Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens Review

Hi again!

Hope you're having a great weekend

So, this story starts with me in my beloved TK Maxx.... just browsing around in the nail section, as you do, when I came across a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in gold.  It was only £2.99, so I thought I'd give it a go, and as it happened I really liked it! 

I had a look on Amazon UK to see if there were any more colours made, and there were, so I got a few more.  There were none with free shipping, so all in all I paid about a fiver each for the others.  Here's what I've ended up with:

As you see, as usual I went a bit mad haha!  Obviously at some point in Rite Aid in the USA these have been half price and in a gift pack.  Good job I wasn't buying them as a present.  I bought the silver one from a different seller and the packaging on that one was all neat and tidy and nice.  I didn't get a black or a white because they were alot more expensive or in 2-packs.  Who needs 2?

These are:
08 Gold
05 Blue
07 Silver
04 Hot Pink
10 Purple Violet
06 Red

I thought the best way to show you the coverage and finish was to paint two nails in a dark colour and two nails in a light colour, so I used my new OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (2 coats) for the light, and my Collection 2000 All That Jazz (one coat) for the dark.  I used the same colours on the other hand only the opposite fingers, and I really liked the look, I'm going to try it as a proper mani at some stage.  But for today, they are just canvasses:

My Boyfriend Scales Walls was OK to apply, but because of the hype surrounding it I was expecting more - I know, never happy.  It was how I was expecting Alpine Snow to be, not bad application but took longer than I thought to dry. 

So first off I did some (very wiggly) stripes, thick and thin, with all the colours, on both the light and the dark.  The sheerest was the red, which reminded me very much of tomato soup, and the most opaque was either the pink or the blue:

The white polish canvas wasn't quite dry, if you look carefully in the thick silver stripe you can see where it dug in a bit.  As you can see, the gold is more of a copper really, but pretty anyway.

And heres some nail art to show you what you can do with them:

Once it was dry I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite, and that's how it's shown here.  I wasn't very pleased with the cocktail glass on the index finger (yes, that's what it is!) but the rest came out ok.  My favourite is the stars and dots.

And in the best 'showing the brush' tradition, here's what the nibs look like:

They feel a bit like a felt pen to use, and theres a ball bearing inside that rattles when you shake it up and down to mix up the lacquer inside.  You press the nibs in if you want to work more polish down onto the nib, but so far I haven't needed to do that, except for the first use. 

All in all, I like them.  They're definitely great for doing tiny dots with no fussing and worth owning just for that alone.  They didn't have very good reviews on Amazon, and if I'd read those before I got I the first one I wouldn't have bought them, so I'm glad it happened the way it did.  I just have to hope that a black and a white one are on special offer at some point!

I hope this helps someone who's been considering them, or just been interesting for you generally, am planning some cuticle and nail care product reviews soon, and will have some Essie swatching to do if I ever get a day when I'm off when there's some good light!  All to look forward to :-)

Until next time....

MASPOOASE  x x x
~Wendy~

Blair Witch Nailart for Halloween

Hi everyone, hope you are well

I had a ping of inspiration today!  I've still been enjoying my Collection 2000 All That Jazz nails which I blogged about yesterday, and was looking at them (as you do) and I had a really good idea for my halloween nails this year.  I usually disappoint myself because I can never come up with an idea that either a) hasn't been done already, or b) is creepy enough.  It's an amazing thing because pretty much the only films I watch are horror or sci-fi so you'd think I'd have loads of ideas! 

So anyway, for some reason the silver grey of the polish reminded me of the Blair Witch project, and that's where I started.  I checked about on google to see if it's already been done and I couldn't see it anywhere so hopefully I'm safe on that score.  If not, and someone has already done them who didn't come up on my search, apologies.

Also I apologise in advance if these photos aren't the usual quality, but it's dark outside and I was DYING to show you.  Tomorrow when it's daylight I'll take some more pictures and maybe replace these ones.

*EDIT* I've put the new pictures in as it's daylight now! Hope you like them

This is what I came up with:

Heres a pic outside in the daylight (yes I got carried away with the pics):

Heres the other hand, the trees didn't fare so well being drawn with my 'not so skilled' hand lol:

And heres what I used:

- For the base colour, Collection 2000 Hot Looks in All That Jazz
I sponged (yes sponged!) Maybelline Express finish in White Dream, both to represent moonlight coming through the trees, and to make my trees stand out better, it worked well I think
- White striping polish from Claires Accessories - it was NOT easy to draw a circle with it
- Black striping polish from Color Club that came in a collection
- Top coat of Seche Vite, I've thinned it down with some Seche Restore and it's less dentable now, which I'm glad about.

So there we have it, am really pleased with this, and I think I'll use the stick man as my avatar over halloween, he's super cool.

I hope you like it, let me know what you think! And oh, don't have nightmares :-)

Until next time.....

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Collection 2000 All That Jazz Review and Swatches

Hello again!

Today I bring to you a surprise new favourite of mine, Collection 2000's little stunner All That Jazz.  I was in Wilkinsons looking for some reds (if you've seen my cloud mani post you'll know why), and I just picked this up as a side thought, it was only cheap so I thought I would give it a try.

Anyhow, I only painted it on my little finger while I was watching TV, and I really loved it!  The formula is somehow runny but compliant, was opaque in one coat and pretty much self levelling, but as my nails are pretty ridgey, I've done 2 coats for these pictures.  These are all with no top coat, I got pretty carried away with the pictures, once again we go around the house and out into the garden haha:

 

As you'll be able to see on the close ups I did slightly mess up the cuticle area on my thumb, but I didn't have to do any clean up at all, the brush was a wide one but it didn't give me any problems whatsoever.  Here's some more pics:



 

It was pretty fast drying too, I only had it on for five minutes when I remembered that we were going out for lunch and I had to wash my hair!  I did get a couple of small dents but it held up pretty well, much better than alot of other polishes I've got.  And when we went out I realised that my nails were the same colour as other halfs' car! Ford Magnum Grey:

And of course I must show you a picture of the very obliging brush, even though the lid is rounded it still stood up which surprised me:





All in all, I'm very pleased with this, as I'm sure you can tell.  I don't own OPI's My Private Jet, but the swatches I've seen suggest that it might be similar, and for £1.50 who can complain!  If you see it in the shops I'd say snap it up!

 

Until next time.....

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~