Hi guys! As , here is a mini-review of Sally Hansen's Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips in 'Mod About You!' I'm calling this a "mini-review" because I didn't plan to review these at first, and didn't take any 'before' photos or capture any photos of the application process. Hopefully, you can still get a good idea!
I'm sure most of you have seen the Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail strips in drugstores. They've been out a couple of years now...I think? I didn't save the 'Mod About You' packaging, but I do have the package from a different set I can show you:
This design is called 'Check It Out,' and is a basic houndstooth pattern. I obtained both of these sets of nail strips in a blog sale over a year ago, and these particular patterns have been discontinued, although you may be able to pick them up online somewhere.
I guess they're 3-free!
Inside:
Inside the box are two sealed foil packets of nail strips, each containing 8 individual strips of varying sizes. (Each of the two packs has the same 8 strips, so you get two of each size.) There is also a little packet that has an orange stick, nail file, and instructions.
I do have some of the leftover strips from 'Mod About You' I can show you:
Those two bigger strips are clearly intended for thumbnails, and were much too large for mine. There was another set of thumbnail ones, which I did end up using, that were still slightly too large. Mostly, though, I found that these were sized very well, and I was able to find strips that fit my nail beds well (aside from the thumbs).
The smallest sizes (not pictured here) I did use for my pinkies, so if your nails are really small or narrow, these might not have a size suitable for you! I suppose you could always trim them down though?
Here are the Sally Hansen nails strips in action! I'm touching a red sandstone outcropping at Red Rocks Park, CO!
In those above photos, the strips had been on my nails for 7 days exactly. The box claims up to 10 days of wear time, so we'll talk about that.
In Colorado, I did a ton of hiking everyday, and a lot of the hikes were all-day endeavors. Many included scrambling. Scrambling, or alpine scrambling, basically entails using your hands to ascend rocks or steep rock faces. It's somewhere between hiking and rock climbing. And, obviously, it's super rough on your hands and nails.
So, you can see that, by day seven, I had major chips on two nails, tipwear, and the middle finger nail had some flaking? at the cuticle line. I believe I tested these nail strips under extreme conditions, so I'll just come out and say that I'm really impressed with how well they held up!
I took close-up pictures when I got home. Here is how they appear on day 10:
You can see the wear and damage I'd previously mentioned, and the tipwear is a little more noticeable, but no new chips have formed or flaked off from previous chips. That's good news! I must mention that I did wear topcoat over these, since I wanted them to last as long as possible. I used one coat of American Classic- Gelous plus one coat of INM- Out The Door.
I did originally apply these (to ultra-nubs) almost right against the cuticle line, so the gap you see is about ten day's nail growth for me. (The power of Biotin- woop!).
About application:
I found these strips much easier to apply than either Jamberry nail wraps or Incoco nail polish strips! They are very thin & flexible- stretchy, almost. In fact, the directions suggest you stretch them slightly over the tip of your nail to get a good fit. That actually did work for me.
I really like the texture of them; they were not thick and plasticky like the Jamberry wraps. If you're not careful when stretching them, it is possible to tear them, and that happened to me once when I was being too cavalier. However, the benefits of the strips being thin definitely outweigh the risk of them tearing. The thin, flexible nature makes them easy to apply to the nail surface, smooth down- and, the excess is easy to file off once you wrap the tip of your nail.
I didn't encounter any problems with fitting them to the curvature of my nails, and any potential wrinkles were easy to smooth out due to the stretchy, thin nature of the strips. I also appreciated that I didn't need a heat source to 'melt' them onto my nails.
Sally Hansen claims these are easily removed with normal nail polish remover. I used nail polish remover containing acetone, and for the most part I found that to be true. They took a little more soaking/ work than your normal creme polish, but not nearly as much effort as a stubborn glitter. It was almost like you had to get through a layer of paper first? The darkest purple triangles in the design were the last bits to succumb to the remover, for whatever reason. All in all, not bad.
Overall:
I like these a lot! The wear time and durability was more than I was hoping for, and application was very easy. I do recommend wearing a top coat over them, for protection, but no base coat is strictly necessary. I suppose my one criticism would be the limited range of sizes included in each set. I can see that what's included might not be ideal for everyone's nail size/ shape. Price-wise, I was inclined to consider these expensive at ~9$ to ~10$ USD per set (check Amazon for cheaper!!), but considering how long they lasted, and the quality of application, I actually think that's almost a fair price.
What do you think?
Have you tried the Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips?
What a fun design on this set! I have a few of these on hand but I haven't tried them out yet. I might have to give them a go soon.
ReplyI love that design! I have a black and white check design at home which I wore once, but to be honest, I found that the strips don't hold up that long. I think I wore mine for about 3 days until they came off, I think partially because I went to a country with a lot of humidity, so that may have killed them for me.
ReplyI'll be interested to know how it goes for you! People can be really particular about their nail appliques, lol!
ReplyYea, I bet humidity does play a role! Incoco strips have lasted well in the past for me too...
Reply