What I think of: Essence Nail Art DUO Stylist

As I mentioned before I am having a blast doing my nails.  I used to be a “I can’t possibly wear nail polish” kind of person but now I am thoroughly enjoying every minute.  I am however still a beginner and certainly not a photographer so no comments on the quality of any photo’s or the quality of the nail work please.  😛

I love making polka dots and until recently I have been using a toothpick to do this.  Toothpicks work well and I had no problems with using this but I have been seeing loads of people talk about a “dotting tool”. The other day I managed to find the Essence Nail Art Duo Stylist.

This little tool is awesome!  One end is slightly smaller than the other. (Photo’s below) and it fits perfectly in your hand.  Even though the toothpick worked fine for me this definitely make it so much easier.  Because it is longer and sturdier in your hand you have more control.  Also, being right handed I always struggle to use my left hand to pain the right.  Not to mention making dots.  This helped so much with that because it was sturdy and solid.

Even though my dots did not come out perfectly it is no reflection on this little tool.  I am still new at this and as I am finding my feet this tool has made it so much easier.  The amazing this is that this tool is not JUST for polka dots.  On the packaging “DUO stylist – for endless creative nail art styling and easy application of rhinestones! Whip up colourful dots and small flowers with the bigger ball end and apply rhinestones with the small ball end easily.  DUO stylist is also perfect to create marble effects and french manicure lines.”

 

The thing that stood out most for me was how easy it was to use.  No awkward hand acrobatics.  It is also the perfect length. The polish doesn’t clog around the ends and it super easy to clean.  In fact the packaging says to clean it with polish remover after use (obviously) but even just rubbing it with a cotton swab cleaned it perfectly.  This goes to show how it doesn’t just clump the polish on the ends.  I am not sure what material it is made from but it’s perfect.  I can’t wait to try out different ideas especially the flower they show on the packaging.  Even though it only has two ends you can still vary the sizes of your dots.  In the picture of my nail you will see that towards the tip I actually made the dots a bit bigger using the same end all over.  The more pressure you apply and how much nail polish you have on makes a difference.  I like this because I sometimes have different sized dots and this still means one tool will do the job.  It might be handy to play around with it first so you can test all the different ways.  Also, I made bigger brown dots and then I made smaller, darker pink dots on top of those.  The darker pink doesn’t show as well.  On other nails I had the brown base with light pink big dots and the darker pink smaller dots on top of those and they were much more visible.  Also, no fault of the tool but simply the colours I chose to use.

 

The colours I used:

Base:  Essence – Free Hugs

Big dots:  Essence – Who is Mr Brown

Small dots: Essence – Naughty and Pink

 

**Edited to add**  I bought this from Dischem.  Unfortuantely only Dischem stocks the full Essence Nail Art range.  If I remember correctly it was R24.95