i meant to say something clever, but then I remembered its 3 am and I'm damn tired.
Well, I had a nice introductory post written yesterday, but blogger killed it, so whatever.
Today I tried out one of the Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail strips in Misbehaved. Misbehaved is the champagne gold with black fishnet. I find the fishnet pattern particularly interesting because it is exactly like fishnet stockings: slightly rounded, fish scale shaped instead of perfect diamonds.
I was VERY against trying these. When Avon came out with the same kind of product back when I was in high school, it was a horrible product; difficult to work with, extremely sheer, ugly colors, and expensive as hell for a single-use piece of crap. After reading many many positive reviews on this product (MUA, I love you!) I decided to forgo the Minx mani I was going to treat myself to for my vacation and give these a go.
The kit comes with 16 individual nail strips of varying sizes from "too small for my pinkie" to "too wide for my thumb". I only tried one strip on my accent nail so far, and there were no strips quite close enough to my nail size. My nails flare ever so slightly (I have a sad, flattish C Curve) so there are two very small bare strips along the edges of my nail.
The kit provides you with a tiny orange stick and a teeny tiny little 3 function nail file (so cute!). The instructions are pretty good, too. Remove all traces of dirt, polish, oil, etc. File free edge with hot pink side of file, buff with white side of file, and push your cuticles back with the orange stick.
After selecting a strip that is the best size for your nail, you're supposed to be able to figure which end would look best with your cuticle shape. To the best of my knowledge, both ends looked identical (at least on the one i picked). Whatevs. Peel the plastic off and then peel the white backing off (I had trouble with this). Carefully line the chosen end up with your cuticle and place it on your prepared nail (you can try again if you mess up and are careful).
Then it tells you to fold the end over, make a crease, and file the free edge of your nail gently with the light pink bit of the file. I had a problem here. Folding caused puckering and wrinkling on the tips. It took forever to smooth out to where i was satisfied, and I mean it took about ten minutes of carefully smoothing with my finger or the orange stick, and trying to keep it from lifting or bunching.
As far as the "look" of it, i love it. It really does look like an expensive salon job, and since its made with real polish, there's no "printing" involved, meaning no tiny little dots, fuzzy edges, or fake-looking results. While its not as ultra-chrome-y as a Minx nail, its a very nice, affordable substitute that doesn't involve painting or konading to achieve the desired effect, and is bunches cheaper.
One issue I have come up against so far is that there is a tiny little bubble in the strip that wasn't there before, and i CANNOT flatten it. Do. Not. Want.
Well, I'm going to leave this strip on my nail for a week and see what comes of it.
The other nails are wearing Essence Metal Battle (sent to me from Ireland ♥ ) since i refuse to have naked nails. ew.
that is all.
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