I was in the CVS the other day and I happened to see the new Sally Hansen pens in chrome. Normally, I don’t pay too much attention to nail pens but the chrome caught my attention. I picked one up, curious as to how well it would work.
I pulled this out to do a test swatch and all of a sudden with the first stroke to the nail, the thick brush made me realize I had been here before – different day, different color, same epiphany. What can I say, I’m getting older and I have to do things twice to remember them.
While the actual result isn’t that bad, this nifty concept has several flaws for a hard core polish lover. I would imagine the great compact nature of this polish would be for instances such as “oh, I’m going to happy hour after work and I need to put on some polish!” or “oh my, my nails look rough, let me touch up my polish!” and lo & behold, a polish pen in the purse would work miracles. In the spirit of this concept, the swatch displayed is a one coater with no top coat, no basecoat, no touch up. To it’s credit, one coat was all it needed. Good coverage, albiet with a stiff and unweildy brush.
However…
For all its compactness, I would never do a mani without a basecoat (hello – staining?). It’s rare I’d do one without a top coat. And it’s only every 10th blue moon when I don’t already have a color on.
This means that I’d have to carry around a topcoat, basecoat, remover and if I just wanted it for touch ups, I’d also have to own a pen in every color that I already own (impossible!). This makes it much less compact than the original concept and it also makes it cost prohibitive. These pens run around $8 for .135oz of polish. That’s steep. Per ounce, that’s over 7x the amount I pay for OPI. Over 14x the amount I pay for China Glaze.
For the record, I actually have polish remover pads, a topcoat, a basecoat and 3 different colors at work. If ever I have a happy hour come up unexpectedly during a blue moon, I’ll be going with a real mani.
9 Comments
Konad the crap out of it!
What would be REALLY awesome is to be able to buy little empty np pens, so we could decant a bit of our own polish into it for touch-ups. granted, i could just decant a bit into a mini-bottle, but that would be way less gimmicky and thus less awesome.
Lindsey, See, now that I could get very excited about!
I have a few of the Nicole ones and they came in handy after my surgery whist I wasn’t as mobile. They were also great for traveling, so I could carry many different shades without adding too much weight from bottles. I’ve done my nails as a passenger in a car too. That was convenient!
My sister-in-law bought one and I tried it and hated it instantly! The brush was really hard to work with.
P.S. I have have remover pads, remover and top coats stashed in my desk at work as well
Jackie – LMAO! Then I iz not alone! =D
Thanks for the giggle! I saw these recently also and the chrome had me actually consider picking one up for a split second. I thought better of it though and am glad I did. I’m like you – I ALWAYS need at *least* a basecoat and the wonky brushes in these things would likely mean that it would take me longer to paint my nails while trying to struggle with that brush than it would with a regular np. (Btw, I love your blog – your swatches are the BEST!)
Hmmm…I wonder if these would be good for Konading?
Chrissy, Yes, the brushes leave a bit to be desired. =P I’m glad you’re enjoying the site!
Dulcet – The chrome pens probably would work for Konad, but that’s a hefty price tag compared to, say, the China Glaze Chromes.