OMG Nail Polish Strips

I recently received some nail polish strips to review from OMG Nail Strips. I've tried quite a few different nail strips in the past so I was interested to see how these would compare.

I was able to choose which designs I wanted to try, which meant I received designs that appealed to me and I'd enjoy wearing.  I chose the Speckle design and the Pink Camouflage design. 

Speckle Design - I chose this design because I wanted something on my nails that I couldn't easily recreate myself using nail art techniques.  There is no way I could have created such an intricate and perfectly aligned and balanced design as these.

Pink Camouflage - I chose this design because I'd previously created two camouflage designs by freehand before - this green one very early on in my blogging life (my 10th blog post ever in fact) and another red one two years ago.  I wanted to see how this design compared to my freehand attempts, and I can easily say these pink ones look SOOOOOOO much better than either of those designs!

This next photo features the backdrop of my comfy kevlar red camouflage motorcycle pants that I wear riding my motorbike to work everyday.

After a few hours wearing the Pink Camouflage design, I decided to apply a layer of OPI Matte Top Coat.  To me, camouflage design nails have to be mattified.   

I was super impressed with these nail polish strips, not to be confused with the OMG Nail Foil Strips, which I believe aren't so fantastic.  I'd even go so far as to say they are the best nail polish strips I have tried so far.   Application was super easy with both sets and because of the flexible nature of the strip I didn't end up with any creases along the cuticle edge or the free edge. 

These suckers also stick, and they stick good!  Have you heard of the saying 'sticks like sh!t to a blanket', well yep, these really stick.  The fact that they stick so well is great, because it means you don't get any bits lifting or peeling backwards.  They wear much more like real nail polish.  Because they are very sticky, it also means you need to be careful with placement onto your nails, cause if you don't get it in the right place first time, you may rip it when you lift if off the nail to reposition it. 

I had a full mani applied with these strips within 15 minutes.  As far as wear, I did only test each design for two days each.  Afterall I am a nail blogger and I have to change my polish very regulary!  They were both still perfect after two days.

Removal was easy with regular nail polish removal, although I did have to make sure I really cleaned well near my cuticle edge to remove the sticky residue.

These strips cost $4.29 and you get 16 nail strips in the packet.  Not enough for two full manicures, but you will have some left over that you can use for feature nails in other nail art.  Here is my updated quick cost comparison based on cost per manicure:

• Sally Hansen $18 (Australian price at Target)
• Incoco $10 (online price)
• Ulta3 $5.00 (In store price)
• Perl $4.50 (online price)
• OMG Nail Strips $4.29 (online price)
• ALDI $3.00 (in store price)

Great quality for the price, and far superior to the ALDI brand ones I tried.

Available from OMG Nail Strips with more information on their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/OmgNailStrips - which say's they have free shipping worldwide.

Products provided for review.

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ALDI brand Lacura Nail Polish Strips

This week, ALDI had Nail Polish Strips on sale.  I'm right in a nail strips kind of mood at the moment having just tried that Ulta3 full nail stickers and the PERL Nail polish strips.

Here is the design I chose to try out today.

A friend at work mentioned to me last Monday that they were on sale on Wednesday, but of course I didn't remember until I walked past ALDI on Saturday morning. There were eight designs to choose from, but sadly by the time I checked them out, the one I really wanted (the butterfly's) was sold out.  I even checked three other ALDI stores, but they were all pretty much down to only a few packets left.  I didn't bother buying the plain pink ones, the skull and crossbones or the pink cheetah strips, because they looked identical in appearance to the PERL set I still have some of. Interestingly, the cream small cheetah spots design looks nearly identical in appearance to the PERL strips that Nihrida reviewed.

Here is what the packets looked like.  It had a single sealed foil packet with two sets of nail strips.  The packet says they are made of real nail polish and like the Sally Hansen strips, they will dry out if left unsealed.  The packet comes with 20 strips, so enough to get two full manis out of them, just like the PERL strips.  I put the second set back into the packet and sealed it with sticky tape, so it will be interesting to see how long they last.

Cost

The strips cost $5.99 and you will get two full manicures out of the packet. So to update my quick comparison based on cost per manicure:

• Sally Hansen $18 (Australian price at Target)
• Incoco $10 (online price)
• Ulta3 $5.00 (In store price)
• Perl $4.50 (online price)
• ALDI $3.00 (in store price)

So, we have a new leader in cheap nail polish strips

Ease of application

I found these very simple to apply.  It's easy to select a size that fits because they are all individually cut and ready to apply.  Like the PERL strips, each strip has a plastic backing and fronting which you remove and put the sticky side down on the nail. 

 

I had to trim off some of the sides on about half of the strips to get them to fit perfectly, but the main thing is they they are wide enough and you can trim them, rather than them being too narrow.

 

You have to file off the excess ends and these were nice an thin so they filed off easily, although I did make the error this time on a few fingers of pulling and stretching the strip a little too much before filing, therefore after the excess was filed off, it shrunk back on some fingers.

 

These strips are thin, but not a thin as the PERL strips.  In fact I was able to lift one strip off the nail again because I didn't place it correctly. I applied a single layer of top coat and wrapped my tips for extra protection.

I completed my full manicure, both hands, and it took 20 minutes.

Quality

So far so good. I've only just put them on today so I can't tell you about how they have worn or if the tips ended up rough and scratchy.  They feel nice and smooth and no thicker than if I were wearing about four coats of polish.  I'll update you on wear when I post about another design.

I'm really loving these for a full manicure cost of $3.00.  The only real down side that I can see so far is availability.  In fact by the time you read this, if you haven't already purchased them from an ALDI store near you, then you may have missed out this time round - but if you can get to ALDI tomorrow, I definitely recommend trying them out.  The good news is that ALDI always seem to bring back these sorts of things, so keep an eye out on the catalog to see when they are on sale again.

On a side note, ALDI also had nail lacquer today when I was looking for the butterfly design.  Has anyone tried the ALDI Lacura brand nail polish?

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Review: Perl Nail Polish Strips in Cheetah Girl

I was recently sent a sample of PERL Nail Polish Strips in the "Cheetah Girl" design to review.

PERL is a Canadian brand and they specialise in these nail fashion strips.

I don't have a very much experience in applying nail polish strips, so I'm actually a really good test subject to try these out.  I wondered if they really would be effortless, surprisingly quick to apply like they claimed.  The only other similar product I have tried are the Ulta3 nail stickers.

First of all, here is my finished mani.  The Cheetah Girl design has a pink base with darker pink and black cheetah spots in a smooth creme finish.  This is not a design I would have chosen for myself because  it's a relatively easy design to create using freehand nail art techniques. But anyone that doesn't like freehand nail art (or stamping) would certainly find this design appealing

The little box comes with two sealed sets of 10 nail polish strips, an instruction booklet, a file and cuticle stick (both which I forgot to photograph).  Each of the 10 strips is a slightly different size.  I lined them all on from smallest to largest, and found that the smallest strip was a perfect fit for my pinky, then I skipped the next strip and the third strip was perfect for my ring finger, and so on.  I ended up finding an exact fit for each nail on my left hand.  For my right hand I had to trim a little excess off each of them. The easiest way I found to do that was to trace around the correctly sized strip on the larger strip and then cut along the line

Cost

The strips cost $9 dollars for the packet and you will get two full manicures out of the box. Unlike the Ulta3 stickers, or the Sally Hansen or Incoco Strips where you get a choice of 16 strips, I love that you get 20 strips.  This is a huge point for me, because it effectively halves the price of them.  So with a quick cost comparison based cost per manicure:

• Sally Hansen $18 (Australian price at Target)
• Incoco $10 (online price)
• Ulta3 $5 (In store price)
• Perl $4.50 (online price)

So, I've established that these are a very cost effective option, but the question is, are they any good?

Ease of application

I found these very, very simple to apply.  Firstly, it is really easy to select a design that fits each nail because you can just pick them up and line it up on your nail to see if it fits.  Each strip has a plastic backing and um fronting...  Basically the polish is layered between two pieces of plastic that easily peel off.  I pulled of the backing piece with revealed the sticky side and just stuck it to my nail.  I then lifted off the 'fronting' and smoothed the strip down onto my nail.  

Like all nail strips, you have to file off the excess at the free edge.  These strips are thin, so this process was very simple.  I applied a single layer of top coat and wrapped my tips for extra protection.

I completed my full manicure, both hands, in under 20 minutes and it was only the second time I've ever applied something like these.

Quality

I love how thin and flexible these strips are, they are almost rubbery.  Because of the flexibility, I found they were really easy to smooth down around my curved nails and not get any wrinkles.  They are also made from real nail polish - I even checked with the PR company because I was so impressed with the finish I figured they must be something else.  They also confirmed for me, that while they are made with real polish, they wont dry out.

The free edge of my nail was not rough or scratchy and these seemed to wear more like nail polish, in that I got some tip wear rather than peeling.

Removal

Because they are made with real nail polish, they just remove like real nail polish.  A quick wipe with remover or acetone and they are gone.

Verdict

I guess with any product received for review, the big question is: would I actually spend my money and buy these?  The answer is yes and in fact I already have.  I have placed an order for some of the designs that are more suited to my tastes and ordered some for my mum too.  Orders over $35 get free shipping, so that what I'm doing.

PERL Online store

PERL Facebook

Product provided for review

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Ulta3 Nail Art Nail Stickers

Cheap Aussie nail polish brand Ulta3, recently released these nail art nail stickers.  Despite having never tried full nail strips, stickers or foils before, I just couldn't help myself and I grabbed a few packets.

These ones really took my fancy, it has rainbow droplets that are metallic and textured (textured finishes are so fun, I was rubbing my thumb over my fingers all day)  This design of the stickers are transparent, so your base polish colour shows through.  I liked how these looked in the packet with the white paper backing so I decided to do them over white.  I reckon they would look awesome over black too (in fact I bought two packs of these ones so I will try that one day)

Here is what the packet looks like on the left, and on the right what it's like inside.  What really shocked me is that the colours on the hidden part didn't match the ones that showed.  I had carefully selected these ones because they had a color combo I liked (this design seems to vary packet by packet as to what colours are in the rainbow droplets)

Here is my right hand.  It seemed really strange to have completely different colours on both hands. One hand had warm yellows and reds, and the other had cool blues and purples.

The packet comes with 16 stickers (in this case 8 of each colour). Each sticker is a different size.  I noticed that all the stickers had about a 1mm border of clear sticker with no droplets on it.  I didn't like the idea of having a gap around the sides and cuticle, so I trimmed that extra clear part off.  

From go to whoa, these took me about 30 minutes to apply.

My nail beds are quite long and I wouldn't consider my nails wide, but I did used the five largest stickers from each colour (except on my right hand pinky where I underestimated the width of my nail).  Which leads me to one issue I had.  Because these were all in a sheet where you just lift off each sticker when you want to apply it, I found it difficult to determine the right size sticker to use.  Most of the stickers, foils or strips are in an individual nail shape which is much easier to line up and work out if its the right size. Being a single sheet on opaque white backing paper made it tricky. Once I had worked out which sticker to use, and trimmed the gap off, the application was really easy.  They stuck down well and didn't wrinkle or crease on my very curved nails.

I also found these rather stiff, especially when folding the free edge down to file off. I think I also filed a bit of length off when I was trying to file off the sticker end.  

I applied a coat of Seche Vite and wrapped my tips, although they still felt a little rough on the edges and I could have filed more.

I only wore these for one full day (cause who can wear any nail polish for longer than one day - right?) and they did last very well.  They didn't peel around the cuticle or nail edge but they did start to lift a little in one or two spots on the free edge. When I peeled them off they were super sticky still, and well attached, so I think they would have lasted at least another two or three days. The packet says 'lasts up to six days'  I'm not convinced they would last that long.

These nail stickers are $5 a packet, but you only get one manicure out of them.  The left over strips might be good for feature nails or cut up for nail art, so I will hang on to them.

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Nail Polish Strips or Appliqués

Hi, I am back from my trip and got loads of nail goodies as usual!!

Today I have nail strips or Nail appliqués to show ya.

What are these? These are strips of actual nail polish also called Nail Appliqués or Nail wraps/strips.

These are an easy fun way of instantly popping up your nails. No time for polish to dry, no special skills required for nail art, no messy stamping and clean up!! And yes no worries about both hand nails not looking same.

Yes! this is that simple!

And these are much much better than those plastic-ky full nail stickers or nail decals.

A box has various sizes of strips so no need to worry about size. There is also a small nail file and an orange stick. There are instructions on the back.

Make sure you push the cuticle back on your nails before you start. Cut one strip as per the size of your nail base.

The strip has protective plastic sheet both on top and below it.

Just align the strip with the base of your nail and gently press down till the tip and on each side.

No worries if you have a small wrinkle you can just pull up a small bit and lay it flat. These strips are stretchy coz there are made of nail polish. So no worries about wrinkly nails!!

See how smooth the surface is!!! And it has micro glitter!

It fits well on the nail too! doesnt feel unnatural like a sticker sitting on your nail.

What I was afraid was, that it will just slide off after I take a shower or wash my hands. But this did not budge. It stayed put for 4 days with minimal tip wear. Removing is just as easy. I just pulled mine off like stickers with a little effort. But you can also just as well use nail polish remover and wipe it off.

I loved this houndstooth design! It actually had micro glitter and I had no trouble taking it off!

Cant wait to show you the other nail strips I got...and some even have diamontè/stones.

I got loads of extras so if you need some please contact me. (Within India only!)

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Unknown black, glitter, Nail Appliqués, Nail Strips, Silver