Nailene Skinny French Tip Pen

My review of the french tip pen from Nailene has been waiting For. Ever. I am a total slacker. Sorry! I have some swatches and a review now. I played around with this about two months ago so there are some pics from then, and then I used it last week for a mani so I have some pics of that for you too. Here we go!

This is the pen. It's supposed to make a self done french quick and easy. It comes with a mini bottle of top coat, which honestly, I didn't try! Oh no!

This is the tip before use. It look like it would be spongy, but it is actually very stiff. On the one had that is good because it allows for lots of control, but can cause issues. I think maybe it may have been better if it had a little more give.

So two months ago, this is the first swatch I did with it, with my dominant hand, free-hand, with no tip guides. Not bad huh? This is completely bare, no base, no top, no sheer pink.

Here is what it looked like after I threw on a coat of sheer pink.

And another.

Last week I needed a conservative mani so I decided to try this again. This is what it looked like with two coats of Essie - Jackie On My over it.

Not too shabby, right?!

So how easy is this to use? I think it is much easier than trying to free hand with a regular white nail polish, for sure. The issues I encountered were these:

1) This isn't entirely the pen's fault. It is mostly the user's, but I tried to use tip guides the second time around to seen if I could get a cleaner line, and I did just the opposite. I put all ten guides on and then did two coats of white, and then tried to take off the guides, and since the "polish" had dried, it pulled up when I took off the guides and I had to take it all off and start all over. I should have took off each guide after each nail was done so that the polish wasn't dried to the guide.

2) Some times the hard tip will prevent getting an even coverage because it "scratches" off what you have already painted. I found that I had good results if I got a good amount on the pen tip, and then when I painted, I essentially touched only the polish to my nail, and not the tip of the pen to the nail.

I would choose this product to do a french mani for these reasons:

1) The pen's style allows for much more control than painting with a regular nail polish brush.

2) It is much faster to use than painting with a brush.

3) The formula is very pigmented allowing for one coat, providing you are careful not to do the "scratch off" as mentioned above.

4) If you do have to do more than one coat, it doesn't result in a gloppy, thick tip like you would get if you tried to use regular NP. It is very thin, but it isn't water soluble like some other similar pen products I have tried before. It is still like a polish.

5) It is fast drying.

So overall, I would give this product a "B". I would definitely use this for a french manicure, but there are special requirements to get it to look flawless. If you don't have a steady hand, this may not give you the results you want, but you can use tip guides as long as you remove them immediately after painting each nail. It must be a good product if there are more pros than cons!

What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)


Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Nailene Artifical Nails Review

Hello all! I received some Nailene nails to review for you all and I really can't get them on without looking really dumb or without filing down my nails (which I am not willing to do) because my natural nails are longer than the press-ons. There is an exception to the rule, however, with my left index finger. This poor thing keeps having ridiculous breaks so it is shorter than everyone else. He just can't get on the same page. And I'm not left handed! I would think the right hand would have issues, but no. It's too bad too because I think my left index is my favorite when grown and shaped properly. (Yes, I have favorite individual nails! *Is weirdo*)

Anyway, these looked so cool I thought I would try on one on the lame nail to model for you. The style is "Starry Sky" and I really like these. They have a semi-transparent, milky, soft, french pink for the base and the tip is dark blue with bright blue glitter that looks a little iridescent. Really pretty.

Check out that close up! Awesomeness.

There are two more french manicure sets that I have to show you, but I couldn't bear going through more rounds of gluing and soaking so I just have shots off the hands:

These don't have a name just a number: 71000. They are your classic french manicure. I really like the way the white fades away with little dots rather than having a definitive line.

These are style number 77935. Again a classic french, but the base has a sparkly, crystal shimmer which I think is super pretty.

The glue that comes with these is mega strong. You won't have to worry about these nails not hanging on! Once they are on they aren't going to go anywhere!

The one thing I have to stress, and I know I will sound like a broken record: Use 100% acetone to get them off. Please. The glue is like super glue. If you rip them off, you will take your natural nails with it. These will not damage your natural nails if you use them right. Glue them on, wear them for about a week to 10 days tops, and soak, soak, soak in 100% acetone. Regular "acetone nail polish remover" is not strong enough. Get a little bowl, pour some 100% acetone in and soak for several minutes. Try 5 minutes at first, which should be good enough, and then scrape off the nails with an orange stick. They will be like a soft, gooey blob of plastic. If there is any glue still on the nail, soak a cotton ball with the acetone and remove the glue. Please remember this. The box says "soak in acetone remover" to get the nails off, as it seems all fake nail kits do, and that is misleading. Regular remover will not cut it. *end rant*

These can be found at retailers and drugstores where Nailene products are sold.

-What do you think?
Elaine
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Nailene Bedazzle Nail Decals

Hello everyone! Hope you are having a wonderful Friday and that you enjoyed my little joke post yesterday! April Fool's is so fun! I didn't get any major scams played on me, thank goodness.

I have had a really cute little mani on for the last few days and I thought I'd share. I was going to save this post until I did a few more test manis, but that probably isn't necessary and I just have to show you this.

This is NYX - Aurora, a mellow yellow shimmer, topped with the green flower decals. I have had this on for a couple days and I love it! And the flowers have held up great. Here are some pics of all the decals that come in this set:

The whole package. One thing I love about the package is that it is an easy open and resealable. So nice.

This is the sheet I got the flowers from. There are blue, sky blue, green and white. They also have a smidgen of iridescent glitter on them. I love these!

This sheet has pink and white decals in butterflies, stars, swirly things, and silver bullions.

This sheet has Greek letters and some sort of mythological pictures, maybe?

This sheet is all silver decals with a slight prismatic effect. There are stars, hearts, circles and moons. They remind me of stick-on earrings from when I was a kid.

Here are a couple other things I have done with these this past week:

This is the flower again on Color Club - Pucci-Licious. The other nails are Essie - Lilacism.

Here is the other hand from that mani. I used the silver bullions from the 2nd sheet. I love idea for this but I should have put on a topcoat to seal around the circles.

This is the flowers redone adding a shimmery sheer and topcoat. Notice how this looks more uniform and like the decals are really a part of this mani and not just a sticker ready to fall off. I had to redo the first one because I messed it up by not putting a topcoat on.

This is one of the pink butterflies over Revlon Streetwear - Drab. I thought the pink would make a nice contrast against the camouflage green. I think I was right! Again, should have put on a topcoat. It looks far too detached. And actually ending up cracking without a topcoat on.

Final Verdict: These definitely get a solid "A" from me. I love these! They are super cute and easy to use. It's just a sticker. Peel it off and put it on! The only negatives I found (and these are small) is just that they are brittle and will snap in half if you don't put on a topcoat. Plus they could catch things and peel off but this is easily remedied by putting on a topcoat. That's what I did for the yellow/green mani and its been holding on very well. The other negative is that the very small stickers can be a bit difficult to work with because they are tiny, but I remedied that. When I did the small silver circles I scraped them off the sheet and picked them up with an orange stick like I would do with rhinestones and positioned them where I wanted. Easy peasy.

You should be able to find these at drugstores and where Nailene products are sold. I believe they retail around $5-$6.

What do you think?

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.