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.
I had heard of China Glaze's appliqués before, but never seen them anywhere to buy, or I'd have tried some before now! And then I was lucky enough to be offered some for review!
These are a bit like wraps, but instead of being made of plastic or vinyl or whatever, they're made of nail polish, which makes them much thinner and more flexible than wraps. This design is called Kickin' Up My Kilt, and is a green, yellow and black tartan-style plaid design.
These were so easy to apply! Much easier than wraps, definitely. You apply these to clean, dry nails, which have been pre-buffed (there is a small buffer included in the packet). There are 16 wraps which come sealed in an airtight pack as they dry out if they're left open. The sizes are varied so I had no trouble fitting them to my nails. I found this a lot easier than with wraps too, as when there were ones that were slightly too wide, rather than cutting them (awkward!) you can just melt off the excess with a brush dipped in acetone. Much neater, and much much easier! There is also a bit of stretch to these as well, so you can get them to fit much more easily than wraps.
Aren't they fab? I love this design. My nails felt really cool all day at work, and several people commented on them.
I really like the design, and even more so, I love the appliqués themselves.
Sadly, these were a limited edition which China Glaze no longer make. You can still find them online in a couple of places though, if you're lucky. OR - if you fancy getting your hands on some of these, then keep an eye on my blog in October, as I have an exciting birthday giveaway coming up.... :D
These appliqués were provided for review. See my Disclaimer for more details.
I don't have a great track record with nail wraps - I've always found them quite fiddly and not as effective as I'd like. I'm always tempted by them though, as sometimes the designs are so fab! So when I was contacted and asked if I'd like to try some Kooky nail wraps from their new Neon Me collection, I was torn! On the one hand, there's my rubbish track record. On the other hand... just look at the designs!
So that was an easy decision! I was sent a pack of the Camera Flare Neon Pink design, which is a design of neon pink, black and metallic silver dots. It's really metallic and SO shiny!
The instructions say to use the Kooky Dehydrator to cleanse the nails before application. I didn't have that, but I assumed it was basically acetone, so I cleaned my nails thoroughly with that, and went ahead applying them.
It was a bit fiddly to find the right wraps for each nail in terms of size. Several of the wraps were just a touch too narrow, or a bit too wide, so I had to do some trimming, which was a bit awkward. It meant that there are one or two spots where the shape isn't totally smooth round my cuticles.
I think the overall look is fab! They're so shiny and bright, which I really like.
You can buy these from My Retail Beauty where these are currently on sale for £4.50 and also have free shipping. Some of the designs are really gorgeous! I especially like this one, which is a sort of neon/metallic ruffian which I could never do myself!
I'm still not convinced by wraps, I have to say. I think these are much, much better than wraps I've tried previously (which were thick, and ended up wrinkled and weird) as they are thinner and more easily moved around and smoothed out. If you're the kind of person with very evenly shaped nails, or quite flat nails, I bet you'd find these really easy to apply. The designs are great, the price is excellent, and the quality is really good. However, I still find them quite fiddly on my narrow, curved nails, so I couldn't manage to get them absolutely smooth in every spot, which I did find annoying. Maybe it just needs practice though! There are plenty of wraps in the pack (16 - all of which are enough for at least two nails) so I'll be able to have another go later!
These were provided for review purposes. Please see my Disclaimer for more details.
When the lovely people at Elegant Touch asked me if I'd like to review some of their new nail wraps, I was quite excited, as I've seen these in shops (they're stocked in Superdrug and Boots) and had been very tempted, but wasn't sure I'd be able to get them to work, as I've had zero success with fake nails (they never fit my nails). I wasn't expecting them to send me THREE sets!
Look! Aren't they pretty?! These are 3 sets of the 'bling' nail wraps, which are on sale for between £5 and £7 per pack in Superdrug, although they're sometimes on special offer if you're lucky. Of these three, the Dotty Nude ones were the least appealing to me (they're pretty, but nowhere near as pretty as the other two) so I thought I'd try those first, in case I made a complete hash of it, as I didn't want to ruin the other two packs. And I'm glad I did!
Each pack comes with 18 wraps (a peculiar number!), an emery board, and full instructions. The Dotty Nude set had some wraps with diamante pieces and some with pearly white pieces. I had originally intended to do alternate nails with diamante and pearls, but the sizes didn't work like that. I found it really difficult to get sizes to fit my nails. There were quite a lot of wraps (6 I think!) that only fitted my little nails and were too narrow for all the others, which meant that there weren't enough other sizes to do all my nails. There were some very wide wraps which I cut down to fit my thumb and ring fingers, although that was awkward and fiddly, so in the end I didn't bother with my right hand. The actual application was super easy on the nails that did fit - my little and index fingers. It's just a case of carefully placing the wrap, smoothing it down, and filing off the extra at the tip. I thought my little and index fingers looked great, until I saw the macro shots!
The wraps themselves are fine and soft, easily pliable and easy to remove at the start if you've slightly mis-positioned it on your nail. However, I found that on my ring finger, the wrap just couldn't handle the curve of my nail, and I ended up with that ugly crease at the tip. There's also a notch on the tip of my middle finger where a diamante piece just happened to be on the very edge of the nail. I also found it impossible to cut the wraps neatly down to size to fit my nails, without making a mess of the sides. I was so disappointed with how these looked in the end! It's probably my fault - my nails are an odd size, or my skills are just lacking... There are tiny creases everywhere, which didn't show up much in real life, but which bothered me. In the end, these didn't stay on longer than an hour, and I wouldn't have worn them out because I didn't have enough wraps to do my right hand to match anyway.
I'm gutted! I am pretty sure that many people will love these - the designs are so pretty, and the quality seems really good. I just don't have the nails or the skills to put them on properly. I can't decide whether to try again with the pink ones, or whether to put them in a giveaway for my readers...
These products were provided for my honest review. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information.
