Mariposa Allure & Striped

 As you may have guessed, my webby manicure last week didn't really turn out. It's sad, really, because I was excited for the color combination. Not to worry though - I'll revisit those colors for Thanksgiving, I think. 

In any case, I was cautiously optimistic about this week's manicure. I was offered free sets of nail "foils" (they're wraps manufactured in Germany, not like a traditional nail foil here) from Mariposa Allure to review, and the designs they sent were really fun. The pages feel like lighter versions of Jamberry Nails, and they don't require a hair dryer to apply, so I thought perhaps they'd be both easier and lighter on the nails. I read the instructions and FAQ on the web site, and decided to use one coat of base coat as advised for longer wear. 

For prep, I removed old polish, filed & buffed my nails, and applied one coat of base coat that I let dry completely. Then it was time to start the application...as suggested in the instructions, I used the enclosed orange stick to lift off one decal.

 Unfortunately, that decal was too short for my nail, and I had to pull it off. These don't stick again if you do that, so it was ruined, and it took what I thought was just base coat off as well. So I re-prepped that nail, and tried again with my ring finger.

 Yeah - that one doesn't fit at all, does it? Unfortunately, that was the longest decal on the sheet. So I would have had to cut this nail (and a few others) to use these. Still, I wanted to get at least one right, so I chose a shorter nail and tried again.

 Ack. Big wrinkle in the decal - I tried to stretch it just a tiny bit to get that fixed, and it wouldn't come up. So I folded the tip down, and used the included nail file to try to remove the excess, as instructed.

Unfortunately, the material the decals are made of is too thick for this method to work well, and it really didn't want to file off. I think fingernail scissors might have worked better, but I was losing patience at this point. Still, I felt the need to try again with another decal/nail. 

 It went slightly better, but I still had the issue of removing the excess material. After several minutes of filing with a fairly heavy hand on the tips, I gave up, and peeled the decals off.

 You can sort of see the damage these did to my nail beds above - I thought that was just base coat that lifted with the adhesive, but when I cleaned up my nails yet again with polish remover, soap & water, the damage remained. My nails aren't soft at all either - they're very hard, so to have the adhesive take that much material off the tops is pretty bad.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Mariposa Allure product. The only application I would consider it for would be fake nails that are short enough for the decals to fit. They were difficult to work with, and tore up my natural nails.

So there I was at 2am, tired and with bare, torn up nails. I was going to just toss a couple coats of polish on and call it good, but then I remembered I had another set of the Sally Hanson Salon Effects polish strips (still more of the free ones they sent me). No drying time or bottles at that hour were pretty appealing...

 

And 20 minutes later, I had fun & funky zebra nails! I know it sounds like a commercial and I did get these polish strips free, but I'm definitely going to keep a set on hand all the time, just for occasions like these. I would have been up much later yet if I'd had to do a full polish manicure last night.

My final thoughts? Skip the full-nail plastic decals, and stick to real polish, even for quick strips like these. The plastic ones just aren't worth the hassle or work - the polish strips are re-positionable, easy to apply, light to wear and remove with nail polish.

Obviously I won't be accepting any more of the full nail plastic wraps/decals for review. I may see what other brands of polish strips I can find for comparison though...and water decals would be good too, I think...

Until next week, happy polishing!

More about → Mariposa Allure & Striped

Here, Kitty Kitty!

A representative of Sally Hanson was kind enough to provide me with some Salon Effects "Real Nail Polish Strips" for review last week...and I was really excited to try them, especially since I seem to be on this nail wrap kick. I had to take one of the Jamberry shields off (one of the wrinkled ones was just getting dirt stuck under the edges...not good), and conveniently enough, the Salon Effects showed up the day before. So I replaced the Jamberry shield with the Sally Hanson strip (which took me about 5 minutes). I used the same style of pattern on my right hand as the Jamberry strip still on my left hand, for comparison:

You can tell the Jamberry strip by the lifted edge and pixellated design...the Salon Effects has a much smoother look (and it's far lighter too - my nail bed hurt when I took the Jamberry off due to the pressure release). Compared to several minutes per nail for the Jamberry application, the Salon Effects took me about 2 minutes after I removed the Jamberry and prepped the nail bed. 

The most disturbing thing though was when I removed the remaining Jamberry shields. I heated them up a couple of times with the blow dryer, lifting a little, then heating, then lifting, then heating so I didn't have to pull too hard on the strip. Even so, the adhesive on the strip took patches of material off the top of my nails, leaving me with depressions and thinning on each nail. I could tap my nail on the underside of the shield, and it was hard nail material there. Here's a photo - my index and ring fingers had the Jamberry on them: 

It's entirely possible, I guess, that I simply didn't heat the strips enough (though I repeated it several times). In any case, despite last week's enthusiasm, I won't be using these on my nails again. It took awhile to buff out the depressions, and now those two nails will be more prone to breakage when they grow out. 

Incidentally, the Salon Effects nail came clean with nail polish remover, very quickly and left a clean nail bed. 

So this week I grabbed my "Kitty Kitty" sample of Salon effects strips, prepped my nails by filing and buffing, and then applied according to the instructions. There are 16 strips included, which is enough to do all ten fingers, two big toes, and cut up a few to do the rest of your toes. I was too lazy to do my toes (and I have a sprained ankle that would make it difficult), so I just did my fingers. Application is super-easy, no special tools required. The only really important thing is to make sure the nail bed is free of oils. 

The strips are pre-cut...I'd suggest choosing one slightly larger than you need, as it can be trimmed carefully with the orange wood stick after it's on. These do stretch, as they're real nail polish, but you don't want to stretch the patterns too much. When you have the right size, you peel off the clear protective coating, take off the backing, snap off the silver tab (you can grasp these in the center), and press onto the nail, cuticle edge first. 

One thing I really like about these is that due to the stretch and because they're very thin, I was able to work out any wrinkles so they lay smoothly across the nail. Once you get it all smoothed out, fold the excess over the edge of the nail, and use the file they provide with a downward motion to trim it off. 

You can see it left a few wrinkles, but it's okay. Once the excess was off:

I just went over it again and smoothed it out, using the orange wood stick to trim where I needed to (careful, they're still soft at this stage, so they can tear if you stab 'em with the wood stick - but it does take a lot of force to tear one).

It took me about 10-15 minutes to apply all 10 nails, and afterward there's no drying time...they're just done. Super simple and quick. So far they've had great staying power - I wore the black and white one for 4 days with no visible signs of wear, and the kitty nails are doing great so far even with all the showering & cleaning and such, so I'm confident they'll wear for at least seven days.

The Salon Effects strips cost $9.99 retail at my local drugstore...it's a bit pricy for just one manicure, but for a special occasion, vacation or whatever, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these. Excellent product, in my opinion.

I have some Broadway Nails full wrap stickers to try as well, but the Sally Hanson rep sent some crackle polish I'm dying to play with, so next week, something a little less sleek. ;-) 

Until then, happy polishing!

More about → Here, Kitty Kitty!