Recent NOTD: Perl Nail Fashion Strips

I got the opportunity to recently to review some full nail stickers from Perl. The design they sent was Zebra-tude, a zebra stripe in silver glitter and black. Somewhere on its journey from Canada, the box got a little crushed, but the contents were fine.



The box has 20 strips total in two sealed packs, a mini cuticle stick, a file, and instructions.



The application process for these is basically the same as for the Sally Hansen strips: pick the right size of strip, remove protective backing and top sheet, smooth onto nail, remove the excess strip with the file, use the flat end of the cuticle stick to make sure the edges are stuck down. The Perl strips are thicker than the Sally Hansen ones but thinner than some other nail stickers I've used (like Essence Studio Nails). That thickness makes them a bit easier to handle than the Sally Hansen ones, as I wasn't worried about them folding into themselves and getting stuck or tearing if I pulled too hard (though it's been a while since I had those issues with the SH as I've got so much practice with them now). I've got fairly curved nail beds, so I was a little concerned the thickness would mean it was harder to bend them to conform to my nails, but it wasn't an issue. To make extra sure they were secure, I blew hot air from my hairdryer on my hands for a few seconds to make the strips more pliable and then smoothed them down real well. These wouldn't be as easy as the Sally Hansen cut in half and use one strip for two short nails, as the end of the strip closest to the tab is not perforated in a curve the way the SH are, but since there are 10 strips in each pack (compared to eight for SH) that wasn't a problem. I've still got a full pack of 10 left for next time.







After four days of wear, these were holding up pretty well. I had no lifting of the strips or rips or chips at the edges. I did have some tipwear and the glitter was starting to show through the black in a few spots, but that last part almost looked intentional, like it was sparkly stripes on a more sparkly background.



The directions said to peel these off, which made me nervous because I worried about some of my nail going with the strip, but I worked slowly and carefully and when I was done, my nails looked fine, without any of that whiteish roughness I associate with peeling damage.

I haven't seen these strips in stores by me yet. They are available online direct from the Perl Fashion website. They're regularly priced at $9 (Canadian) a box; right now, all the designs I looked at are on sale for $7.70, with free shipping to the United States or Canada between now and the end of this year. I actually just ordered two boxes—a black and tan lace design and a pink jeweled dot one that looked intriguingly sheer (I've layered polish over strips before but not vice versa so I'm curious about that).

The strips shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.