Fun nails! And a hurricane.
Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first: My nails look adorable. After eying those Sally Hansen Nail Effects strips at Duane Reade at least once a week for the past few months, I finally went ahead and coughed up nine bucks and bought a box. I’d read a ton of reviews, so I knew they probably wouldn’t suck, but I didn’t expect them to be quite so awesome.
For my first attempt, I went with “Misbehaving”, a champagne-gold with a fishnet overlay. I’d read that the glittery styles are harder to apply, so even though “Glitz Blitz” was calling my name LOUD + SPARKLY, I opted for something easier the first time around.
The strips are kind of like really thin stickers, but they’re actually made of nail polish. They don’t add dimension to your nails or anything like that. They apply kind of like model airplane decals (sans water) in terms of fragility and placement techniques, but they go on really nicely. The amazing thing is that there’s no drying time, so if you’re like me and tend to decide to do your nails at midnight, you can hop right into bed after and not worry about dreaded sheet-prints screwing up your manicure.
Up close, you can definitely tell that I messed up the placement on a couple of stickers—mostly from fear of getting too close to the cuticle. From a normal distance, though, they look perfect. Oh! And they supposedly last for at least ten days with no chipping. I’m only on day three, so we’ll see how it goes. So far, so good, which is more than I can say for regular manicures. Kind of spendy, yeah, but if you have short nails like me, you can get two full manicures out of a box. Not too bad.
Now onto the other stuff: Hurricane Irene. Yeah. Well, we really don’t know what to expect. We’re staying in the city this weekend because the traffic heading out is bound to be brutal, so things could get exciting. Luckily, our neighborhood (Washington Heights) isn’t in an evacuation zone, so hopefully we’ll be okay. Unsurprisingly, tomorrow’s planned festivities have been postponed (Spike actually wanted to go ahead with it, but once the governor announced that ALL mass transit will cease operation at noon tomorrow, cancellation was kind of a done deal), so we’ll be holed up in the apartment—hopefully with electricity, cell and internet service!
There’s still a giant hole on our kitchen ceiling (grumble, grumble), but the roof seems to have been repaired, so hopefully we won’t get any water coming in—touch wood. I truly hope Irene takes it easy on us all! Everyone please be safe out there.
I love them!!!
I just did the glitter ones…http://twitter.com/#!/desireec/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FwzSX8Zg
sorry to hear about the hole in your ceiling, be safe this weekend!
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Those nails are adorable! I do believe I’ll be heading out and buying a box quite soon… (but perhaps I’ll wait until Irene has passed by. I moved to D.C. on Monday from the west coast and have already dealt with an earthquake — and now I get the joy of a hurricane! I’m totally expecting a tornado to rip through next. Stay safe this weekend!)
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omg. love.
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Love your nails! They looks very cool!
Be safe this weekend…good thoughts from BC Canada :)
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Stay safe Anna. I’ll be listening to some MJ this weekend and sending good vibes in your direction!
p.s. Cute nails indeed!
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TIP: Apply a clear top coat on the 7th day and they’ll keep going for 14 days! I’ve done a bunch of experimenting with these.
Removing them will require a bit more effort than regular polish. Wrap your cotton balls in a used dryer sheet before adding the remover solution, and it’ll speed up the process. ;)
The black and white houndstooth is my fave!
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Yeah, I put a coat of Seche Vite on right after I applied them! I’ll definitely add another coat at the end of the week.
(A used dryer sheet?! Wow! I don’t use dryer sheets, but that is fascinating…)
lovely nails sweetie!. if you need to escape (and can escape) there is plenty of room for all four of you here. not saying it will be any easier – but we have vegan food, a garden (hopefully!) and a huge fire pit for vegan smores. stay safe. i worry like a mama bear.
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That is so sweet, Bee. Thank you. I think the traffic situation is not going to be good, so we’re just going to stay put. We’re not in a danger zone here, so I’m not too worried. I just don’t want to lose my internet connection! Hah.
However…FIRE PIT + VEGAN SMORES are some magical words. Perhaps we need to plan for a future visit. ;)
I’m in Irene’s path, too. I love the electricity in the air during storms, so I’m really hoping for an exciting, and not-very-destructive event. I guess there’s no way to tell how it’ll turn out, we just have to wait and see.
At least your nails look super cute!
xx.
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hope everyone is safe, stays safe, that the hurricane wimps out and misses everyone.
i, too, like the nails and will play some mj this weekend.
kathy
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I’ve been following you on Twitter since I discovered the Teal Cat Project. I’m doing my agnostic version of praying for you and your fellow East Coasters. Be safe.
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i didn’t even notice the imperfection until you pointed it out. anyway, it looks super cute on you, anna. :)
about irene — sending cozy wozy, warm, happy thoughts your way — stay SAFE!
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WOAH. These are AMAZING! I’m definitely going to have to get these. I use those Konad image plates to get some fun patterns. But those look way easier haha.
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I LOVE NEW YORKERS! The nails come before the thought of impending hurricane.
The nails look great, wish we had that kind of thing here in the UK.
I am sending out positive thoughts for everyone along the coastline for the next few days, I hope that it all ‘blows over’ without damaging anything or anyone. LOVE the blog, sorry about your kitchen ceiling but glad you got there in time to turn off the gas! x I have put my website on because it has asked for it but please feel free to delete it, i don’t want to spam
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Ooooh, Becca, the blog link is fine! That note is about pasting blog links into the comments field—I used to get a lot of “comments” from people that were like, “Nice post! Please look at my blog.” Then they’d paste the link underneath. Putting your blog URL into the correct field is welcome and appreciated! I discover lots of new blogs that way. :)
Hi Anna!
We’ve have heard of Irene here in Germany too. Hope you will be ok.
Oh, and I like the nails! Too bad we don’t have anything like that here because I’m a lazy person when it comes to put on nailpolish :-)
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Your nails = cool. Sounds perfect for me because as soon as I do my nails I can’t help but use my hands. Just googled them and found a company in Germany that has nail strips. Buying today.
Been watching NY news on the web. Please stay safe!
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Have you ever been to a palm reader? I noticed that you have lots and lots of little lines in your palm — I do, too — and I went to a palm reader once (at like the Muscular Dystrophy Carnival in someone’s back yard when I was 13) who said something about what all the little lines mean, but I can’t remember what she said (and she was probably some neighborhood mother high on valium and perhaps not the most trusted source of palmistry information, unlike an *actual* gypsy). I want to go again to a more legit palm reader (okay, one who wears a turban), but they always seem so expensive.
Stay safe in the storm — I’m in Western Mass and the sky here was magenta at 5:30 AM. The weathermen might actually be right for once.
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I don’t believe in palm-reading…or anything along those lines. I guess it could be a fun party trick, but don’t give anyone your money to do it! As you best friend (maybe she should take some Valium first, ha ha) to “read your palm”—the results will be just as accurate as if you went to a “legit” palm reader. I promise. :)
Those nails are SHITHOT!
Also good luck with the impending doom weather. I think we’re having a mini-Irene at the moment in London- the front door is shaking from the wind. Be safe!
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Stay safe Anna, Evan, Bruno and Fritz! Fingers crossed Irene causes little or no damage along her path.
Your nails are boo-ti-ful! I’m a bit of a nail polish addict and would love to try these effect strips. My nails are in awful condition at the moment though, I recently reduced the amount of dairy in my diet and the reduction of calcium has taken it’s toll. I’m actually about to run out the door to go to the chemist and by some Sally Hansen goodness to help me out!
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stay safe!
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Have fun in the hurricane! It is so weird NYC is getting it and here in Florida we were totally unaffected. Hurricanes bring lots of great excuses to stay indoors, eat junk food, and drink too much. The wind will be fun to watch (fun, meaning as long as no one gets hurt). Party time!
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Good luck with the ceiling and the storm! Love the nails, too. But here’s tip (I also have the super short nails) you will not be able to get two manicures out of the kit because the decals stop adhering a few hours after you open the vacuum sealed pack.They have to be used right away or not at all. What I did to try and squeeze more out of it, was put them on my toes. And they looked awesome.
Happy hurricane weekend.
xx
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Hallie, I actually cut the strips in half horizontally, so I got two applications out of each strip. I only opened one of the two packages!
Oh you clever girl!
even your freakin’ nails are well designed. sigh.
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Yeah, but check out how uneven the kerning between my fingers is in the second photo. ;)
cover with top coat it’ll last longer
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I did!
I did these after reading your post. I screwed up a couple, since it was my first time, but they still looked pretty good — the pink glitter stayed on for much longer than I thought. I cut them in half, since I have short nails. Thanks for the tip.
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