OMG Nail Strips - Peacock

I was contacted recently by OMG Nail Strips and asked if I'd like to try some of their nail wraps. The designs are gorgeous, so I jumped at the chance.  I chose this beautiful peacock feather design, and a cute skull and crossbones one. 

The instructions are pretty clear - start with clean nails, match up the right strip size to each nail (trim if necessary), peel off the backing card, and gently smooth on to nail starting at the cuticle, then file off free edge, and add topcoat.

I started by separating the 14 different sized tabs - this made it much easier to match up the right sizes for my nails. The widest one was quite a bit wider than my thumb, and the narrowest one was just right for my little finger. I had to trim a couple of them to make them slightly narrower, because I do have quite narrow nails I think, but most of them fitted just fine. 

I smoothed them on easily enough - I used a plastic hoof stick with a rubber wedge on the end. I then filed off the excess with a coarse grit emery board, and then neatened it up with a glass nail fine. 

The result looked really cool! Please excuse my dry skin - I wanted to grab some photos before I moisturised or topcoated, just in case. I found these really easy to apply on my left hand (using my dominant hand) but a little trickier on my right hand (using my non-dominant hand), so I think next time  would do my dominant hand first - one of the issues was that it was quite hard to peel off the sticker while I had stickers on my nails.

I really wish I'd left the stickers like this! I think the design is lovely - I really like how colourful it is. I'd never be able to do that design with polish. However, the instructions did say to add topcoat, so I did. I was a but dubious - surely either the topcoat can't penetrate the wrap (in which case, what is the point?) or it can (in which case, doesn't that destroy the wrap?)  I thought that Seche Vite might cause issues, as I know it can melt some things, so I used my new Glisten and Glow HK Girl, which I know lots of bloggers rave about.  I left this to dry for a good long time (at least ten minutes) and my nails were looking fantastic. But then I touched one, and the whole wrap just slid off and crumpled up into a sticky mess. My nail was left really sticky, in a sort of gluey, melted gooey mess. The topcoat had clearly interfered with the wrap, and particularly with the glue on the wrap, so I had to take them all off.  Next time I will avoid the topcoat step!

Looking at the instructions on the OMG Nail Strips website, there is an additional step there which is not on the packaging - before the topcoat, they say "after you have applied all ten polish strips, take a cotton ball the has been dipped in polish removed with the excess remover wrung out, and swipe each nail 1-3 times, paying special attention to the sidewalls, tips and cuticle area. This step is especially important, as it melts the strip to your nails, allowing for longer lasting wear."   This wasn't on the packaging, so maybe this is what went wrong... 

OMG Nail Strips can be bought on their website here, and cost $7.99 USD usually, although there are lots of different special offers and discounts, as well as party packs and so on, so you can get them much cheaper. I will post again once I've tried the other pack (without the topcoat!) - fingers crossed I'll have more success. 

These were provided for my honest review - please see my Disclaimer section for more details.