Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
look natural, cheaper than a salon |
| Disadvantages: |
they come off easily, glue doesn't work ! |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
A few weeks ago I went away for the weekend, and before I went, I decided to apply some false nails, as mine were looking a bit ratty. They were all different lengths and I had used fake tan without washing it out from under my nails properly, so they had a disgusting yellow tinge to them. Not good. A few months ago I bought a Rio UV Nail kit, which allows you to apply gel tips to your nails without having to visit a salon. It was one of those stupid impulse buys and it stood in a box in the corner for months not being used. The night before I was due to leave I checked the instructions and found that it can take up to 2 ½ hours (!!!!) to apply the gel
nails… uh-oh
~~Plan B~~
A while ago I had bought a pack of nailene false nails from Boots. Again, this was another purchase that had been relegated to the back of the cupboard as soon as it got through my front door. I decided that I would have to use these instead, so, reading the instructions I was pleased to read that '
Nailene Nail Appliction is as easy as 1,2,3'
Perfect.
~~About the kit~~
The kit itself comes in a small box with a window in the front through which you can see the false nails. All nails are full size, and ready painted. Nailene do various different designs, from plain French manicure, through to fancy airbrush or jewel encrusted designs. I chose a French manicure design with shimmery polish.The kit contains:
- 20 French Manicure Nails - all different sizes to fit nails of all shapes
- Manicure stick (otherwise known as an orange stick, this is used to push cuticles back)
- 2gm/ .07oz nail glue
~~Applying them~~The instructions are on the side of the box, and are pretty simple to follow.
Step 1: Remove any nail polish, then clean and dry your nails. (easy enough)
Step 2: Gently push back cuticles - this is easy and as I said above an orange stick is provided - then you must lightly buff the surface of the nail. Luckily I have a nail buffer.
Step 3: Pre-select nail for each finger - this was fairly easy, as because the kit contains extra nails of all sizes, you are almost guaranteed to find ones to fit your nails. Then you need to spread a thin, even layer of glue onto your entire nail, place the false one over the top and press firmly for 5-10 seconds.
I found steps one and two easy enough to follow, but I encountered my first problem with step 3….
~~Problem 1~~
The nail glue comes in a small tube, with a long pointed nozzle, which needs to be punctured with a pin. I did this and held the tube upside down over my nail, but nothing came out. I tried squeezing the sides, but the tube was solid. Thinking perhaps I hadn't punctured it correctly I tried again, this time with a longer pin. Yes, the tube definitely had been punctured, but it seemed all the glue inside had dried up. To say I was hacked off was an understatement, but then I remembered my Rio nail kit, and so decided to use the glue out of there. I found the nails pretty easy to apply from then on.
~~Problem 2~~
I now had a full set of nails, but now I had another problem. Although the box states the pre-coloured nails never chip, it didn't mention that the polish wears off. Some of the shimmer on a few of the nails seemed to be wearing off slightly, confirmed by the patches of silver on my hands.
~~Problem 3~~
Now despite the fact the polish seemed to be wearing off from the tips of my nail, they still looked quite presentable, and a lot better than my natural nails. I left the house feeling quite pleased with the way they looked, but by the time I got from my house to the bus stop (literally 5 minutes, if that) I had one nail missing. Now, fair enough, this could be because I used a different glue, but having just 9 nails didn't look quite as
elegant as when I had all ten! By the end of the day I was down to 6, and I didn't notice any of them ping off at all, so I'm at a loss as to how they came off. The box advises that these should last for 10 days.
~~Removing them~~
At the end of my first day of wearing these, I knew I had to remove my remaining six nails, as they were starting to look a bit ridiculous! The pack recommends using Nailene's artificial nail and polish remover, but as I was now on my weekend away I didn't have any with me, and resorted to biting the nails off! Now, that's not as painful as it sounds, if you squeeze each side of your nail gently with your teeth they just sort of ping off. It's not the best way to do it as it can cause damage to your nail bed, but luckily all I was left with was a bit of dried on glue left on my nails, which came off after washing my hands.
~~Appearance~~
As I said above, I was fairly pleased with the look of these nails. I would say they looked around 75% natural to me, but maybe that's because I knew they weren't? Maybe to the untrained eye they could look natural, but I'm not sure, there was something about them that just looked a little too plastic. My boyfriend did complement them though, so at least they passed the man test!
~~Cost and Availability~~
These cost around £5.99 from Boots, and I have seen them in Superdrug for a similar
price. You can visit www.nailene.com but this is a US site and I don't think you can order from it.
~~My Verdict~~
I was very disappointed about the whole glue situation with these, but I think that if I had bought a box which had non-solidified glue, there would definitely be a few more stars on this product rating. I wouldn't say no to trying them again, but perhaps I would try the self stick nails instead, or at least buy an extra tube of glue.
