Nail Art Pens - Test Drive

 

Yesterday I got it in my mind to play around with my nail art pens and make some funky designs. 

 

 

Previously, I only had the Sally Hansen brand of pens in Black, White, Silver and Red.  Their performance has not been consistent (that's putting it nicely), and I could only seem to find those four colours in the stores, even though there are seven colours in their range.

 

 

I was frustrated that they didn't seem to have a Gold colour, and so I went out to find one.  I came across the 1000 Hour Nail Design Pen (comes in six colours, including Gold) and snaffled that up. 

 

 

Later, whilst wandering around Priceline, I found a Glamnails Manicare Nail Art Pen in Lilac Purple.  You may notice that the link for the Glamnails pens I've posted takes you to Priceline - it seems that the Glam by Manicare website doesn't have these pens listed on it (not that I could find, anyway), however, you can get some of the range in Priceline stores, and most of the range if you order them online through Priceline.  I say "most" of the range, because according to the Glamnails packaging, it says there are "12 designer shades" to choose from, however, the Priceline site only lists 11.  The mystery of the 12th shade!  I wonder what it is/was?!

 

 

Anyway, this is what each of the pens looks like (below):

 

 

For ease of use, I would put the 1000 Hour and the Glamnails pens way ahead of the Sally Hansen pens.  They all have a similar design in that you have to press the nib down a few times to get the polish flowing, and I think that's the trick of getting the pens to work consistently.  If you ink up your pen properly on first use, you shouldn't have any problems with it. 


Unfortunately, the Sally Hansen pens don't seem to want to ink up correctly for me.  When I finally got the polish flowing, it did so in a big puddle on the paper that I used to get the ink working instead of inking up the nib, so I was forced to soak the nib in the puddle of polish which resulted in my designs being uneven and patchy.


Regarding the other two pens, the polish seemed to flow fine once the nib was primed, and they were very easy to use.


Here's a few things I did yesterday with the pens.  Because I'm still learning and just playing, they're not perfect, but it's all a learning curve . . .


I started by painting my nails with Models Prefer - Skinny Leg Jean (a navy blue with an emerald green shimmer).

I then used the Glamnails NAP in Lilac Purple and drew a border around my nails.

 

Because I couldn't leave it alone, I drew another border inside the first one.



 

 

 

And finally, I thought I'd finish it off with a dot in the middle, et voila, nail art design finished.

 

On my right hand, I tried out the 1000 Hour NDP with a few different designs.  Even though it looks bumpy/patchy, it's only because I hadn't let the background polish dry properly on my nails before putting the pen over top.  That is the main rule with NAP's, the polish underneath absolutely needs to be completely dry first!

Okay, to be clear, there are a few rules with the NAP's:

1. Before you use the pen, there should be a base coat or polish on your nails first.  Don't use the pen directly on your nails, and try to keep it off your skin.
2. Your base coat or polish needs to be completely dry before you use the NAP's.
3. You will need to use a topcoat to protect your design - but wait until the NAP design is completely dry first.  The NAP's tend to wear off very easily without a topcoat.  The good thing is, if you stuff up your design, you should be able to wipe it off with a tiny bit of water on a cotton ball, without needing to completely strip all polish from your finger and start again.

Happy designing!


NN