OPI xPress/On Nails

For the second week of my trip, I wore a set of OPI fake nails, my first time trying this brand's offering. I chose 100% That Scorpio from their zodiac collection (I'll share other signs from that in a future display post). I'm not a Scorpio, but I really liked the purple/green/blue multichrome effect. This set's shape is Classic, which I'd call oval.

 

After I opened the package, I struggled to find sizes that fit my nails. The assortment was very much skewed toward the smaller end. Other brands I've used have had a more even distribution, and my hands are not small, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to make this work.

 

I did the best I could with the sizes, but it wasn't great, especially the over large nail I had to put on my middle finger. As with the Ardell nails I shared in my last post, these came with glue but I used adhesive tabs.

 

The shift in these was strong and fun to look at.

 

The shape of these at the tips did expose some of my natural nails, which wasn't ideal, but the shiftiness of the fakes was distracting enough that I could ignore that after a while.

 

These nails did not like the adhesive tabs. I had the first nail pop off only a couple hours in, leaving the adhesive tab on my natural nail. Fortunately I found the nail, which is important as it was one of the larger ones and I didn't have a replacement for it. A few more instances of that, and I started using glue between the adhesive tab and the fake nail. That helped them stay on longer, though I still lost several even with the glue. That issue and the sizing make me less excited about trying other sets of these, though they have a lot of attractive ones and other shapes so I'll probably give them another chance or two.

Ardell Nail Addict Sun Kissed Nails

As usual, I had the best of intentions for posting more here now that I'm home, except I've been sick. I spent the first week after I got home thinking I was just tired from travel. Then I woke up with a swollen, red, goopy eye and decided I needed to get that checked out. I also had some bug bites that were not healing well, so I had the doctor look a those too. She gave me some antibiotics for the infection she diagnosed, and I took those for almost another week, feeling worse and worse rather than better. I went back to the doctor's this past Friday and saw a different professional and got some different drugs and have slowly been feeling better. Still don't know exactly what I've got, as the first sample they took wasn't usable when it got to the lab. Hoping to hear on the second sample when I go back on Wednesday. I have enough energy now to do more than huddle on the couch under a blanket, so today I've got one of the sets of fake nails I wore on my recent trip, the Ardell Nail Addict Sun Kissed in Color Cadet.

 

These came with nail glue only, but I used adhesive tabs instead since I continue to think they're less damaging to my nails. The fit and base shape of these worked pretty well with my own nails, though they were a tiny bit too square at the base. The pinky peach color indoors went nicely with my skintone, if maybe being a bit unexciting. The nail material was a bit on the sheer side, which meant some air bubbles between the adhesive tabs and the nails showed through, as well as my nail tips, which were shorter than the fakes. It bothered me at first but after a while I stopped noticing it, and I don't think anyone else saw those details the way I do.

 

In filtered sun, hints of pink showed up.

 

In full sun, they went to a light magenta.

 

I kept hoping I'd see the deeper purple shown on the box, but I never caught them doing that in the week I wore them. Here they are at a rest area somewhere along the road.

 

These stayed on pretty well with the tabs and the color change aspect was fun. I'd wear this style again.

Across the Ocean and Back Again

Hello! I am back from my month-long vacation which took me to/through 15 states plus one country outside of the U.S. It was a journey with a lot of different events and modes of transportation which took me and Mr. Karen to places both familiar to us and new. I put neutral (but a tiny bit sparkly because I'm me) polish on my toes and packed fake nails for my fingers and off I went. A few days before we left, I put on this set from imPress called Wash Away. It has light blue solid nails, light blue with tiny iridescent glitter nails, and light blue with a turquoise and navy flower and butterfly design nails. These started out medium length and square, but I cut and shaped them so they felt more comfortable and practical for me, as I often do with the longer fake nails.

 

Still looking good on day 6 (with the limited edition "XP Flavored" Coke limited edition).

 

I had a few nails loosen and need new adhesive tabs during the week I wore the blue set, so pretty standard. The next set of nails I used were from the Kiss Gel Fantasy Allure line. The box didn't have a name on it, but I looked online and these appear to be called How Dazzling. They have multi-sized iridescent glitter on a translucent ivory base. (The box was a bit worse for wear after being stuffed in a pocket of my suitcase for a week at that point.)

 

I used adhesive tabs for these, not the glue that came with them. I clipped and shaped them as I had the blue set. On the left, as they came from the box. On the right, how I wore them.

 

I wore the glittery nails for the whole second week of the trip. When it was time to change, I reached for a set I'd gotten off the Temu app, where they were described as "Press On Nails, Short Square Fake Nails, Beige French False Nails with Glitter Design, Glossy Clear Full Cover Acrylic Nails for Women and Girls; Color: Beige Cat Eye, Style: Gentle". The picture didn't appear to match a lot of those words, but for $3.48 I was willing to risk it.

 

These came with adhesive tabs. They were not short, so I clipped and filed them. They were a bit sheer, so before I shortened them, a hint of my natural nail tips showed through the fake nails in strong light.

 

Six days later, I hadn't lost a single nail. Those adhesive tabs were strong. I'm sure it helped that I didn't have my laptop with me, so wasn't banging my nails on a keyboard for a few hours a day like I tend to do at home.

 

I'd planned to change my nails again before the next phase of our trip, a seven-night transatlantic cruise, but they were holding up so well, I still had them on the day we boarded, a week after I'd applied them.

 

I figured I'd change to the last set I'd packed when I started to lose the beige cat eye ones as the adhesive got weakened, but they just kept hanging in there, so I ended up wearing them for the whole cruise and the multi-day drive home from New York to Idaho. There was definitely a gap at the base of my nails by that time, but given the neutral color of the nails it wasn't too noticeable.

 

On the trip, I was really trying to focus on experiences rather than buying things, so even though I saw polish and fake nails I don't have easy access to at home, I bought none of them. I'm kind of amazed at my self-control. I will have a display post up once I get through all the photos; hoping that won't take too long.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Perfect Manicure Nails, Part 2

I shared a while back about my experiences with the oval and square shapes of the Sally Hansen Perfect Manicure fake nail. Today I have a set of the almond shaped ones called Sweet as Candy, which has nails in five pastel creme shades: lavender, peach, yellow, blue, and pink.

 

When I got to selecting nails that fit me, I was surprised to see that nails in the same size weren't necessarily the same color as each other. I noticed it with the three or four biggest sizes. That's a bit unusual; in most sets, if there are only two of a size, they'll match. So I couldn't make my hands match each other, which is fine, especially for a Skittles set like this. Here's my right hand (the thumbnail is lavender):

 

And my left (the thumbnail is peach):

 

I wish I'd swapped the middle and thumb colors left to right, so there would have been more warm/cool balance on my non-thumb digits, but that probably wouldn't bother most people. As far as fit goes, these were pretty good for me, though I wished the bases were a bit narrower especially on the size that was the closest match to my middle finger. The shape is not my favorite, what with the scratchy point (even after I smoothed with the included file). The tip also curves down, maybe to make the point less likely to stab something.

 

I know I could probably get used to the shape and the length—indeed, I did type on my laptop with them on—but after a few hours, I clipped and filed them into more of an oval shape. Ah, much better for my lifestyle.

 

As with the previous sets, I used the adhesive tabs, and the nails stayed on decently well. What they didn't do was wear well. The colors don't go all through the nails but are applied on a white base, and after four days, the color was wearing off the tips of the nails and letting the white show. This was most noticeable on the fingers I use the most for grabbing things and such, but it was there on on all them to some extent by day five. Perhaps this was caused or at least made worse by my clipping and filing them to a new shape, except the color scraped off a small section of my index nail nowhere near the edge, so maybe not.

 

So far I've liked the solid color oval nails from Sally Hansen the best. Those didn't need clipping and filing to fit my life or nails and they wore well. I'm glad I tried these almond ones but I don't see myself getting more of them.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Perfect Manicure Nails

Two posts in one week? Believe it! Of course I had to try the Sally Hansen fake nails. The brand I have the longest relationship with comes out with a type of product I've been all over in recent years? A few sets were in my shopping cart so fast. I tried an oval set first, in the solid "creme" color Beet Pray Love.

 

These come with both glue and adhesive tabs. I used the tabs. The fit was good for me. The base curve and the c-curve of these matched my natural nails fairly well, and the length was long enough to cover my natural nails in the length I like to keep them without being so long that I felt the need to clip and file them.

 

That first set held up nicely, and I didn't have any more pop-offs than with any other brand, so I tried another oval set next: Ombre-lievable, which is a gradient French mani look. Again, I used the adhesive tabs.

 

These did not hold up well. Three days after I'd put them on, the white on the tips was wearing off and looked bad. I took them off days before I'd planned to.

 

More recently, I tried a square set, What a Star, which has dusty rose stars scattered on a pale pinky peach base color.

 

These did not fit my nails nearly as well as the ovals. The length was too short in most cases (and my nails are not long right now), leaving a gap at the base (yes, I could have filed my natural nails down, but I didn't want to lose that length. The base was too square and wide to fit the curve at my base. These are very square indeed.

 

I haven't tried the coffin or almond shapes yet, but plan to when I come across them again. I won't do the squares again; those just aren't a good fit for me.

Some Nails of the Day

So yeah, hi. I did disappear from here for September. As often happens, I didn't plan to, just put other things ahead of nail stuff on my priority list either due to necessity (nail stuff can be put off in a way that getting my car repaired cannot) or due to travel (I returned last week from last long trip of the year), and the longer I don't blog, the harder it feels to get back to it. Which is why I'm going to come back with a little NOTD post rather than trying to clear my backlog of display photos. I hope that if I can get this post done and published, working on the display one won't feel so daunting. When my nails grow out to what I consider my ideal length, the short length of imPress fakes don't provide the coverage I need, so I have to go with the medium length. Those have a more limited selection of designs, but I can still find things I like, such as the white with blue accents set called Riviera Paradise. I do find the medium length a bit long, so I clip and file them a bit so they feel right for me (and don't interfere with typing on my laptop).

 

I followed up that set with one called Indigo Autumn. Here they are out of the box, before I clipped and filed:

 

And after clipping and filing to reshape to look more like my natural nails:

 

For a palate cleanser, I used imPress Color in Sweet Love. These are clipped and filed to be less coffin-y:

 

On my nails right now I have a set of Kiss Gel Fantasy in a pink and silver glitter design. I don't have to clip this length shape that much; usually I just do my thumbs and middle fingers since those see disproportionately long for some reason (maybe because those are the fingers I tend to break the nails on most when I'm not wearing fakes). I like this more square shape since it protects the sides and corners of my natural nails better but they're harder to find in medium length than the coffins and other pointy shapes.

 

I haven't given up on regular polish, it's just the fakes are so easy to deal with when traveling or short on time at home. And no chipping to worry about, just losing nails once in a while and replacing them is fast and easy (less so when I actually lose the nail and have to clip and file the replacement, but still, easier than dealing with redoing liquid polish away from home.

Kiss Gel Fantasy Ready to Wear Nails

Sorry for my long absence from this blog. It's been a heck of a few weeks. My mother-in-law died somewhat unexpectedly in mid-February, and since then it's been a whirlwind of cleaning out her assisted living apartment, making arrangements, flying to Illinois for the burial, then having houseguests upon our return. Not all of that fell on me, of course, but it's been hard to find time to sit and write. The guests are still here and we'll be doing things with them for another week, but I've got a bit of time to myself today so wanted to pop in with a quick update. For the week of the apartment clean out, I wore a set of Kiss Gel Fantasy fakes, a limited edition design from several Christmas/holiday seasons ago featuring navy matte nails and multicolored glitter accents.

 

My natural nails have been in pretty good shape considering it's winter, which I attribute to keeping them protected with fakes most of the time, so yes, I want to continue that.

 

I used the adhesive tabs to attach them, so in a few minutes, my nails were done (and I hadn't risked gluing my fingers together). I really liked the glitter accent; it was just the right amount of flashy for me right then.

 

 

On the drive home from the apartment clearing/memorial arrangingg trip, nine days after I'd put the nails on, they were still looking pretty good. The matte nails were less matte, but no one who hadn't seen them fresh would notice that. I did have to reattach a few of them during the week, but on the whole they performed really well through all the sorting of stuff and packing and moving of boxes. I was pleased.

 

I kept them on another four days. The navy ones were pretty glow-y by then, but still the overall effect was looking good. Now I wish I'd bought all the boxes of these when they were around.

 

Given the houseguest situation, I'm not sure when I'll manage to post next. In a week or so, I'm hoping things will be calmer for me.

Favorite Fakes

My apologies for the lack of posts last week. We finally got a good weather window for me and Mr. Karen to go visit his mom in western Washington, so we took advantage of that and were gone all last week. I did take my laptop, but ended up not even taking it out of its bag. Instead, I did some tasks around my mother-in-law's assisted living apartment and entertained her while Mr. K took care of some financial things for her that needed to get done. She was having a good week, so evenings were filled with family dinners over at my sister-in-law's house. It seemed appropriate to come back here with a post about the nails I wore on an earlier visit last year. I didn't include them in my Nails of 2021 post because I couldn't pick just one picture of them, I liked them so well. They're a set of imPress press-on nails. I put them on sitting in the passenger seat of the car on our drive out. The set (called Goal Digger) has mirror finish multichrome nails in green/blue/purple with fine silver glitter accent nails, which I didn't end up using any of since I liked the multichrome ones so much.

 

These were just entertaining to look at as I moved my hand around. From the side view below, you can see the purple coming out, as well as the little hint of gold at the edges.

 

When the sun hit them just right, they looked a lot like magnetic polish. Still not sure how I managed the green/blue alternating colors here.

 

Finally, a range of colors in the hotel room mirror.

 

I have no idea if these are still available for purchase, but I might have to look next time I'm at a Fred Meyer or Walgreens or Rite Aid. Looking at these photos makes me want to wear this look again.

Nails of 2021

Nails of 2021 I looked back at the writing I did here this year and see only a few nails of the day posts. I wasn't suprised; my photo folders are stuffed with pictures I've taken but not posted, and most of those are NOTD looks. Between polish swatching/play sessions, I've almost always been wearing fake nails or nail strips from my stash because those are so easy (and the fakes are so protective). To kick off this year, I thought I'd share some of last year's NOTD, lest all those photos go to waste. Back in the day, when Meijer carried MOB (Ministry of Beauty) fake nails for a short time, I scooped up multiple sets when they went on clearance and wore several of those in 2021, including these blue Ultra-Reflect ones, sibling of the orchid ones I wore in 2015 and reviewed .

 

I wore several different sets of Maybelline Nail Falsies (most of those grabbed on clearance, too), including the Keep It Red reverse french set. I first wore this brand of fakes back in 2013.

 

Not all of my looks came from stash, though. I bought a set of the imPress Color nails that I first saw at Walgreens early last year. I tried a shimmery shade called Peanut Pink when my nails were in a shorties stage that these imPress would cover. These have the adhesive already applied to the nail which is easier than having to use separate tabs. I got good wear from them, too. I liked them so well, I bought and wore a couple more sets over the course of the year (Paralyzed Pink and Taupe Prize). They're good basics if the length works for you.

 

I wore L'Oreal Colour Riche Press-On Nails for the first time last year. I bought them in Canada back when going to Canada was still a thing that was possible (I think it is again, with proof of vaccination and a PCR test, but testing is such a mess right now I don't need to burden that system so I can go see what nail polish is a Shoppers Drug Mart). These fit my nails well though the length was on the short side so had to wait until I had a break that made me cut down my natural nails. The adhesive tabs were good and I got about 10 days of wear from this set.

 

I wore these Kiss Gel Fantasy medium length ones at Easter time because the colors reminded me of a bowl of candy, those pastel mints specifically.

 

I liked the wear I got from the one set of SinfulColors Claws I wore last year, these beige with slightly see through red tips, though this shape left the corners of my natural nails exposed so that wasn't great from a protection angle.

 

I tried Clutch Nails for the first time last year, having bought them at Target on impulse when I was there looking for something else. I got the Natural Nude set, and immediately after putting them on, cut them shorter so they felt more natural. These are glue ons, and I had a lot of trouble with nails just popping off and having to be reglued. That can happen with adhesive tabs, too, though those often get loose first so I have a warning.

 

My Halloween look was a pink and black set with spiders from Magic Press.

 

One issue I had with fake nails this year was some of the plastics would change color from my hair dye (it's been blue for a while now). I use semi-permanent dye, and when it's fresh, there's a fair bit of excess dye that comes off. Look how the pink and taupe (from another set I wore) went grey just from me having my fingers in my hair to braid it. This doesn't happen with all sets and fortunately the color change is even rather than streaky when it does happen.

 

I did a couple different sets of Fing'rs Prints nail when my own were short enough. I wore the plaid and black Rock Rebel ones around Thanksgiving.

 

I finished out the year in a couple Christmas sets, including this red and green glitter from Kiss.

 

At the moment, my nails just have a treatment base on them, as I couldn't decide what I wanted for the new year. Happy 2022 everyone! May we all have more joy this year.