wearing two. I personally find one coat a little bit too subtle. I’ve heard that some people even apply three coats of The Magician over their base color. However, I find two perfect, because it doesn’t overwhelm the base color too much but still you have an incredible shift.
I still have to find a color over which The Magician doesn’t look good. I personally like darker colors the best, and especially the blues and reds. There are still a lot of colors I want to try. I’m especially curious how it will look over a green or medium red. So maybe a follow up post will appear in the future.
As far as I know the Magician is still widely available, although marketed as a limited edition polish. I’ve bought mine at Hypnotic Polish, which is their dutch stockist.
