CHRISTMAS!!!

Today I have my first post in December(I know, I know, its been a while). Today I have some Christmas nail wraps from Lady Queen.

First of all these were not made out of polish, which is fine with me. Application was easy and the same as most nail wraps. Remove clear plastic from over the design, then peel the design off from the backing, stick it on your nail, file the edges and then top coat it (These nails don't all fit me so I do have to trim them[I do it before I even take the clear plastic off], but that's ok because I have yet to meet a brand where I don't have to trim at least half the wraps).

Overall I liked the wraps, they were easy to apply, they lasted 4 days before I took them off and didn't show much signs of any wear, and they were probably the easiest wraps I have ever removed. They come off in seconds and don't leave any sticky residue.

That being said there are a few things I don't like about it. First, on the website you can't really enlarge the photo enough to see what the designs on all the fingers look like so you are taking quite the risk. And the second thing was the design. I personally didn't love it, it just felt a little to clip art-y for me.

Even with those negatives I would recommend these to people. Especially those who are new to nail wraps. You can find them here for $2.11 USD. They are inexpensive enough that if you mess them up you wont feel like you have really wasted all that much. And on top of that you can also add Varnished Valkyrie's 15% discount code 'LAKS15' to add some saving.

Ps. I hope everyone has been having a great holiday season so far!
Pps. Sorry about the cuticles :(

Yay! More nail wraps!!! + Well that's inappropriate.

So I've been super busy the past 2 weeks doing shows.  I finally managed to get all our wishlist giveaway winners prizes(and a little something extra), but I have not had any time to mail them because of rehearsals intertwined with shows.  Anyways yesterday I watched a bit of a sketch comedy troupe perform.  I came in midway through their final sketch I have no idea what it was about but, they made a black face joke and I remember thinking "Please don't actually come out in blackface".  Apparently that would have been asking for too much.  They finished the sketch with a guy coming out with blackface on and covered in photos of gorilla...bits...  Now I realize that art is subjective but...no.

Now this is a manicure I wore last week it's OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps in Geometric Sparkles. It looks exactly like it sounds :P I'm a big fan of nail wraps as a whole, and this is the first OPI one I have tried.  As you can see from the name these are made from real polish.  They are simple to put on.  Just select the appliqué that fits your nail, and if there's none just find the closest fit ans trim it so it fits properly.  Then peel off the clear covering and gently peel the appliqué of the white back.  Position it on a clean nail, press it down and be careful not to wrinkle it.  File or melt off the tip with acetone, then finish with topcoat!

Now the package says that it comes with base and topcoat, but I stall added both.  It just made everything look a bit neater.  One thing I noticed with these were compared to the other nail polish apps I have tried(Incoco) these are much more delicate, once they touch your nail they had better be in the right place.

Overall I really liked these, but I did get them on sale.  I'm not sure it would be something I shelled out full price for.  But they were still relatively easy to apply, and I can never say no to easy nail art.

It Don't Matter Nail Wraps by NCLA Part 2: Actually here's a tip about removal that might matter.

I was going to post this yesterday but I was in a rush and I didn't want to post some half assed review.

Let's start out with the second pair of NCLA nail wraps sent to me from Nail Polish Canada, called It Don't Matter a special edition Designed with Melody Ehsani.  It's a black and white assortment of patterns.  I love these because you can easily achieve black and white skittle nails!  Application was exactly like the ones I used last time(You can see those as well as the application process here).  Again I had to cut some in order for them to fit on my nails.  This time when I filed off the tips because some of them had black it looked like I had tip wear.  But I fixed that easily by wrapping the tips with black or white polish.  I didn't do that for my middle finger or thumb because because it wasn't really noticeable when there was a somewhat busy pattern.

And in case you didn't notice I have an accent nail.  It's H&M Plum and a square stud from the Born Pretty Store.  I really wanted to add a bit of colour.  Also it went with the outfit I was wearing last night!

Now let's get to removal. On the back of the package it says just to peel them off.

Don't.

Unless you want to say goodbye to the top layer of your nail(See my pinky finger below).  I can only imaging how much worse it would have been had I not used base coat.  Nail polish remover worked just fine. I actually used acetone because it was right next to me.  You can remove it like you would with normal polish and just rub it off but I found that lead to it disintegrating in to small annoying pieces(See ring finger).  I would suggest you leave the cotton on for a minute or two like you would for glitter polish.  It should all come off in one clean go.  And your nails will look just as good as you left them.

Overall I really do like these.  Especially if you are going on a trip or something.  These would be perfect!  ETA: And the wear on these are great.  I wore the first set for 4 day before I took them off because.  And they looks exactly like they did when I applied them!  I'm sure I could have gotten a few more days wear out of them!

If you would like some you can head on over to Nail Polish Canada.  Each pack retails for $16.00 CND.  And shipping on these is free!

*Product was sent for honest review.

Top Down, Volume Up Nail Wraps by NCLA (Part 1): First Time Using Nail Wraps!!!

So when I was asked by Nail Polish Canada to review some NCLA nail wraps I was excited.  I've always been intrigued by nail polish wraps but had never made the jump.  No real reason why either.  I got to choose two sets to review, so I chose Top Down, Volume Up and another one which I will show later this week.  I decided to divide this post in two so in this post I can talk more about application and such and in the next tell you how it wears and removal.

I was extra excited when these came in the mail a few days ago.  I hurt my back and shoulder doing who knows what and I just didn't feel like doing nail art.  But with these I could have pretty nails and no back breaking labor!

First I have Top Down, Volume Up,  a colourful abstract design.  Two things I LOVED about this. 1)While there is a lot going on in the design it works perfectly without being obnoxious.  2)In the past I have seen nail wraps with fantastic designs, but were ruined by the fact that it looked like an old printer running out of ink printed them.  These do not :)

Each pack contains 2 sheets with 22 wraps(so 44 in total...MATH!)  You could use these 3 or 4 times as full manis.  Not bad eh?  Each pack also comes with a NCLA nail file.  All the instructions are on the back.  5 simple steps. I followed most of these steps.

The nails cleaning went dandy, and I used a coat of base coat.  The sizing is where I hit my one snag.  My fingers are long and narrow so out of the 22 wraps only 4 fit my fingers(ring and middle) without modifications.  The rest I had to trim because they were too big or in one case was too round for the base of my thumb nail.  This was easy to do.  As they aren't custom made for one person, I would rather have them too big than too small.  Next don't worry if your placement is off, these are resilient. You can peel them off and place them again.  I did this to my pinky finger maybe 10 times and it didn't get any less sticky(but it's probably best you do it less then 10 times :P).  Then I squished out all the air using my fingers.  Next I filed off the excess in a downward motion, and made sure the tip was perfectly flat by pressing down again.  Finally I made sure to wrap the tips, and added 2 coats of top coat.  I always add 2 coats when I place something that isn't polish on my nails.

 Light box.  The rest are natural light.

 Only photo of my thumb.

So far I love these.  It's a great way of having fantastic nail art but not have to do any of it.  Also it was super easy to use and really hard to screw up.  I can not wait to use them again!  Stay tuned for my second part to this post later this week!

What are your thoughts on nail wraps?  Have used used these, or any kind of nail wraps?  What did you think?  This is a safe place to speak your mind :)

If you would like some you can head on over to Nail Polish Canada.  Each pack retails for $16.00 CND.  And shipping on these is free!

*Product was sent for honest review.