Review: Pick-up pencils from Born Pretty Store

Hello!!

In a previous post, I mentioned that I'd found a tool at Born Pretty Store that helps me put on rhinestones, studs, etc....They were kind enough to include two of them for me in my review package. So I tried them out, and now I'm going to report on them for you!

Most of the time when I attach those sorts of embellishments, I use my dotting tool to put a dot of clear polish on my nail, and then use the same dotting tool to pick up the embellishment. Because there is still a little bit of polish left on the tool, it will pick up the embellishment easily, and you can place it on top of the dot of polish. The only potential problem with this method is that it will sometimes leave a little smudge of polish on top of your embellishment. This is no big deal if you're going to cover the whole nail and embellishment with topcoat; I usually do this anyway, as it helps the embellishment stay on as long as possible.

However, this is a pain in the tushie when you don't want to use topcoat for some reason; this tends to be the case for me if I'm doing a matte manicure, or using an embellishment that doesn't look good under topcoat (some rhinestones just end up looking blobby when covered with topcoat).  When I saw these pencils that pick up embellishments, I was intrigued, because I thought they might solve this problem:

The idea is that the material in the 'pencil' sticks gently to the embellishment, allowing you to pick it up and place it where you want it. The pencil comes unsharpened, and easily sharpens with any pencil sharpener.

For my test manicure, I started with my home-made base of China Glaze's OMG A UFO made into a textured polish:

Textured UFOs

Then, I turned it into a gradient with Galactic Grey (also China Glaze), but wanted to add a little bit of bling to the design. So, I took my pick-up pencil, and grabbed a stud from the stud set they sent me for review. First I put a dot of topcoat on the nail where I wanted to place the doughnut stud, and then I picked up the stud:

Select your stud

Touch the tip of the pencil to the stud gently but firmly, and lift the embellishment out of the container; it will adhere on its own:

Add caption

Position it over the nail, where you placed the dot of polish:

And finally, press the embellishment gently down on top of (and into) the dot of polish you have placed on your nail:

Here is the final look:

This worked really well for this because I didn't want to diminish the textured look of the base mani by putting topcoat over the embellishments.

Here are a few observations about this method:

1) Any time you don't put topcoat over your embellishment, it's going to pop off more easily. So use more polish to adhere the embellishment in the first place to keep it down.

2) Be careful when you are picking up your embellishment not to press down too hard with the pencil. If you do you can break off the tip, and/or your pencil can slip and you can scatter your embellishments everywhere.

I was surprised how well the embellishment adhered to the tip of the pencil; I've tried this with rhinestones and loose glitters also, and these work well, too.

However...when you're using this method, you're essentially using two tools instead of one. First you use your dotting tool to put a dot of polish on to your nail, then you put that down and pick up your pencil to get your embellishment placed. This is not a big deal at all, but it is a bit awkward and if you're not careful, you can accidentally stick your pencil into your polish, which sort of ruins the whole point of using it! So I prefer to use my dotting tool alone if I know I'm going to finish with topcoat anyway, and use the pencil when I know I'm not going to use topcoat. :)

I hope this was useful for you! You can find the pick-up pencils by clicking here and you can find the nail art studs by clicking here. And don't forget that you can use my discount to get 10% off of whatever you order:

click here!

As always, I am not affiliated with Born Pretty Store and I make no money if you click the links or order from them. :)

Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for reading!

Hugs,
M.

*The pencils and studs in this review were sent to me for a 100% honest review*