Recent NOTD: Ministry of Beauty Ultra-Reflect Artificial Nails

I know it's Wednesday, which should mean a nail wheel, but since we in the U.S. had a holiday on Monday, it's effectively Tuesday, so there is no wheel this week but instead the post I planned to do yesterday but didn't because I had a lunch meeting and left earlier than usual to try and beat a big rainstorm (which I didn't quite manage, but at least I only had to deal with sheets of rain for the last third of my commute instead of the whole thing).

I included Ministry of Beauty (MOB) artificial nails I saw at Meijer in a display post back in April. I didn't buy anything from that display at the time I spotted it, thinking about all the Maybelline Nail Falsies I snapped up when they went on clearance which have been sitting in my stash untouched. My resolve lasted until I stopped at Meijer near the end of April on my way to visit my mom in Illinois (I figure I might as well combine a restroom stop with nail polish display hunting, since not all Meijer stores have the same stuff at the same time, and most Meijers also have gas so it's like three birds with one stone if I'm due for a fill up as well). I'd been too busy to do my nails before I left, so was extra susceptible to the lure of the fakes when I saw the MOB display again at this store—I could go from plain to fancy nails in almost no time by just sticking these on. Thus I found myself back out in my car with a box of the Ultra-Reflect nails in the purple/olive/gold multichrome colorway (I didn't see any names on the boxes for any of the designs, though it's possible I missed them).



I went ahead and put them on right there in the car. Like the Maybelline ones, the nails are numbered on the underside so it's easy to keep the sizes straight and make sure that the nails on one hand are the same sizes as on the other hand. Unlike some of the Maybelline ones, I didn't notice any burrs on the edges of any of the nails that I needed to file off.



I think I could have chosen better sizes in some cases, but that's not the nails' fault. In most cases, I was able to get a good fit, though the base curve of the fake nails was more square than my own base curve, which left a bigger gap than I liked (the sides of the nail touched before the center when I was snugging them up to the base of my nails). Still, they were so shiny and distracting, I don't think the gap was especially noticeable in anything but macro photos.







The adhesive tabs that came with these were quite low-profile; combined with how thin (but not too bendy) the nails themselves were, this meant they were quite flat against my nail. (Also, look at this color shift below—these are the same nails, in the same light, just at an angle that makes them mostly blue.)



These very nearly were the shortest-lived NOTD ever when at my next stop, I broke a bottle of nail polish at at Sally Beauty and got bright pink all over my fingers and nails (it was the OPI anniversary creme, for the record).



Since I happened to be traveling with a full complement of removers and tools, I was able to clean up with minimal damage to the nails, though I did end up removing bits of the shiny finish in some spots along the tips. No matter, they were still pretty, and pretty distracting what with the shifting colors.







I'd intended to just wear these for the weekend but liked them so much I kept them on for most of the workweek, too. The adhesive on these tabs was different than other nails I've used before; when it failed, it didn't let go all at once leading to nails popping off, but rather let go gradually, so I'd have a loose nail, like a loose tooth. That was good, since it let me remove and replace the sticky bit before I actually lost the nail. (The pack came with three full sets of adhesive tabs, so there were plenty of extras.) In the five days I wore these, I had to re-attach three or four nails. The shiny surface of the nails held up pretty well; by day five I noticed some very thin scratches and some spots at the tips where the caoting seemed to be peeling away, but some of that could be due to exposure to the remover when I was cleaning up the polish spill days before.







I got a lot of comments and compliments while wearing these; they are quite eye catching. I loved the adhesive tabs that came with these. Even though I feel like I had to re-stick more nails than with other brands, I thought it was worth it for the lower profile look and the gradual way they came off. When it was time to remove them, they came off easily with no damage to my nails. Depending on how well the glue was holding, I either tugged the nail off by sliding it down toward the tip of my finger or used a metal cuticle pusher tool to loosen and remove the nail. Any adhesive left after the fake nail was gone just rolled off my natural nail like rubber cement. Based on how well I liked these, I wore a different design shortly after I took these off, but I'll save those for another post. Apparently not everyone liked these as much as I did, as when I went back to Meijer to get more, they were already on clearance.