Friday, May 1, 2009

Nic's Sticks By Nicole

I found one of these in the clearance bin when I was grocery shopping last week and decided to give it a try.

I am normally pretty skeptical of nail polish in pen form- I have tried to use them in the past with disastrous results.

I do trust Nicole to make good polish, and hey, it was on clearance! I had to see for myself.

The color I have is called "Baby Go Bye Bye." Ummm... Interesting name.


This is what a Nic's Stick looks like. It's a little fatter than an average Sharpie, but it really looks like a pen. I don't think anyone would suspect that it's nail polish if you had one at your desk. It has a cap that screws on so it can't come open accidentally and it has a little button at the opposite end for dispensing polish.


I was sort of shocked when I removed the cap. The brush is CRAZY!



Look at that. It's like a mop! It's huge and wild, bristles pointing in every direction. How am I supposed to apply polish with this thing?!


Despite all my doubts, that crazy brush applied polish extremely well. Near one-stroke coverage on every nail, no polish on the cuticles at all. It was like magic!

The color (Baby Go Bye Bye... I hate typing that... worse than ordering at Denny's!) is dispensed into the brush by pressing the button on the end. You hold the brush pointing downward and click the button three times. I couldn't see the polish coming out at first so I pressed it a few more times and ended up with a lot of polish. One click is enough to do all of your nails.

The polish itself is almost opaque in one coat. Almost being the key word. It is probably opaque enough for most people, but I needed it to be completely free of visible nail line.

This is where I had trouble.



Let's call that one and a half coats. You can see parts on the center of my nail where the polish isn't opaque.

Since the first coat was still a little sheer, I wanted to do a second coat. I had waited about three minutes since doing the first coat, so I assumed that would be more than enough time for the polish to dry enough to do a second coat.

I clicked the brush once to dispense a little more polish and then tried to paint each nail. The polish on the nail wasn't dry enough to not be disturbed by the brush. When the brush touched each nail, it wiped off all the polish that was on them! It's not soft or flexible enough to paint on wet nails like a regular polish brush would be.

I tried waiting for the polish to dry longer and tried again- I still had problems, so I just left them the way they were. That's what you see in the pictures.

The formula of the polish is very different than traditional polish. It's very thin and paint-like. It doesn't seem to dry on the brush and it flows very freely. It's almost watery, but not runny!

It took forever to dry for me. This is supposed to be a speedy, last-minute on the go type product, so I don't think the dry time is appropriate.

However, this could be a miracle product for a lot of people. For one, it's extremely fast to use. Click the pen, one swipe on each nail and you're done. If you want painted nails in a hurry and you don't want to deal with a messy bottle of polish, this is the way to go.

And maybe it's just the color I chose or maybe I'm too picky, but I can see this being a one coat polish. I think that if I had chosen a darker color it would have been. Maybe mine was just meant to be a sheer sky blue. I think red would have definitely been opaque in one coat. So, maybe bad color choice on my part.

Overall, I'm not totally impressed but I will still be keeping one of these in my purse for emergencies. I wouldn't paint my nails with this product every time I do a manicure, but I would definitely use it if I needed to paint my nails quickly and I didn't have all my 'equipment'. Perfect emergency polish. Keep one in your purse!

I do think the name is kinda funny. Nic Stick? Am I suppose to light one end of it?

18 comments:

  1. I love the color, but I agree the long dry time defeats the purpose of a polish pen.

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  2. Lol! The ordering at Denny's.

    Whenever I go there with a friend she orders the "Moon over My Hammy ... without the Hammy" and then I pretend I don't know her.

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  3. Aquay, yeah... maybe I got a bad one, someone else just told me that it dried really fast! Hmm =/

    AprilRobin, LOL!!

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  4. I always see these at target,and have considered buying them but was afraid they'd suck. I'm definitely going to get one though it seems very efficient in the case of emergency.

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  5. Anonymous, I liked the concept and the color I chose, but I'm going to pick up a few more and see if I have the same problems. :)

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  6. I have a Nic's Stick I got free from a Seventeen promotion. Mine is I'm Outta Here. Mine seems to dry quickly enough, so perhaps it's just that color that is troublesome? I like using it to paint my toes, but I wouldn't pay regular price for one. You only get .25 oz of polish in them for about $7, where as you can get .50 oz of Nicole bottle polish or OPI polish for a only a little more. You were wise to get it on clearance.

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  7. Did you have to clean the tip (acetone or polish remover) after use?

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  8. I've always been curious about these - thanks for the post!

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  9. This is just to answer Fudge's question. I used mine without cleaning the tip, and it still works fine. I just pop the cap back on when I am done.

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  10. YSL did a similar nail pen and it's funny you made this post because I discovered about this YSL pen about a couple of week ago. I found it interesting in the concept (paint your nail everywhere without trouble) but really questionnable. That's typically the type of object that pretend to be totally revolutionary but it always turn to only be one more gadget falling into forgetness because it will never be as great as what we've always known to have perfectly painted nails: the bottle and the brush. ;)

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  11. I kind of think those pens are odd to begin with. I'm glad to see your review of it though, because I've not wanted to purchase one but wanted to see what they were like.

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  12. Deb, yeah, I'm thinking I got a dud! I'll see if I can get another color that dries faster. Not very economical, I agree!

    Fudge, I didn't, I just wiped it on a paper towel when I was done, it seems to be okay... I'll have to see if it gets all dried up, but nothing on the instructions said you had to so I hope it's okay!

    Sprinkles, you're welcome (I have been too!)

    Deb, awesome thanks!

    Diable, I love your input! I saw those YSL pens and had been curious about them. I agree, bottle and brush is the way to go.

    Phyrra, curiosity always gets the best of me, haha :)

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  13. I have one of these in purple. I was disappointed because I thought it was going to be a creme, but it turned out to be a purple metallic. ANYHOW, I agree that it's hard to get full coverage that's opaque and non-streaky. Mine does dry quickly, however. I think it would work best if you need to do a quick pedicure because you don't want to expose bare toes, but you're not really planning to look at your toenails up close!
    -T

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  14. Witty/Pretty, oh yeah, super fast pedi, great idea! I will have to try another color to see how it is!

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  15. I used one of these of another brand and had the same issue, it was as if I was taking off all the polish I had just put on, AND when I went to open it up later, adding more polish to the brush end didn't help moisten the dried on polish from another use which made the brush very rough on the nails. I think I'll steer clear myself.

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  16. Arrowsflight, ah, yeah, same as this one! Boo!

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  17. i have one in carpool mama which ive had for close to a year. mine will apply multiple coats well and it dries fast-by the time ive finished my pinkie my thumb, index, and middle fingers are dry....im sorry you got a dud!

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  18. I got one of these in Silver-ella. Absolutely LOVED the colour but it didn't apply very well. It was really streaky and it would take the coat underneath off. Yes, I allowed it to fully dry before attempting another coat. Guess I got a bad one =\

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