Essie Silk Watercolor Palette 1 Review with Nailart

Hi Guys!

How are you doing?  I'm back again, this time with a product review and a bit of nailart for you.

This Essie set was a super-kind gift from a work friend who has been to America on her hols.  She picked this up for me and I was intrigued!  As I've been out of the nailart scene for a while due to many changes in my home life I hadn't heard of this set and couldn't wait to try it.

I especially didn't Google it before I tried it, because I didn't want to go in with any preconceptions.  I have had Essie polishes before, which I have reviewed elsewhere in my blog, but have never really been blown away by any of the ones I have tried.  But this set looked like fun!

So here's what I got:

I like the look of the packaging, and as you can see, there is a standard sized bottle of white basecoat, called White Page, and 3 minis of the watercolor polishes, a yellow called "muse, myself", a pink called "love sheen", and a purple called "no shrinking violet".

On the back of the pack is the instructions on how to use them.  Apologies for the light shining on the box:

I decided not to go with the design they suggested, as I wanted mine to look a bit more random.

I started by applying White Page.  This is one coat:

As you can see, it was a bit streaky.  It dried to a sheen rather than a shine.  If it was wall paint, think "eggshell".  I applied another coat after this.  It was reasonably fast drying, and by the time i'd done both hands, I didn't have long to wait before I could start again on the first nail.

Then I went on to randomly blob on No Shrinking Violet.  I did do them in the order suggested on the box, just in case there was a reason for that:

As you can see, very random.  I didn't go OTT with the first colour, because I wanted to leave room for the others.

Then on with Love Sheen:

Again just random blobs.  Was expecting a bit more merging between the two, but was pleased that the pink didn't completely obscure the purple.

Next on with the last colour, Muse, Myself.  Not sure why it's called that, I'm guessing some kind of pun on amuse myself:

Sorry for the blurry pic here, I'm guessing it was getting too dark by that time.  However when I went outside to take a better one, I dented my middle finger on the door **CRIES**:

So there we go, that was all of the colours on.  I was a little bit underwhelmed at first, but actually as the day went on, I got quite attached to it.  The colours really complemented each other, and in different lights there were different effects.

OBVIOUSLY I was not satisfied to stop at this, so I decided to stamp over it.  I went with GALS stamping plate GA22:

I went with the sun image on the right hand side of the plate.

And here we have how it came out:

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Yes, I can hardly see it either!  I have no idea why it came out so pale.  It was fine on the stamper, and I tried both Konad stamping polish, and OPI Alpine Snow, which I've successfully stamped with before, and had the same result with both. 

Here's a picture in different lighting.  You can "kind of" see it here:

This isn't to say that I don't like it.  As Bob Ross would have said, it's a "happy accident".  I like the mixed up look of it, but it definitely isn't what I expected, or aimed for.

As I always do (when I remember), here is a pic of the brushes.  Weirdly the brush in the mini is larger than the brush in the full size polish:

So what did I think?

Obviously as this was a present I don't know what it cost, but knowing the cost of Essies, I'm guessing it was mid-range.  A bit more than Rimmels, but a bit less than OPI's.  

It does have a lot of potential, and I will experiment more with it.  However, I haven't been blown away I'm sorry to say.  I know that the colours are intended to be sheer, but for me, they were a little *too* wishy-washy.  Even over white, the yellow is very subtle.

It does however create a lovely girly pastel look, and with some holo glitter and a bit more imagination on my part, this set could really make something incredible (and I'm sure some people have done so).

In summary, it was a kind wonderful gift from a lovely person, and although I haven't got the best out of it on my first try, I am sure that I will have something better to show you in the future.

Thanks for reading, and until next time...

MASPOOASE
xx Wendy xx

Orange and White nail art

Hi there!

Hope you're having a great start to your weekend.  Today should have been my first lie in for 12 days, so typically I woke up at 6.20am and couldn't get back to sleep!  I lay there with my eyes open for about half an hour, and eventually gave up and decided to get up.  And of course I've spent those extra hours productively, by painting my nails.

Ever since I did the L'Oreal Masquintense review (link here) I haven't been able to get the orange and white packaging out of my head.  So I've known what colours todays manicure was going to be all week.  I wasn't sure whether to do dots, stripes, or stamping though.  As my last couple of nail art posts have been stripes, and I wasn't really feeling dots today, I decided to go with stamping.  I picked a swirly image from Cheeky plate B, which I bought from Amazon, here's the link if you want to buy it, it's priced at £6.99.  The images stamp well, and it's good that there are 42 images on the plate, but I'm not sure I'd use all of them.  However I'm using one today!

For my white base, I wasn't sure whether to use OPI's Alpine Snow, or OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  I did a comparison on the two here but in the end I decided to go for My Boyfriend Scales Walls due to its better formula.  This means that I'll probably end up never using Alpine Snow as a base coat again, but it does come in handy for dotting etc.


Then I got out my oranges to see which ones stamped best.  In the end it was a toss up between two.   Essies Orange It's Obvious, which you can see here  and Color Clubs Wham Pow.  The Color Club is more neon though, so it won.

And here's what I ended up with:

It's not perfect, but I like it!  It's actually more neon than it shows in this pic, but still wearable.  Nice and jolly, which is always a good thing.

Here's another pic, closer up this time:

As you can see, I smudged the middle finger, and took a chunk out of my base coat at the cuticle on the same finger.  I also missed a spot on my little finger, but, hey, you get the idea!  I'll stop picking holes in my manicure now haha.

And here's how it looks to the outside world, seeing as I obviously don't go around holding a bottle of polish in my hand all the time (actually, I'm not sure that's really true...):

I like it because to me it looks like water marbling, without any of the mess.  I love how marbling looks, but I just can't bring myself to dunk my whole finger in a sheet of suspended polish and then spend time cleaning it back off again. 

I like this stamping design more than I thought I would.  I have a feeling you'll be seeing it a few times this summer, in different colours, and maybe gradients too.  Hopefully a bit more tidily done than this one!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Sci Fi Nail Art

Hi everyone!

Hope you're enjoying your Saturday, and are keeping nice and warm?  The roads all around my house have been closed today because of the snow, so I've been stranded in!  So instead of going out doing shopping and visiting the Post Office as I'd planned, I've been confined to the house.  That doesn't mean it's been a wasted day though, I've painted a picture, and have been doing some nail art too, so it's all good.

Not long ago, I saw this post from Work, Play, Polish (link) about Star Trek uniform nailart, and I couldn't get it out of my head.  I asked her if it was ok to have a go myself, and she kindly said yes it was fine.  Actually what I ended up with wasn't exactly the same as hers, and not as neat or nice, but I'm still pretty pleased with it.  Please excuse my middle finger cuticle, I nibbled at it in a fit of gin inspired (ginspired?) madness,  I've tried to blur it with my photo software so you don't have to look at it.

So here's the manicure:

After applying my basecoat, I applied Maybelline Express Finish in Cherry, which I blogged about (here) just one coat needed.  The blue is Nails Inc's Ebury Bridge, which you can see more of  (here) and the yellow is Collection 2000's Lemon Soda.

Then I marked off the bottom section of my nails using gridding tape, which I prefer to striping tape even though it's more expensive because it's less curly, and painted the bottom of my nails using the black from the Simple Pleasures scented halloween set which I reviewed last year (link)

Finally I used Rimmels silver polish Your Majesty and a dotting tool to make the badges and I was done.  I think they came out OK.

So this got me thinking of other sci-fi nail art looks.  I've already done one on the daleks (link) which looked like this:

The base for this manicure is Jessica's holo polish Disco Diva, and this mani looked awesome in the sun.

So, back to today.  I decided I wanted to do some batman nails, so off to the internet I went.  I found two sources of inspiration.  This post from appletosh (link) and this youtube video by pixiepolish (link)

It didn't come out brilliantly, but it was a bit of an experiment.  In her video pixiepolish paints using acrylic paint and a cocktail stick.  I've never done this before, I usually use small brushes, but she made it look pretty easy so I thought I'd have a go.  As usual with YouTube, it looked easy only because she's reeeeaaaally good at it haha.

So here's what I ended up with:

As you can see, my thumb is lumpy bumpy, even with a thick coat of Seche on, and my Seche picked up some of the black paint when it smudged the thumb and dotted it all over my manicure.  I've had better nailart attempts haha.

However, strangely, I'm still quite pleased with it!  I think the ring finger came out really well, this is the second attempt at that, the first one was so rubbish I actually took it off and started again.  On the tutorial I saw, they painted his face on the bottom half of the nail, but I preferred it without.

If you ignore the thumb, it looks pretty good:

This is one manicure I'd like to try again, and get neater, because I think it's pretty ace.  Batman is too cool.

So there we go, three different ideas you can try.  Which is your favourite?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Mid Browns - Nails Inc Ganton Street Vs Jessica Guilty Pleasures

I have decided that fate doesn't want me to blog about nail polish at the moment. 

Because of my pesky ongoing achilles tendon problems, I have to have physiotherapy on a Thursday afternoon. 

Because I don't have enough annual leave left for my hospital appointments, I'm having to work on Saturday morning instead to make my hours up.  This is so INCONVENIENT!  Guys and girls who regularly work at the weekends, you have my undying admiration.  I just feel like theres no time to do anything. 

Also, because I'm working on the Saturday, I can't have my usual swatch-a-thon on Friday night.... so all in all it's a right royal pain in the behind.

Well, here's two fingers up to fate, because I've managed to do it anyway!  You may know that I'm craving a dark brown nail polish right now, but with the aforementioned problems I've had to resort to just mooning over web swatches and wishing for things to get back to normal. 

I decided to look through my polishes to check what browns I actually do have, in case I already had one (I didn't but you never know until you look!), but I did find two mid brown polishes which were virtually identical, and similarly priced, so I thought you might be interested in seeing a comparison.  They are, as the post title suggests, Nails Inc Ganton Street and Jessica's Guilty Pleasures.  For a change I will start with the brush & bottle shot:

There you see, pretty similar, right?  The Jessica is a tad warmer, but very similar all the same.  Apologies about the dark corner on the picture, with Autumn setting in it's getting harder and harder to find bright places to put things...

So onto the swatches, I found the best place to show the difference was under the trusty LED craft light.  All pics are two coats with no topcoat.  Nails Inc on left 2 fingers:

Then, amazingly, the sun came out for a moment:

Then it went back in.  So here's a pic in shaded light:

Application wise, there's hardly anything to pick between them either.  If you've used Nails Inc before, this is their usual creme formula, which I like as it's got good coverage and is pretty quick drying.  The Jessica was a teeny tiny bit more sheer on first coat, but by coat two they looked the same coverage-wise.  I preferred the Nails Inc brush, because the Jessica one was a tad softer so therefore not quite as easy to work with, but I really am splitting hairs (LOL) here.

Out of the two, it was the Nails Inc I chose to put on afterwards, it's a Malteser brown, and somehow for a darker colour it seems quite work appropriate, which is good.  Unless of course, you do what I did and put nail art all over it haha.  It didn't exactly work, but I liked the colour scheme:

The Jessica has 14.8ml in and the Nails Inc has 10ml in.  Nails Inc polishes cost £11 and Jessica Polishes cost around a tenner, but I have seen both cheaper on Ebay.  So mil for mil the Jessica is probably better value, but if you're willing to spend more than £10 on a polish that doesn't really matter so much to you.

So there you go!  Formulation and application are both pretty much the same so it just comes down to the tint you like the best.  Hopefully this will prove helpful to someone!

Until next time.....

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Barry M Gelly Nail Polish in Olive review plus freehand lace nailart

Woot!  I found some mojo! It's been a long time people, and good to be back.  What an up and down few months I've had. It's certainly true what they say about not fully appreciating your good health until you don't have it.  However, things are looking up now and so I've got room in my brain for the fun stuff.  So OBVS I've gone straight to my finger ends :-)

I've hardly bought any polish these last few months (I knowwwww), and have spent most of my time with just strengthener on them.  My cuticles are awful due to a dermatitis attack, despite constant moisturing I'm pretty sure I'll have to photoshop at least a couple of fingers to prevent my post looking like an episode of Casualty haha.

On a happier note I reached 100,000 pageviews yay!  Actually it's a bit past that, but for some reason I can't fathom, one of my Feelgood Friday posts is getting ALOT of love.  It must be linked somewhere in somebody populars' blog, but because I can't work Google Analytics properly I'll never know.  So I'm not counting the pageviews from that one post, because it makes me look much more popular than I actually am.

So, I went out shopping today and some new Barry M Gellys caught my eye.  I'm always on the lookout for pale green polishes and GNP23 Olive fits that bill perfectly.  A washed out khaki that reminds me very much of Essies Navigate Her, which I loved the colour of, but hated the formula.  I would do a comparison post for you, but am pretty sure I gave Navigate Her away.

So how was it I hear you ask?  Well, here's how the colour looks:

As you can see, a pale grey/green.

Here's the full hand swatch.  It has a coat of HK Girl Glisten & Glow topcoat on it as I forgot to take a picture before I applied it, doh!  It was the usual Gelly shiny finish though.

It's looking slightly more greyed out here than it looks in real life, and it is flattering to my skin tone.  I used two coats, but you could definitely get away with one thickish one if you're using a fast dry topcoat over it.  Dry time was pretty fast, and I didn't have any problem with the formula.  Nice and smooth, and no bubbles, lovely.

But of course, due to the aforementioned return of the mojo, I couldn't just leave them all blank and sensible.  So I went to YouTube to look for some inspiration.  I found some in the form of this video http://youtu.be/yC3P3pIrR3o by LNETSA for some lovely lace nails.  Keeping with the Barry M theme, I used their nail art pen, which I reviewed in full (here)

And this is what I came up with:

I'm really pleased with how they came out, considering they didn't take much time at all, and I'm considering doing a step by step tutorial for them, if anyone would be interested?

As you can see in the background, the bluebells are back out in the garden and I couldn't resist giving them a part in the show:

How gorgeous are they?  And they smell divine.  They really do make something simple like walking up the garden path a pleasure.  Yes, I do stop to smell the flowers, I think we all should whenever we can.  How are your gardens going, do you have flowers out yet?

And finally, back to the polish, here's the brush shot:

This is probably the most accurate picture colour wise, and I would say it has dried to half a shade richer on my nails.  As I said, I had no problems with application and I'm very pleased with it.  I can see it becoming a regular for me.

I paid £3.99 in Superdrug, and because they had a 3 for 2 offer on, I got it a little bit cheaper than that.  In fact I didn't realise about the offer until I already had two things in my hand, so I felt like I got a bonus freebie.

So what do you think, is it a colour or design you'd go for? 

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Top Ten Nail Art 2013

And so we say goodbye to 2013.  It's been a pretty boring year for me, and looking back at last years New Year blog post, I see the year before was too.  Hmm should probably do something about that.

I managed to keep off the ciggies for another year though, which is a success.  On New Years' Day, I will be two years quit.  £2,800 saved.  WHERE'S THAT MONEY??  Haha, I must have spent it on something I suppose!  Books and CD's, probably.

So how did I do on my resolutions?
 
Decide what I want to do with my life, and do something about it. - Nope, didn't do that
 
Do something with my hair and eyebrows. - Hair yes, eyebrows nope

Get more organised. - Definitely didn't do that one
 
Start a creative thoughts, dreams and blog idea notebook. - Nope
 
Carry on the healthy eating. - Yes for most of the year, failed in Sept/Oct.  Weight back on.
 
So, in all, not very well.  I'll carry them forward and use them as this years resolutions.
 
Aaaannywayyy.... let's get on with the run down of my favourites of the nailart I've done this year.  I'll put them in order of date, and then none will get jealous haha.
 
Oh, just as a sidenote, there were two I couldn't choose between, so there are actually 11 here....
 
First we have a stamping design using Essie's Borrowed and Blue over Pretty Jelly's Grape escape:

You can see the full post (here) I was really surprised at how well the Essie stamped

Next we have another Pretty Jelly polish used as a base, Diamond S-teal-er, with a dotting tool used to create the daisies:

I love Pretty Jelly holos.  Link to the full post is (here).  In the sunshine this one's a real bobby dazzler.  Too much daytime TV Wendy?

Next up we have a sponged gradient inspired by a friends art:

I was so much in love with this when I did it, I can't even begin to tell you.  Link to the full post is (here)

Now, we're getting into spring, and a flowery look happened that I loved:

The link to this post, which includes a tutorial, can be found (here)

 

Next, another outing for Grape Escape, been rocking those Pretty Jellys this year!  This time I teamed it with Estee Lauders Pure Colour Smashed, which I didn't like on its own, but has been fab for doing nailart with:

The link for this one can be found (here) I think its bold simplicity is part of the reason I liked it so much

 

Next up, more holos!  A stamped/freehand combo:

Gotta love that rainbow nails look!  Link to the post is (here)

Now for another one.  This one completely freehand:

The post for this one also included a tutorial, and can be found (here)

Getting in to the summer now, and this one is probably my favourite of the year.  Inspired by a beautiful chair by Joris Laarman:

The organic look really appeals to me, and the colour came out just how I wanted.  There's a picture of the chair that inspired it on the original blog post (here)

Next up, one that other people seemed to like more than I did.  I've included it just because it got so many positive comments:

The link to this post can be found (here) along with a mini tutorial

Next up, probably my second favourite of the year.  A freehand/nail sticker combo for Alice in Wonderland:

Link to the full post is (here) and that's not the Cheshire Cats body, he's mid-disappearance on a branch hee hee.

And last but not least, more flowers. Bright and cheery:

The link for that post is (here)
 
And there we have it!  My 2013 in nails.

I hope you've enjoyed my stroll through nostalgia land, and thank you for joining my nailscapades in 2013.

I wish you all the best for 2014, lets make every day colourful!

Until next year,

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Christmas Nailart - Artsy Wednesday

Finally!  Better late than never, here I am with my Artsy Wednesday post, which should have gone up on Christmas Day.  I actually did have these nails done on the big day, but I feel like I haven't had a moment to myself to put them on the blog.  I kind of lost my nail mojo for a while there, but thankfully it's coming back now. 

I've had a lovely Christmas, FAR too much indulgence, but will be back on the wagon in the new year (that's the plan anyway).  I actually didn't get much in the way of nail presents, just four No.7's in a gift box, and some manicure items from my mum, but that just gives me all the more reason to buy my own hee hee.

I've been nursing a split on my middle finger.  It went above the nail line and I've been babying it along until it grew out enough to cut off without including my actual finger in the operation, so you will see a lump there where I've been gluing it.  It's come off now, and that nail is super short, so it'll be a left hander for the new years nails.  Which means stamping probably.

The best glue I've found so far for nail splits is Loctite Superglue Power Flex Control. Here's the Amazon LINK to the one I have.  The lid doesn't get stuck on, polish remover doesn't take it off too easily, and it's lasted a good 3 or four days on me before I have to reglue.  Plus, as I keep it in my handbag, it's a hard tube so it doesn't get squished.  You have to squeeze the grey handles at the side to get the glue out, and it comes out nice and slowly.  I like alot.

So, for my Christmas nails, I fancied something glittery.  I own quite a few glitter polishes, but hardly wear them as I hate the removal.  But for Christmas, I don't mind a bit of extra work.  I eventually decided on a cloud manicure of festive red, gold and green.  As chance would have it, I own all three colours in China Glaze glitter polishes.  So I went with those.  Here's what I made:

I started with a base of the green glitter Running In Circles.  Just one coat needed, but I did touch up a few slightly bare areas at the end, so I should probably have done two coats.

Then I did the cloud detail in red, which is of course, Ruby Pumps.  This is a really easy technique, just three swipes of the brush, straight out of the bottle at different heights.  Being over the green darkened it a bit, bit it was still bright enough to look like red, so that was okay.

Then, over that, I used I'm not Lion, which is a holographic gold, which I love.  Same technique, three swipes.

Here's the bottle shot:

On top of that, I used Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat, which has had some brilliant reviews, but I haven't used enough yet to form my own opinion on.  It certainly get marks for wear though, because after three days I had almost no chipping, which is a first for me.  It could be just because it was on top of glitters?  More on that as I find out myself.

I took a few more pics of the mani, so I may as well show them to you.  Here's the first.  Bauble-tastic:

And here's the other.  Traditional close up bottle shot.  You can see the lump on the left of my middle nail quite clearly there, down by the red section:

And that's my lot!  Christmas nails, done.  Have a ganders (goose pun intended) at what the other beauties in the Artsy Wednesday Club have come up with:

Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)

Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)

Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)

So what did you have on your nails this year? 

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Artsy Wednesday - Geometric Nail Art

Another Wednesday, another nailart! This weeks theme is geometric, and I'm keeping it simple.  I shopped like a BOSS last weekend and got all my Christmas shopping done, how cool is that?  Now I have to wrap it all and get it sent off, which is probably more effort than buying it.  I'm not complaining though, I'll pour myself a G&T and put some music on, and it'll be soon done and dusted.

I feel like I don't have five minutes to myself recently, so I just rustled these up in a jiffy.  The base is Maybelline Express Finish in Silver Speed, which is my go-to silver.  This is two coats and it really is nice and fast drying.

I had better show you a picture!  Here you go:

I created black triangles at my cuticles with my new Barry M Nailart Pen, which for some reason seemed to be in the mood to turn itself into a crackle effect polish.  Not liking that.  I don't know if it's because I hadn't waited for the base coat to fully dry, but it's something I'll have to watch to see if it does it alot.

Here's a pic in more natural light (that lifelong winter lighting problem):

Then I used my Color Club Artclub red striper to draw a line under the black block.  I have to say that the quality of the Color Club stripers are fab, I got mine in a set from TK Maxx (of course) but I've seen them on Amazon for around a fiver including delivery (link)

I was going to do more to it, but I actually like the simplicity of this.  It was fast and easy, and it reminds me of the 80's styles, which is all the more reason for me to like it. 

I have a split on the edge of the nail on my ring finger (bah) which means I'll have to go back down to shorties soon, but I've had a super-long run without any breakages at all so I can't complain.  Actually it's my own fault, as I had a week off the perfect formula strengthener, and now the split.  I got a bit too lax, oh well.

One more pic.  This one under the kitchen light.  It really shows that crackling I was telling you about earlier:

I've actually done my first Christmas nailart design of the year too, I'll pop the photos up for you soon to have a gander at.

But until then, why not take a look at the geometric designs that the other lovely Artsy Wednesday ladies have come up with?

Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)

Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)

Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked it!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Artsy Wednesday - Polka Dots with Barry M Nail Art Pen Review

Really?  Last minute rush again, me?  I'm so glad this weeks challenge is polka dots, as they're quick and easy.  Also I've been itching to give my new Barry M nailart pens a go, and let you know what I think.  I looked up the definition of polka dot on Google, and it said 'a regular pattern of round dots, usually on fabric'.  Which actually changed my idea of what to do, as my orginal pattern wasn't going to be at all regular.  Good old Google.

I got these nailart pens last weekend when I was *supposed* to be Christmas shopping.  I ended up bringing more home for myself than I did for friends and family, oops!  Happily my TK Maxx are getting their polish stocks back up for the festivities, but nothing really shouted 'buy me' this time.  I'm happy to see that they're starting to sell individual polishes in there too, because all too often I'll have to buy a set of three just to get one colour I want.  There were L'Oreal polishes in Poundland though, and I picked a couple of those up. 

I did make a start though.  One person has a present haha.

So, back to the nails.  I started with a base of Nails Inc's Bruton Street.  I like this colour, it's a pretty neutral dusky pink that's most definitely safe for work, while managing to be at least a bit interesting.

Also flattering to my skintone and with great opacity, I've only used one coat here.  It's an all round winner for me.  I did somehow manage to apply it a bit unevenly on the end of my ring finger, but that's my fault for rushing, not the polish formulation.

So here's a picture of what I did:

I was really impressed with the Barry M Nail Art Pens.  The polish flowed neatly out of them, and they were incredibly precise.  As you can see, I managed to do teeny weeny dots, and it took no time at all.

Here's a pic of the nibs, they're not like traditional felt tips, they're sort of a hard plastic, but lovely and smooth to use:

The one thing I did notice is that when I tried to do stripes with them, my initial line went slightly thinner as it dried, and sometimes I had to do over it twice to get the thickness I wanted.  That didn't bother me too much though, and as you can see it worked brilliantly for dots.

Here's what the full pens look like:

The nailart pens also came in pink and silver, but I didn't buy those.  They were £4.99 each in Superdrug, and at the moment they are having a 3-for-2 offer, so you could pick up 3 at a good price if you're quick.

One last picture of the nails:

So, there we go, I was really pleased with the quality of the Barry M Nailart Pens, and would definitely recommend them. They're quick, easy, and mess free.

Don't forget to check out what the rest of this weeks dotty ladies have to offer:

Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)

Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)

Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)

So, have you tried the Barry M pens?  Did you like them as much as me?  Are you a fan of dotty nails?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~