Last week I made my twice weekly trek to CVS. (I practically live in the beauty aisle.) Since my nails have still not recovered from all of the Shellac manicures, and any polish I have put on them quickly chips, I decided to opt for some Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips (or stickers as my 7 year old calls them.) Since they were out of Misbehaved, which completely brings the fishnet stocking clad leg lamp from A Christmas Story to mind, I opted for Laced Up, which is similar with a fishnet design and black floral. I was so excited to try these polish strips, I probably could’ve shot someone’s eye out.
The reason I adore nail polish strips is because they are so super simple to apply. There’s, of course, no dry time and your nails look professionally done. My boyfriend even asked me, “When did you have time to go to the salon?” Ha! That said, I was happy with the outcome and snapped a pic by some vintage looking Christmas plates I bought from Rue La La for steal. I did not, however, go stick my tongue on a freezing pole.
However, my excitement only lasted 24 hours, as by the next morning, each of my nails were chipped at the top. I chalked it up to working on the computer all day, until I took a shower that evening and came out missing the strip on my pinky nail. Now, I know how to apply nail strips the proper way, so I was stumped as to why a strip would come off in such a short period of time. I quickly went to the pack of strips I had placed back in the package, only to find they had all dried out and would no longer stick. I complained about how stupid I would look with only 9 polish strips on when my boyfriend suggested that I apply a thin basecoat of clear polish and then place a strip on top of it so that it would stick. Genius boy! That worked and I was back to beautiful 10 finger manicure.
Over Twitter @CVSBeautyClub made the recommendation that I apply a top coat over the strips to make them last longer. At first, I did not heed their advice as I felt it defeated the purpose of using nail strips in the first place. However, by day 3 of wearing them, I noticed that the edges were beginning to turn upward lifting away from my nails and kept snagging on my clothes and hair. I got out my handy Zoya Armour top coat and brushed a thin coat over them and went about my day. That evening, before date night with my man, I jumped in the shower and again emerged with a strip missing, this time from my index finger. I had no other extra strips to use that would fit that finger so I opted not to replace it. By day 4, more strips popped off and I succumbed to the fact that I would just have to remove them all.
Sally Hansen’s site says the strips can last up until 10 days. I have found this to be true of other strips I have used like Avon’s Instant Manicure (do they still sell these?) and Incoco’s Nail Applique (although Nail Fraud’s Nail Decals also didn’t last long.) But sorry, Sally, not yours. This is disappointing, as I really loved the designs and want so badly to have nice manicured nails again. Have you used Sally Hansen’s Salon Effects Nail Strips? How did they work for you?
