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Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen and Corrector Pen Review
April 7th, 2010 | 
Author: Thought all my Gum Leaf Mafia Australian/NZ nail polish girls would be interested in this ^_^
Over here in Aus the range of Sally Hansen has up until now been rather scarce. Even though they’re stocked by a billion major chains the range usually only consist of a few nail treatments and maybe 2 of the light pink polishes. Imagine my surprise when I walked into Priceline to a whole new display of them *_*
There was a whole shelf of the Insta-dri’s in some pretty weird colours. They didn’t have the fluros which lovely Brooke sent me from the US but if these ones are anything like them I would definitely grab some if I had the money.
More interestingly they had some really pretty looking HD colours…
There was also a deal where if you bought anything from the lip/nail collection you could get one of the treatment pens for free… So I bought a light pink nail art pen for $13 and got a Corrector pen (which cost $16) for free…
While it looked like a good deal at the time here’s my review…
So nail art pen first. The best way I can describe this is it’s like a paint pen. It comes with a clear tip to begin with…
To get the colour out you have to press up and down on some paper a few times.
Colour of the tip:
I put a falsie on and did a base coat of and Opi white so I could see how opaque it was. Because the tip is super pointy and thin I thought I would be able to get a nice detailed stroke.
Not so much.
It’s more like trying to paint using the wrong end of a paint brush. When colouring with a normal felt pen you press the pen to the surface and it leaves a trail of pigment, when colouring with this it basically puts out a watery blob that you can sort of move around with the tip.
It did nice even dots very easily and the colour was very opaque straight out of the pen.
Unfortunately because it puts out such a huge amount of polish the drying time is a bit much. If you smudge it you end up with this:
Verdict: I don’t think it’s great for doing detailed work but for basics like dots and little designs it would be good. The drying time might be a turn off if you’re working on your natural nails. I think it’s not so great for the price though.
Ok now on to the corrector pen. The idea of it is just say you’d done a fantastic nail art design and then go to finish with a French tip and make a huuuuge mistake *o* rather than starting again you can just wipe away the mistake by drawing on it with the corrector pen. It comes with 3 different tips depending on the size of the mistake.
*Edit* A couple of you lovely readers have pointed out that the corrector pen is actually used for removing polish from the skin and cuticles if you make a mistake rather than polish mistakes on the nail. Firstly the pen was actually recommended to me by the clerk at Priceline with the nail art pen saying that it was great to use and clean up mistakes in nail art, so firstly fail on the clerk for not knowing what she was talking about and fail on me for not reading the package properly. I did actually test it out on the skin too but apparently when I was posting half asleep this morning I forgot to include that part of review, double fail on me!
Anyway on the skin/cuticles I found it to be a little bit pointless as it took quite a bit of effort to remove any polish rather than just mushing it into my skin and turning it purple. For a highly pigmented polish you would have to stop and clean the tip several times if you needed to clean more than one finger which I found frustrating and time consuming. I think for the price (assuming I hadn’t gotten it on sale) I would rather just use an orange stick with a little cotton and polish remover >_< */Edit*
Oh noes I made a huge mistake with dark purple nail polish what ever am I to do?!
Following the instructions I wiped over the mistake. The pen didn’t specify if the polish should be wet or dry when I used it. When removing wet polish it just kind of moved it around. To be honest you might as well use an orange stick covered in a tissue because it really just smudged everything. You can see the results below:
I let the remaining polish dry and then tried the pen again. All it seemed to do was scrape off polish layers and mush them around together. Results:
Verdict: I wouldn’t buy it. I tested it in several different situations and with different polishes etc and all it didn’t do anything different. I don’t think it would be useful for removing small mistakes without destroying the rest of the design. It’s a pity though because it’s such a good idea 
Next post is going to be a circle lens review 
Posted in Beauty, Nails, Review | 
Tags: brooke, expensive, Fail, light pink nail art pen, money, nail, Nail Art, nail art pen, nail art pen fail, nail pen, nail polish, Nails, price line, priceline, Review, sally hansen, sally hansen instra-dri, sally hansen review, using a nail art pen
I like the nail art pens for little flowers or dots or squigglies, but they can’t do anything detailed like stars or letters. Maybe a letter on each finger (your name has one to many letters though!)
Haha maybe I should shorten it to Vilet
I totally know what you mean about the pens, I do think they would be good for doing a whole heap of dots though *ideas forming*
I’m not really educated in the field of nail polish but I do appriciate the fine arts that you have made^^
When I 1st saw the word corrective pen I immediaately thought of papermate^^or as some of us here in Malaysia call liquid paper ;p
Thanks for the honest review, and naus we nose^^
Haha I can totally see why you would think of liquid paper with the corrector pens! No problems, glad to help!
I just love when people write on nails, it looks so nice and I like that it stays for a month. Kind of like a girly way to carve something into a tree or such…. <_<
Too bad both were subpar. I was wondering about the nail pens, too.
Yeah kind of bleh, I mean I do think it would be good for dots etc but I can do that without a $13 pen… I’m totally loving the writing on the nails too though, it’s totally sappy but I want to make set with mine/James’ names
Definitely a girly version of carving it into a tree!
Violet,
Love the review on the nail art pen, as for the corrector… I believe that it is to remove polish from your skin when you make a mistake and get soem on your cuticles. You might like it better =P
Claudia
Chromatic misadventures
Hi Claudia! Thanks so much for commenting ^_^ I did actually test it on the skin as well but completely spaced out when I was writing the review and forgot to add it! Feeling mighty silly right now and going back to add! Anyway on the skin I found it to be a little bit pointless as it took quite a bit of effort to remove any polish rather than just mushing it into my skin. I think for the price (assuming I hadn’t gotten it on sale) I would rather just use an orange stick with a little cotton and polish remover >_< That's just my opinion though!
Sally Hansen is big here. Most of the stores here have all 9 separate SH polish lines here, from the $2/bottle up to the $8.50 per bottle line. Gotta tell you not to waste your money on the SH nail art pens though. If you had kept your nail art and once dried, painted over it with clear, a bunch of cracks will appear in the nail art pen part. It really seemed like a good idea but they didn’t implement it well. It’s water-based, not a nail polish, and is supposed to be removable with water or alcohol if a design mistake was made and keep the underlying polish intact. Good idea in theory. If you can return it to the store to get your money back, run! Now, on the other hand the insta-dri polishes are great for konading/stamping and their clear is a great quick dry top coat. They don’t have any pthalates (unlike the konad special polish) which is why I sought them out. (embarrassingly I’ve got 21 of them) And that HD line – is pretty neat, if you wait until the fall holidays, you can get one of those mini multi packs of them for cheap – they’re really nice colors. Oh and the corrector pen is meant for removing polish on your finger skin right next to the cuticle, it’s not meant for the water-based nail art pen, it’s for nail polish removal. Ooh, I saw in the picture they had the Xtreme Wear line, you might want to keep an eye out for #35 In the Spotlight – it has tiny holo strips in it. That line is good for cheap colors for hand drawn nail art, using a separate tiny brush or toothpick. I couldn’t tell if the Diamond Strength line is in the photo, if they have those there are 2 I’d recommend from that line – the 05 Diamonds is a great to use over the nail with either white or dark blue french tips. And the clear in that line is a longer-lasting clear coat. Thanks for sharing your find with us!
Wow Jennifer thanks for such a big comment! Wow SH is super cheap where you are, here they *start* at like $8 per bottle >__< I'm going back to edit now!
Thanks so much for all your good recommendations! I'll definitely keep an eye out for the ones you mentioned but I think unless the prices come down a bit I'll stick to other brands that I know are great and a little less expensive ^_^
$8 for the cheapest SH there! Ouch! Okay, never mind any of my recommendations! Bummer! Most here are $2 or $4.
Yeah it’s ridiculous the cost of some brand polishes here, OPI are around $15-20 and I’ve seen them more expensive than that too
I feel like I should come to the US and buy a bunch of them cheap and sell them here reasonable prices! Australia is really over priced for some things 
Still for a really nice polish sometimes it’s nice to save up!
I had a white Sally Hansen nail pen once. After one try at using it I got rid of it. All I got from it was a watery mess of very see through nailpolish when I’m assuming it was intended for doing french manicures. I even tried pushing the tip in on a piece of paper to get more out and ended up with an even bigger mess. Fail.
I have one of those correcter thingies that I got from ebay for heaps cheap. I find it very useful for getting nail polish off from around my nails which inevitably happens when I do my nails. Sometimes it takes a bit of rubbing to get the nail polish off but especially when I’ve first pressed it down to get the remover to the tip it works really well.
Ah glad to see I’m not the only one with problems with the nail art pens! I think the corrector pen is a good idea in theory especially if it was *much* cheaper, at the current price I would much rather just use an orange stick with some remover on it ^_^
Hi dear!
The nail art pen is of a nice shade, but for the price it really does seem useles.. D:!
And the corrector pen, it’s great if you make mistakes on the skin, that is correct. I’ve had lots of them during the last year, since I get them from Essence (less than 3€ per one that has 3 tips more in the back). I used them a lot when I was learning how to apply nail polish correctly. It isn’t really that much time consuming, lets say that you’re waiting for a layer do dry a bit before you put on the top coat… Or lets say you’re waiting for the quick dry topcoat to dry.. in the meantime you could clen your cuticles, no?
Btw I wanted to ask you, what is that lovely nail art pen you used on the lace nail art tutorial? It has a lovely thin tip.. :o
Hello! Yep the nail art pen seems to be a big bunch of fail. The corrector pen I feel is useless for the price because you could just as easily use an orange stick with cotton on the end to clean up mistakes between coats, thats what I normally do and I find it much more cost/time effective because it has a thinner point for details and doesn’t require so much rubbing ^_^
The nail art pen from the lace tutorial is from The Face Shop and cost $8, they sell them in black and white. It’s not actually a pen, but rather a tube of polish with a really thin metal tube on the end, when you squeeze polish comes out
Hello! First time here, I found you via Mitsu @ universal-doll. I like your review of the nail art pens, I’ve been wondering how they work. Thanks! They would have definitely been an expensive mistake!
Also- You are SO CUTE!!!!! OMG. haha, but honestly! you’re make, hair and style are just sooo cute! Have a great day!
Hi Pauline! Aww thank you so much for coming to look at my blog, I’m really glad you like it
Your comment totally made me smile! Thank you so much <3
I bought the black one and was completely pissed off. It’s sitting with the rest of my nail stuff and it’s probably going to sit there for eternity. I was completely unsatisfied with the nail-art pen, it comes out too blotchy and thick and takes like 3 times as long as any nail polish takes to dry. I stick to using my little ‘dot tool’ which is basically a metal stick with a buln at the end (lol) and just whatever polish colour I desire. Thanks for the review, I’m glad someone agrees with me to some extent, it re-assures me that I’m not completely sloppy!
I wish they had that green polish colour here, They’ve got the blue and most other colours but I just cannot find a green polish in this god-forsaken town! Rimmel brought out a new-new line (their new one had a dark green) and it has the most PERFECT light kiwi-green! I’ve been scouring ebay for it hoping it shows up somewhere but no one knows wth I’m talking about lol. I ripped the advertisment out of cosmo and I keept it in my purse so people don’t think I’m making it up (they do, however, think I’m crazy for running around flashing a ripped up ad at them)
Man that sucks! Haha I have a “dotting tool” too, but mine is the back of my paint brush
I’m totally giggling at the thought of you dragging a magazine clipping around to make up stores! Mostly because that is totally something that I would do!! I actually have a Rimmel polish from a year ago that is super awesome, it’s kind of a sea green but in a different light it’s turquoise. Good luck on the hunt <3
I used to love that pen – haven’t seen it on the shelved in years!
I’ve had a couple of people say they used to use it a long time ago so I’m wondering if they changed the formula!
Violet LeBeaux- Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen and Corrector Pen Review |…
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