Testing out the Kiss Nail Dress Jeweled Nail Art Strips

Last week I did a post about the new Kiss Nail Dress nail art appliques I picked up, and on Friday I had a chance to test them out. They didn't turn out exactly like I imagined them to.

I started off with clean nails prepped with rubbing alcohol to remove any leftover oil or moisture and improve adhesion of the strips. Since it's pretty cold out, I let the strips warm up until they felt flexible before I applied them. Here's what happened:

They look pretty good from this angle, right?

But when I tilt my nails up a little and look underneath... Uh oh. Big gaps. The ends of the strips at my free edge wouldn't stick down for anything. Filing off the excess only made it worse by leaving rough, torn edges (those little gems did not want to be filed!).

And they wouldn't stick at the cuticle end, either. See how they stick up and create gaps around the cuticle there? You can probably see the gap a little better in the flash picture.

To be completely honest with you, I only had enough patience to do one hand. I really wanted to do a full manicure and then leave them on all weekend to see how well they wore, but I just couldn't do it. I took these off immediately after I snapped these pictures.

The problem I had with these is that they were really stiff and not very sticky. I have very curved nails. Bad combination.

Another weird thing I noticed about them is that once you started to flex them to the shape of your nail, they didn't look smooth anymore. They looked speckled and glittery underneath the gems.

Okay. First attempt failed. I really want to try these again because I think they look super cool, but I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get them to work on my curved nails.

A few tips:

• These will likely work best on people with flat or only very slightly curved nails.
  
• When choosing the correct size decal for each nail, go a little bigger. They don't stretch like Incoco or Sally Hansen Salon Effects, so they end up being too narrow if you have curved nails and you pick the size that looks exact.
• Make sure they're at least room temperature. They're stiff, but they become a little more manageable the warmer they are. Rubbing them with your palms or hitting them with a little warm air from a hair dryer should do the trick. It helps if your hands are warm, too.
  
• Might be helpful to cut these down to your approximate nail length first, instead of after applying. Filing them down after they were on my nails made them want to lift up even more from the edge.
• No oil or moisture on the nail. Prep nails with alcohol or acetone first, and let it dry completely. Very important. These are not very sticky and anything that impedes adhesion at all will just ruin the strip.
  
• Since the strips aren't very sticky, avoid touching the adhesive side as much as possible.
  

I think that if these were half as stiff and twice as sticky, I wouldn't have had a problem with them. Maybe my nails are just too curved. Bah.