Nail Strips

I am pretty boring when it comes to doing my nails, but for good reason. If I was to do nail art of any kind, it would just look BAD. So that being said, I would rather not do it and have nice looking nails than have it look like I had a monkey do my manicure. I decided to give the Sally Hansen Salon Nail Effects a whirl. It seemed easy enough! They now apparently have a gel one too, but the only reason I chose this one over that (other than the fact this one is $2.00 cheaper) is because you have to own a UV light to help with drying, which I do not have.

Materials:
-1 box of Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips (I chose the lace one)
-nail clipper
-clear nail polish

1. Remove any nail polish you may be wearing. Trim and file your nails, as needed.

2. Wash your hands and nails thoroughly with warm water and soap. You don't want any residue or anything on them. Dry them thoroughly.

The kit comes with a nail file and a stick, in addition to the nail strips.

4. Using the flat edge of the stick, push down all of your cuticles. If necessary, trim them with a nail clipper.

5. If you flip the provided nail file over, it is white. Use the white side to gently buffer each nail until it is shiny.

6. See which strips fit which nails best. Some are skinny, some are wider, but the good news is, if you screw up, you have extras!

7. Peel the plastic layer off of the nail strip.Whew--those things smell just like nail polish!

8. Next, peel the nail strip away from the paper backing, tearing it off at the part where the tab is.

 9. Line the nail strip up with your cuticle, and firmly press it onto your nail.

10. Use the flat side of the stick to gently press down all around the bottom and side edges of the nail. Smooth out any bubbles.

11. For the top, gently bend the nail strip, creating a crease in the nail strip. When I did this, the strip actually ripped on it's own.

12. Using the light pink part of the nail file, gently file the remaining edges off of the nail strip.

13. Repeat for all of your nails. You can optionally finish the look with a coat of clear nail polish to help prevent peeling or chipping. Here is the finished product:

Not bad, eh? This is supposed to last for up to 10 days--and you can easily remove them with nail polish remover. However, one thing about my nails is that they are not perfectly flat. They actually have ridges in them, which causes a problem for the nail strip being able to stick to them well. So by the next day, the tops were already peeling off a bit. I don't know that I will buy these again because of that, but it was a good experiment nonetheless. Hopefully you will have better luck!