Nailed It: A Mini Review of imPRESS Press-On Manicure

Hello, dear readers,

I am taking you back in time once again to my post on the spring Influenster VoxBox from last June. In case you're unfamiliar with Influenster, you can click here to find out more. One of the products sent to me in that VoxBox was the imPRESS Press-On Manicure from Broadway Nails. The pattern I received was called "Over the Moon."

 

You can see in the image above that the kit contains 24 stick-on nails in 12 different sizes, cutely packaged in a fake plastic nail polish bottle. It claims to be "fast and easy" and to last up to a week.

The first thing I noticed about these nails was the cool pattern. If you're anything like me, you love nail art but have very little patience to sit down and create said nail art yourself. I tend to only paint fancy or funky designs for special occasions [See: New Year's Eve 2011, Harry Potter opening night]. As you may imagine, I was pretty excited to have the lazy girl's version of quality nail art. The pattern here is made up of abstract deep red and gold swirls, for lack of a better word.

It's safe to say that I checked "excellent pattern" off the list. After that, I was slightly dismayed to take a closer look at the size of the nails. For reference, I have baby hands. I kid you not; I will never be a hand model with digits this diminutive and childlike. With hands like mine come short, wide nails. Naturally, I found that hardly any of the press-on nails completely covered the width of my own nails. Now this was only visible to me, because they did come close, but it was still a disappointment. The length was, quite frankly, laughable. Here is a view of my hand with the nails at their full length:

Baby hands + Talons = Not on my watch

Some people may like the look of talons, but I like to be able to use my hands. I took a pair of nail scissors to these straightaway after the initial application, hacking them down to a more appropriate size. The application itself was simple: I took the nails I wanted; laid them out in the desired order; and one at a time, I pressed the nails on.

Cutting them, however, was a pain. I had to cut into the adhesive that makes these products stick, and that left me with little balled up gluey bits between the fake nails and my real fingers. I peeled these off, but red glue kept coming through. Not enough to be noticeable to anyone else, but slightly irritating nonetheless. This is what they looked like after I cut them:

Baby hands with baby sized nails.

Much more to my taste. Aside from the sizing issues and the bits of glue reappearing throughout the 6 days I wore them, these nails didn't budge. They would have lasted one more day, but I had no patience for them anymore. The reason? They felt heavy to me, and I was eager for a change. I will say that I got several compliments on them, and my summer internship boss thought I painted them myself. Now that's what I call a success. Another bonus: No nasty chemical smell.

These nails retail from somewhere between $5 and $9 on average. I personally wouldn't purchase them, because I prefer painting my own nails. With this price point, I think it's more economical to buy a bottle of polish that will allow for numerous applications rather than the two applications this provides. I don't have the patience to painstakingly re-size all the nails either, nor do I adore the heavy feeling.

What I can say is that this product lives up to its claims. It is indeed easy to use, and it will last up to a week. There are other patterns available, and the convenience factor of pretty nail art with no effort is appealing. If you want a super simple, quick way to get professional looking nails and can't stand the smell of regular polish, I'd say checking these out would be worth your time.

As for me, I'll stick with the noxious fumes DIY approach.

How do you like to do your nails?

xEsther