I got this package in today of an assortment of two way nail art pen & brushes by Nail Star from South Korea — each one has a striper brush applicator and on the other end a sort of hollow pen-nib to dispense polish (like icing a cake where you need to be mindful of the amount of squeeze you’re applying but once you get that trick down it’s a cakewalk (oh yeah, that was punny, you’re welcome)).  AND since I’ve been sitting on the idea to do Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem based on these illustrations by Michael De Pippo, it seemed like this design might be a good chance to test out the applicators.

Kinda kicking myself for not picking these up before.

Not because the polish is great — it sucks if we’re being honest.  Remember those tubs of slime you could buy as a kid?  It’s sort of like that; it manages to be thick and stringy and seethrough at the same time… it’s got a snot consistency really.  So it goes on heavy without providing a solid cover, and globs up inexplicably as you’re using the brush.

Oh, and the brush… brush sucks too.  They’re all different sizes across the bottles, and while I was using the yellow one some of the bristles actually came right off on my nail.  A whole chunk, not just one stray bristle.

But you know what IS great?  The pen end.  Seriously, if I could buy this sort of applicator and fill it with all my favorite polishes I’m pretty sure I could throw away most of my nail art brushes.  Aside from the larger color fill sections, this was all done with the pen tip of the applicator.  It doesn’t behave the way a regular pen does where you can just press down and draw, but with a stippling effect I was able to pull and precisely-dot polish into areas that would make me cross-eyed using a brush.  And that, my lovelies, trumps the other two problems that would otherwise find this bag of polish in the trash.

The colors aren’t precisely on point to match the illustrations (there were only so many to choose from) and the dry time was way long (gave it over an hour before going in with the topcoat) but overall?  Psyched on the result.  From pinky to index you’ve got Zoot, Floyd Pepper, Janice and Dr. Teeth.

“Hey nerd, where’s ANIMAL??!!”  Oh don’t you worry, he’s got his very own manicure in the works — all that crazy can’t be contained in one nail!