Protective Nails of the Day

I am home from nearly a month on the road! There's so much unpacking and laundry and such to be done, most of which I haven't gotten to yet because a friend and her dog came up to visit for the weekend soon after I returned. I'm now one week into a manicure intended to protect my nails from the rigors of moving luggage in and out of hotel rooms as I drove back over three days and all the reaching into suitcases and the washing machine and dryer as I settle back in. If you've been reading a while, you've probably already guessed that it's fake nails to the rescue. This particular set is from Pretty Woman, some Designer Nails I picked up on my trip in (I think) Billings, Montana. I don't see any name on the box, just the item number PD1004. They're a long-ish coffin shape, most in a pale peachy pink solid color with a few accent nails in a coordinated microglitter finish.



There are 24 nails in the box; I didn't have any issues finding sizes to fit my fingers. I was frustrated that the accent thumb nails weren't the best fit for me, so I had to have plain thumbs, but that's just how it goes. I used the adhesive tabs to apply them; those seemed a bit short for my bigger fingers (all the tabs are the same height and just differ in width). I'd describe the nails as thin but sturdy; they didn't feel heavy on my nails nor did they seem too bendy to do the job of protecting my natural nail tips underneath. The shape was not something I'm used to—the corners on the tips felt very sharp and pointy to me the first day or so I wore them. After that, I either got used to them or they wore down and smoothed out a bit due to normal use. They still felt long to me but weren't as distracting.



As with most other pointy fakes I've tried, the edges of the nails tapered down too quickly to cover my real nails at the sides of the tips; that bothered me when I first put them on but then I forgot about it; the pale color of the fakes blended fairly well with my skin and nails so it wasn't obvious where the gaps were.



Within twelve hours of putting them on, I popped off the first nail when the sticky tab lost its grip. I re-affixed the nail with glue (also included in the box) and just kept doing that as the tabs failed. By a few days in, all the nails were glued on, and they mostly stayed (in a couple cases, a hard knock of a tip against a hard surface would dislodge them, but regluing was easy).



The last morning of my drive back, I melted the tip of my left index finger nail when I got it too close to a hot toaster in the hotel when fishing my bagel out. It didn't deform too much, fortunately.



After I got home, I decided to clip off the melted part of that one nail and shorten the others to match, filing them all into a more rounded shape that feels more comfortable to me.



I think I can get a few more days wear out of these before the gap at the base starts to bother me, so that's what I shall do. Perhaps I'll reward myself with a new manicure after I finish my unpacking!