Alternative French Manicure - my foray into nail art

Today I once again jumped at the chance to apply to be a reviewer on my favourite beauty blog Primped and as part of the application I had to talk about my favourite nail art trends.
While I generally adore nail art, I'm not so confident when it comes to doing it myself.
On the occasions I stray from my usual one tone, I just do a few coats of glitter etc on the ring fingers for added pop, but then get a bit intimidated and take it off and go back to boring.

But not today, I thought, today I will be fun! I decided to head down to my old haunt of Priceline in North Sydney and check out the Sally Hansen Nail Pens. A friend of mine had successfully given herself a lovely French manicure for a wedding while we watched TV, very foolproof!
After much deliberation I decided on a silver chrome one passing on the selection of white, black and red. When it doubt, go for the sparkly one.

When I returned to my desk to resume Internet browsing continue working hard, the allure of a new nail polish and my bare nails was too irresistible to resist waiting until I got home.
Sally Hansen have 2 versions, one with a fine tip for nail art and one with a thicker brush for doing the whole nail quickly and without the risk of spilling it all over the door trim in the car.
Guess which one I bought?
However not all was lost, after clicking the lid a million times a tiny sliver of polish came out and after a few more dozen clicks I managed to create a fairly neat line.

Once I got home I decided to try again this time with a nice pretty base colour.

I decided to use another Sally Hansen Polish, this time Insta-Dry in Petal Pusher with the pen for the tips.

I love the Insta-Dry, it has this amazing thick brush that makes even the most clumsy job turn out out pretty darn neat!

As I'd had a practise run at work, the second time doing the tips turned out ok, even amazingly on my right hand, which I suspected would turn out really dodge.

And the result;

Not bad at all! I'm not usually a fan of the French tips as its just way too girly for me, however the silver gives it just enough fun for weeks when I don't feel like a block colour or a special occasion.

Unfortunately the result isn't as shiny as I'd like as my new bottle of Seche Vite is still in the damn post. However overall, I'm really happy with the result. The silver has a nice chromed/silver leaf look. So in conclusion my first foray into nail art has been a success.

B x

P.s. please excuse the awful picture quality, maybe I should have gotten the iPad 3 after all...