press-on nails: a review.

For the last month or so, I have been on a white-hot press-on nail tear.

Which is completely unlike me.

Up until mid-October, I had never had press-on nails in my life.

Until one day, I got sick of my own stupid nails and decided to go for it.

You see, I - like basically everyone - prefer it when my nails look nice. One of my good friends will give me gel manicures, but she doesn't always have time for that. I liked the nail wraps (Colorstreet, etc), but those started to wreak havoc on my nails. And painting them? With two small children, that was out of the question. As was going to a salon to get them done - not enough time, and yikes the money.

Enter: the press-on nail.

Like a good librarian, I did my research before I bought my first press-on nails to try. Olive & June emerged as a clear favorite, so they were the first ones I decided to try. But then something just snapped, and I ordered a zillion other brands in a frenzy to keep myself distracted. 

And by "something," I mean "an intense state of depression and anxiety brought on by the election/cold/Daylight Savings/the endless cycle of thankless labor that is being a parent of young children."

Anyway.

Olive & June

NOTE: I tried these two different times - once with the glue (left) and once with the adhesive tabs (right). The adhesive tabs were better.

pros: 

They are a great price point at $8 for the adhesive ones and $10 for the glue-ons.

They are a favorite of beauty editors and magazines, so they were the first ones I opted to try.

The designs are CUTE, and they had options like chrome and a velvet effect. And glow-in-the-dark! I'm a sucker for glow-in-the-dark.

Reusable! That is, if you don't bust them all like I did with the first set.

cons:

You had to spend $45 to get free shipping, which, boo. That's a shit ton of fake nails when you're not sure if you want to commit. 

There were SO MANY SIZES. That could be a pro, but it also took sooooo long to find which ones would fit me best. The numbers to correspond to the sizes were very hard to read.

Since they were the first, it really could be my fault, but these popped off like crazy. One fell off within six hours, and within three days, almost all of them had fallen off and had to be re-glued at one time or another.

The nails were very curved. That could also be a factor in them not sticking.

They were super fragile. I broke a big piece off the side of my thumb the same afternoon I put them on (without doing anything vigorous; I didn't even know it happened).

All in all, I took them off after about four days.

imPress

pros:

They are a good price, and there are always coupon codes available. 

They have TONS of patterns and colors. This one has the second best variety (behind CurvLife). 

The adhesive is incredible. After a week, not one of the nails had budged. Not a one. I had to take them off manually, and even that was pretty easy. 

imPress also offers free shipping at $25, which is great - you don't have to spend a ton.

cons:

The nails were fairly thick, but this could also be user error since this was only my second pair of nails. However, I couldn't get any of them to lay down at my cuticle. That meant every time I tried to do anything AT ALL with my hair - ponytail, washing, etc - my hair got caught. It drove me nuts. The nails would have stayed on way longer than a week, but I took them off because of that.

The nails are not reusable because they are made of gel, not plastic. When you peel them off, they'll get all misshapen. However, the box comes with a whole lot of nails, so you might be able to get two manicures out of it.

CurvLife

pros:

They have a truly astounding variety of designs. Fancy designs are really what I'm in this for.

It was fairly easy to find my size.

They are quite affordable and go on sale all the time.

cons:

The set I'm wearing in this particular photo was gorgeous, but the iridescent coat scratched off like crazy. I put a topcoat on it, but the topcoat itself sloughed off after a day.

The adhesive stickers are a pain in the butt to work with and do not last. These nails too forever to put on because of it. My first nail fell off after a few hours.

The glue isn't much better. Once the adhesive stickers let go, I removed all the residue from the fake nail and my real nail and tried again with the glue. Still no dice. I took them off after four days since I was tired of resticking them constantly. 

These claim to be reusable - I tried a couple when I put on my white nails from Olive & June, but they fell off a lot. I'm not so sure.

Dashing Diva

I wore these on Election Day when
I still had hope for humanity. Sigh.

pros:

I LOVE their designs. Look at those fabulous sparkly accent nails.

These were probably the easiest to put on so far, but I couldn't tell you if that was the nails themselves or me gaining experience. 

The adhesive tapes were right on the nail, and the numbers were printed on the tab, making the sizes really easy to find. 

The internet says they're reusable - you just have to get new adhesive tabs, of course.

cons:

They were very thin at the tips and snagged easily. I was constantly trimming and filing them. They also didn't lie down very well at the cuticle. I'm not sure how long they would have lasted, but I anxiety-picked them off after four days.

Also, don't bother with their nail art stickers. They're trash.

Ivy & Ash

pros:

Phineas loved the color!

Supposedly reusable.

cons:

Expensive. I bought these on sale from a local boutique. 

They are SOOOOO long. I decided I was going to give longer ones the old college try, but I lasted about an hour before I was looking for a fingernail clipper like a freaking crackhead. 

I also couldn't get them to lie down at the cuticle, so they caught my hair. 

I took these off after four days as well. 

Ardell

pros:

Inexpensive. I also loved the designs.

Reusable - though I'm not sure I want to.

cons:

Even the "short" ones are ridiculously long. Like ridiculous. It took a super long time to trim them down to size and file them. 

The glue in my kit was completely solid and unusable. Luckily, I had extra sticky tabs from other kits, but if I hadn't, I would have been really upset.

They also look super fake, which I don't love. 

Glamnetic

pros:

These are highly rated among testers and beauty magazines.

They are THICK and high quality. These aren't breaking any time soon.

These are really easy to get on right at the cuticle so they lay flat - they're not going to get caught on my hair. I love that.

Reusable.

Glamnetic glue is supposed to be the holy grail of the nail glues, but in my experience, it's good and bad. I had at least one nail fly off each day from my left hand, but my right hand nails held strong until I took them off myself. 

cons:

Holy expensive - $20 a set. I bought these on sale from Ulta.

LONG. I'm wearing the "short almond" variety. I'm typing this as I'm wearing them, and it's really freaking hard. 

They don't have nearly as many fun patterns and effects as the other brands do.

This particular set is kind of see-through, so you can tell where the glue is. They claim to be re-usable, but I'm not too sure about that.

Glamnetic is one of several brands that claim to last "up to" 14 days. I'd like to know who these people are who can get 14 days out of these nails - especially the glue-on ones. They must have someone wait on them at all times; I can't even last a day without one of these things falling off.

Static

pros:

These are highly rated among testers and beauty magazines.

They also lie flat against my cuticles and don't get caught in my hair. Major points for this. 

I am kind of obsessed with these pink nails. I hope they are reusable as they claim, because I am in a serious relationship with them.

cons:

Lots of French nail options, which I don't particularly care for. (except for the pair I got - I feel like Barbie.)

They are expensive - $20 a set, BLECH. I bought this set on clearance.

The glue was terrible. These took me much longer to put on than I expected - and since these are my 9th set of nails, I'm basically a professional. Within the first six hours of wearing these, I'd reglued several nails at least five times, AND I'd lost one of them.

These are also pretty long for the "short" variety. I'm finding out that the almond shape for sure isn't for me, as the "short" tends to be longer than my comfort level. 

TAKEAWAYS

There are a lot more press-on nails out there, but I'm a little bit anxious to share these with you. I've been at this since before Halloween, after all.

Hands-down my favorites are the nails that have the adhesive right on them: imPress and Dashing Diva. I do love the glue-on nails that lay flat against my cuticles, though, like Glamnetic and Static - I can't handle getting my hair stuck under my nails. 

I need something that can handle my every-day life - I have kids, so I wash my hands a lot. I work in a library, so I'm handling books and typing and doing all sorts of not-gentle things to my hands. I am just not in the business of consciously looking out for my nails. That's why the glue-on doesn't work for me: if you bonk or snag your nail wrong, that fake nail is going to go flying, never to be seen again. Or if it is seen again, it's definitely going to gross someone out later.

THE VERDICT

My number one choice would have to be imPress. They've got the adhesive right on the nail (my favorite), so they're not going anywhere. They also have a solid amount of designs, both ultra fancy and straight-to-the-point. Plus, at $8-$12 per kit (and there's always a coupon code), the price right where you want it.

All in all, I am absolutely a fake nail convert after all this - it's a really fun, fast, and inexpensive way to brighten up your nails (or, in my case, your life when things are dragging you down). It's the little things, right?