One of the reasons why I’m not a huge nail polish user is because I need the polish to look perfect on and I don’t normally have the patience to sit around and wait for it to dry. In other words, I always end up smudging my polish.
Lo and behold – I hear about Mariane Newman Nails, a new innovation in polish. This polish is supposed to set in around 30 seconds, then you add a top coat which dries in about a minute. Dry. Finished. Done.
So even though it was quite an expensive £38 for three colours and two top coats (called ‘wrapture’), two nail polish remover sachets and two moisture sheets. I ordered it anyway:
First off, the website you order this from did something which is one of my pet hates – said they had something in stock when it wasn’t resulting in a weeks delay.
Anyway. These polishes come in a clicky pen, making it super easy to apply and in colours that say what they are on the tin – ie. The red, Gold Leaf, Plum, Pink etc. The swatches on the site aren’t brilliant though.
I ordered The Red, Gold Leaf and Midnight (a dark blue).
Inkredible is water based opaque solid colour – you can apply this to your skin because it will just wash off. It can wash off your nails too if you don’t use wrapture top coat on it. When it comes to removal use a normal nail polish remover.
To use the polish you have to shake the pen well, then click it so that the tip is evenly covered. Use a clean dry nail. Apply with dry quick strokes so it doesn’t streak – also it dries matte, similar to paint untill you decide to add the top coat.
I noticed with one of the pens (the red one) as soon as I gave it a little shake, it began to leak – a design fault perhaps but I wasn’t much amused since you don’t get lots of product as it is.
This is my very first attempt at application with the leaky red:
Slightly streaky, but I’ll put that down to the fact that it was my first go. 30 secs later, I touch it and…
Some was coming off and it took another min for it to dry down:
You can see how it dries like paint and some parts are still wet. My second finger was an improvement:
The finished fingers, matte:
After this, I was impressed by a few things – how opaque the pigment is and how easy the brush is to use. I didn’t like the streaking and I forsee a lot of practise before this is fixed because you need to judge the exact perfect amount to use. Also, its nature to touch up the nail but with this pen you need to apply once and let it dry- over touching up will ruin it.
This is with the wrapture top coat on – all shiny and glossy. This was actually a real pain to use because it tends to remove the polish when you apply it – you need to get the brush quite wet with the wrapture (after trying three colours out I have used half a wrapture pen up) and even after letting the polish dry for about 2 minutes I found it taking the colour off unless I was super gentle.
Next I tried the gold out:
I put a top coat on and did the washing – duh – some of it came off
Apparently they don’t recommend 2 coats as this will make the nail more prone to chipping. However, when the result is uneven, its tempting for us to put another coat on.
It’s difficult to pinpoint what I feel about this product…so let’s do pros and cons.
PROS
* Dries quickly, still much quicker than a conventional polish
* The pen is great for application
* The colours are opaque and you can paint some on top of the other
CONS
* It dries so quickly that it tends to streak…a lot
* You don’t get that much and…
* It’s expensive
* It tends to rub off when you add the top coat unless you let it dry for 5 mins
So I don’t know. At first I loved this product and wanted all the different colours but as I watched the pens disappear quickly and streak after various attempts I’m not sure that they would be my everyday polish. There is still something more hardwearing, I think, about a proper polish once it has dried than this one which will come off easily if you don’t cover it properly.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Gold leaf is very tempting! What a colour! But don’t you find pen nail polishes are generally tricky to apply? I had some a couple of years ago when they first came out in the big way and I always ended up making so much mess I’ve given up on them pretty quickly.
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They apply like water-based poster colours! You know, the kind that we used for painting when we were kids.
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Hey Medina!
I quite liked using a clicky pen for some reason it was just like painting, although I didn’t think it made it easier to touch up. They definately produce more waste, you know when you click click, and nothing seems to come out then about half the product just spurts out?!
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Hey Gwen!
Very much so – it dries like that too!
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If you have any issues/problems with the product we would be happy to address them. All comments made can be resolved
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Hi Jane
We will get in touch!
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