Review: Sally Hansen Quick Care Clean-Up For Manicures Pen

Confession: I tend to make a mess when I paint my nails. Usually my problem is flooding the cuticle area on the sides of my nails. So, I decided to pick up the Sally Hansen Quick Manicure Clean-Up Pen when I spotted it at Target the other day.

At $9.99, it wasn't cheap, but I figured it'd be something I'd get a lot of use out of and that it would save me some time and hassle since I re-paint my nails so often. Plus I feel Sally Hansen products are generally good quality and this would probably work well, unlike the $2 clean-up pen I'd bought at Sally Beauty Supply that did next to nothing.

Using this is pretty self-explanatory. You swipe the pen over the area with smudging or excess polish and the acetone on the tip removes the polish. (Sally Hansen also makes a $5 non-acetone version of this, but I don't really like acetone-free remover so I didn't give it a try. I know it's worse for your nails to use acetone but it seriously works better!)

First, the good news: This works. I used it to clean up my last two manis and was happy with its performance; the chisel tip easily gets into those hard-to-reach edges and removes messes and mistakes well. But now, the bad news: I'm not sure how LONG this will work. After using it on those two manicures, the tip was already getting gunked-up with excess polish and a little worn from my pressing down, making removal more difficult. The directions say to wipe the tip after each usage but that didn't seem to help much and most of the polish was still stuck on the pen. Although this comes with two replacement tips (attached in a clear cap at the top of the pen, which is a cool touch-no lost tips!), I have a feeling I will work my way through them pretty quickly.

I guess I have mixed feelings about this one. I think I have some buyer's remorse. While it works, I think 10 bucks is a little steep for something that might not last me too long. I think there are similar pens out there that probably do the same thing for less, but I'll be curious to see how long this winds up lasting. I like it enough that I plan to continue using it as long as possible. Maybe I am pressing down too hard on the tip? If you've got a good polish remover pen you'd like to suggest, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!