I recently busted out some Avon Nail Art Design Strips in Winter Wonderland that I have had kicking around, for dare I say it, a year or two...
Yes, most embarrassing. I was feeling extra festive last week so I decided to give them a shot. This was the first time that I had used nail strips so I knew this was going to be an education. I don't believe that Avon carries this design or colour anymore, but I could be wrong. I think I paid somewhere around $11.99 Canadian for these. I think for what it is, that is a bit steep. Other Avon Nail Art strips sell for $10 U.S. I believe. I just checked their website and they appear to currently be having a sale on what they have for $3.99 U.S. which I think is a very fair price. You get 18 strips in total.
To me, this was a very pro and con product. What I mean is that for every pro there was a con. As a result, I am still not 100% sure how I feel about them and likely I would think that I would feel the same about nail strips in general. Okay, let's talk about the pros first.
The first pro is that they are easy to apply. I am usually a dumb ass when it comes to things like this so that is part of the reason why I avoided trying them out for so long. I thought they would take forever to apply or that I would fudge them up. Basically, once you have selected one that reasonably fits your fingernail in question, you just centre it and fold the excess tip over the end of your nail. You can then either tear it off (not recommended) or file it off. The filing takes 2 seconds, literally. My original idea was to wear one of these on the 3rd finger of each hand and to paint the rest silver. I ran out of time between shopping, wrapping etc. so I decided to put all of these on once I realized how quick they are. In fact, I did a whole hand, in the car, on the way to a family function and it was not a long drive. I think I could easily have done all 10 fingers in under 10 minutes.
The second pro is that they look like nail polish at first glance. I got a number of compliments on my nails when I wore them and people were surprised that they were "stickers". The third pro is that they adhere quite well. I had serious concerns that these would be flying off or lifting but they didn't for the first couple of days. They even survived a couple of full showers and a couple sinks full of dishes and they didn't come off. Sleeping in them was no biggie. Fourth pro was that they are fun! I wouldn't get nail strips in a pale or solid colour though. I will get into that momentarily. Fifth pro is that there is no drying time. Instant manicure done and you don't have to be overly careful with your fingers I would say after about 10 minutes of having them on. Lastly, the final pro is that when I was tired of them, I was able to easily peel them off and there was hardly any, if any, residue from the "glue" left behind. They were off in under 2 minutes and my nails looked the same as when I put them on.
On to the cons. First con is that the base of the nails (part that you would place near your cuticle) is awfully square. Maybe my nails are weird, but mine are quite round. As a result, some of the nails overlapped onto my skin and that was not so attractive. Others that fit my cuticle bed area better were too small to cover the whole nail on the sides. Bizzare. The second con is the price - $11.99. I can get a whole bottle of OPI nail polish for that price or less and I would have how many applications??? Countless. So I guess you are paying for the convenience of it all, but for a one time use, it's pricey.
Although they felt good for the first couple of days, they really started to bug me after that time period. They started to feel like stickers on my finger nails. I think they started looking more like stickers too. That was the third con. The fourth con was that I noticed after a couple of days that the tips started to chip, tear and crack. The fifth con was, and I should have mentioned this earlier in the list, that after I applied them, I got a few creases in them that I couldn't flatten out and I think may have been unavoidable. Hence, my suggestion to avoid light colours in these strips or ones with no design. The design on these covered a number of application sins.
I have a Sally Hansen set of nail strips which I will have to try one of these days. I will give a full report when the time comes.
So what do you think? Do you like nail strips or hate them? I would love to hear what you think.
Packaging: 7/10
Pigmentation: 10/10
Easy to Work With: 7/10 (points off for creases and shape of the nail strips)
Longevity: 6.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Price: 6/10
Ingredients: N/A sort of
Travel Worthy: 10/10
Attractiveness of Product: 810
Would I buy this again? Not Sure
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment