Shalom, friends! It’s been almost an entire month since my last post (something I’m not proud of), but I promise I haven’t really sported any new or exciting shades that I think you’ve missed out on. The past few weeks have been jam-packed with lots of work items to take care of and, of course, the Jewish High Holidays. In addition to a new year, lots of delicious food, and one day of being really hungry (followed directly by more delicious food), Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur also bring with them the constant need wear dressy clothing and shake lots of old rich peoples’ hands. It is the hand-shaking component of the holidays that make me nervous to wear anything too crazy on my nails, so I pretty much donned a really neutral metallic shade (not gold, not silver, not bronze, just…metal) on short nails for almost 3 weeks straight. It was a nice color, and I’m sure I’ll get around to reviewing it, but it was nothing magical. It matched my various high holiday dresses, and I didn’t receive any nasty looks from old Jewish ladies when I shook their hands…so I’d say it fulfilled its purpose.
After the holidays, I was really excited to try out something I’ve had up my sleeves for a while. I stopped into Sephora a few weeks ago while my mother was visiting me, and as I was checking out their Sephora by OPI display, my eyes were drawn to one of their counter-side displays. There, in front of me, were some of the funkiest nail strips I had ever seen. Unlike Sally Hansen’s strips, Sephora Nail Bling strips are textured with individual little gems (and by gems, I mean plastic dots that look like gems).
The strips come in a variety of designs ranging from leopard to floral to lattice, and they are awesome looking! I have used SH’s nail strips a few times and have always had a good experience with them, so I was intrigued to see how these textured strips would hold up compared to the flat Sally Hansen’s we’ve become accustomed to. At only $7.00 a pack (compared to $8.00-$10.00 for a pack of Sally Hansen strips), I HAD to try them! I purchased two packs – one in ‘Gold Leopard,’ and one in ‘Black Rainbow.’ This will focus on the ‘Black Rainbow’ strips.
The directions seemed simple enough, but there were a few differences between the suggested application of these and the suggested application of the SH strips.
Sally Hansen’s nail strips come with a double-sided file/nail buffer and an orange stick. These strips come with neither. Sally Hansen suggests cleaning nails with remover, buffing, and then cleaning once more. Sephora’s strips do not ask you to buff your nail but to apply a base-coat instead. Having had successful experiences with the SH application process, I felt skeptical about the lack of buffing and the application of a base coat, but I ultimately decided to follow the direction on the pack.
As you can see, the strips come in a good variety of sizes (9 sizes for each hand), and it’s nice to know that with eight extra strips in the pack, there is room for mistakes. You will never be left with one naked nail due to lack of strips (unless you really really stink at applying these.) I had a pretty easy time finding strips that fit my nails, but I can’t say there were any exact matches. With SH strips, the orange stick can be used to trim any excess that may extend past the width of the nail. They are relatively easy to tear and the orange stick works nicely. When I took these strips out of the package, I could already tell that they are MUCH thicker and less flexible than SH strips. I knew that there would be no trimming off the sides, and as the directions state, these strips should not touch skin or cuticle. So, when choosing which sizes to use, I always opted for the smaller choice. I figured that even if the strip didn’t quite fill up my nail, they would last longer if they were not hanging off the sides – allowing water underneath and snagging on things.
If you look at the design of these strips closely, you might notice that each strip goes through a gradient of about 3-4 colors. The color really starts to change about half-way down the length of the strip, and herein lies my first issue with this product. Unless you wear your nails really long and really square (so 1990’s if you ask me), you will not be using the bottom half of these strips. And if you are wearing your nails that long, you probably shouldn’t be wearing these anyways…because that would look cray-cray. My point, folks, is that for a person with short-medium nails, you really don’t get the full effect of the rainbow these strips have to offer. [Sigh]…Oh well.
Overall, the application of these strips was pretty simple and user-friendly. After I let my base coat dry completely (I use Seche Vite), I started by peeling one strip off of the plastic. I chose to start with my left pointer finger because I knew that if I messed up the strip, there were extras that would be similar to the size of my pointer nail. I didn’t mess up, however. It went pretty smoothly. I applied the round edge of the strip as close to the cuticle as possible (without touching it), and smoothed the strip over from the middle moving outwards. After I was sure there were no bubbles or wrinkles, I folded the bottom of the strip over my nail and pressed it down. I first attempted to file the excess strip off with a fine-grade nail file (simliar to the type SH provides), but it was immediately obvious that the fine file was not going to cut it…haha, get it? I chose one of my grittiest files and started to file. It worked much better, but another issue became quickly apparent: if any of the little beads/gems are hanging off the tip of your nail even a little bit, they are coming off with the excess strip. I guess that’s good because it would be infuriating to have little round things hanging off your nails and snagging your pantyhose (if you wear them…which I do not. That example was mostly just for effect because we ALL know how frustrating it is to snag pantyhose. I get angry just thinking about it.). So, each nail I applied went on smoothly, but each time I filed off the ends, a few little gems came with the excess. It wouldn’t bother me as much if the base of these strips wasn’t black, but because it is black, there are just some gaps at the tips of my nails. Again…[sigh]…oh well. Ten nails later annnddd…..
Voila! I think that the overall effect of these strips is pretty dang suh-weet! I chose to photograph my right hand for these shots because I lost the least amount of gems on the tips of my nails on this hand. (I think it was probably because I had five nails of practice before I got to this hand…) If you look at my middle finger, you’ll see what I mean about the black gaps where they’re missing. In the end, though, I think it looks awesome! I even unintentionally ended up with an accent nail! The strip that best fit my ring fingers happened to be blue/green/yellow as opposed to my other pink/purple and red/orange nails.
If you look at the profile of my pointer finger, you can see how these gems really give the strip texture. I cannot tell you how many people have asked to feel my nails this week. And, the truth is, I don’t blame them. If I saw someone wearing these, I’d ask to touch them, too. They are obviously 3D, and it’s awesome. They are bumpy, but not so bumpy that I’ve found them annoying to wear. They are just bumpy enough that they feel and look awesome.
After all of the strips were on, I applied a thick coat of top coat. Usually, I use Seche Vite, but I didn’t want a fast-dry top coat to shrink or distort the strips. After taking my photos and reveling in my new mani, I knew that all there was to do now was wait. Wait to see how these would hold up, wait to see how fast they would peel off, or wait to see if I would snag them on some clothes.
Well, friends, I have to tell you that my hands did a LOT of things in the past 7 days. These things include:
- Playing Guitar
- Cleaning lunch tables with lots and lots of lysol wipes
- Doing art projects with lots of Elmers Glue EVERYWHERE
- Opening about a gazillion yogurts, string-cheeses, and tupperware containers
- Washing my hands at least 40 times a day
- Making stuffed acorn squash (and cleaning up the pots and pans afterwards)
- Going apple picking
- Making apple crisp (and cleaning up the pots and pans afterwards)
- Showering once or twice a day (and I did not take it easy on washing my hair. I scrubbed my head like normal)
- Playing tug with my dog
- Lifting weights
- Cleaning my bathroom
- Cleaning my kitchen
The Mani-Maniac 