How To: Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

I'm sure you've seen these around and, if you're like me and love doing your nails, you've been dying to try these, too! These have been sold out by me forever, so when I saw them in stock, I stocked up! Here is a little how to guide on how these things work using "Laced Up" and how you can wear them. Enjoy!

What's Included:

• 16 Nail Polish Strips
• Cuticle Stick
• Mini File & Buffer

Preparation:
Remove any nail polish from your nails. File and shape your nails to your liking and push back your cuticles with the wooden stick provided. The instruction manual tells you to "shape free edge of nail with hot pink side of file" and "gently smooth surface of nails with white side of file." I didn't do this, but if you're nails aren't smooth, make sure to complete this step! I like to give my nails one last swipe of nail polish remover (and I didn't notice this, but the instructions say to do this as well!) so that I know my nails are ready to go.

Step One:
Open up the packet of nail strips and decide which strip fits your nail best. The nail strips do stretch a little bit, so you will be able to move it around. However, when I try that they usually (but not always) break, so if I don't find a perfect one, I like to just go bigger and then file it off.


Step Two:
By lifting up the blue tap, peel off the clear plastic and discard. Using your nail to push down on the crease (so that it doesn't rip off in a weird way), break off the silver tab.

Step Three:
Pick which side of the nail fits best (one side will be bigger than the other) and apply to your nail. Begin by placing it on the cuticle line and then fitting it to the rest of the nail. If necessary, gently stretch the strip to fit your nail. Press hard on the strip to make sure that it will stay and that it is sticking. Hold for a few seconds.

Step Four:
Once the nail strip is completely stuck to your nail, you'll notice that you have a lot of extra hanging off. Take the rough side of the nail file. You're going to push down on the nail polish strip so that it's almost forming an L with the extra hanging off. File against the tip of your nail and watch as the remainder of the strip falls off. If you have any excess on the sides of the nail or by the cuticle, you can file that off as well.


Repeat steps one through four for all your nails.

That's all there is to it and now you have pretty, unique, fancy nails! Here is a picture of one completed hand:


And here is a picture of the big mess I created!


Have you ever tried Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips? What's your favorite design?