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~

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 8 - Ornaments

Hi there again!

Hope you're doing fine, and that you're almost ready for Christmas, less thank a week now!  I've posted all my cards off, just got the wrapping to do, and it's all done, then I can relaaaaax.

Here we are at day 8 of the challenge!  Just 4 left to do, and today is ornaments.  I'm back to stamping today.  Here's what I came up with:

The base coat is Barry M Gelly in Blackberry.  I really liked the formula of this, this is one coat, and even without a topcoat it was really shiny.  It also dried pretty quick and was self levelling - fab!

I then used No.7 Stay Perfect in Disco Nights to stamp the ornament-y pattern using Bundle Monster plate BM314.  It stamps really nicely, but dries super quick, so you can't leave it on your stamper for long lining it up, you just have to get it on your nail sharpish!

Then on my middle finger accent nail I used Bundle Monster plate BM225 to stamp the bauble, and a bit of the first stamp across the edge of my nail because the bauble on its own looked a bit bare.  I used Sally Hansen Chrome polish in Ruby Chrome for the bauble.

Here's another pic, I found a prop lol:

Once again I've tried to shy away from traditional Christmassy colours, just to mix it up a bit, I think this combination works well.  Theres a coat of Seche over everything.

Just time for the close up:

Here's a reminder of what's left to come, only four left to go and my blog will go back to normal weekend posting (which will be a relief, probably for you too!):



So I'll be seeing you again on the 21st, with wreath nails, as long as the Mayans weren't on to something.  If it's my last day on earth I'll be too busy guzzling the G&T's!

 

Until next time (hopefully)...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~