Mariposa Allure & Striped

 As you may have guessed, my webby manicure last week didn't really turn out. It's sad, really, because I was excited for the color combination. Not to worry though - I'll revisit those colors for Thanksgiving, I think. 

In any case, I was cautiously optimistic about this week's manicure. I was offered free sets of nail "foils" (they're wraps manufactured in Germany, not like a traditional nail foil here) from Mariposa Allure to review, and the designs they sent were really fun. The pages feel like lighter versions of Jamberry Nails, and they don't require a hair dryer to apply, so I thought perhaps they'd be both easier and lighter on the nails. I read the instructions and FAQ on the web site, and decided to use one coat of base coat as advised for longer wear. 

For prep, I removed old polish, filed & buffed my nails, and applied one coat of base coat that I let dry completely. Then it was time to start the application...as suggested in the instructions, I used the enclosed orange stick to lift off one decal.

 Unfortunately, that decal was too short for my nail, and I had to pull it off. These don't stick again if you do that, so it was ruined, and it took what I thought was just base coat off as well. So I re-prepped that nail, and tried again with my ring finger.

 Yeah - that one doesn't fit at all, does it? Unfortunately, that was the longest decal on the sheet. So I would have had to cut this nail (and a few others) to use these. Still, I wanted to get at least one right, so I chose a shorter nail and tried again.

 Ack. Big wrinkle in the decal - I tried to stretch it just a tiny bit to get that fixed, and it wouldn't come up. So I folded the tip down, and used the included nail file to try to remove the excess, as instructed.

Unfortunately, the material the decals are made of is too thick for this method to work well, and it really didn't want to file off. I think fingernail scissors might have worked better, but I was losing patience at this point. Still, I felt the need to try again with another decal/nail. 

 It went slightly better, but I still had the issue of removing the excess material. After several minutes of filing with a fairly heavy hand on the tips, I gave up, and peeled the decals off.

 You can sort of see the damage these did to my nail beds above - I thought that was just base coat that lifted with the adhesive, but when I cleaned up my nails yet again with polish remover, soap & water, the damage remained. My nails aren't soft at all either - they're very hard, so to have the adhesive take that much material off the tops is pretty bad.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Mariposa Allure product. The only application I would consider it for would be fake nails that are short enough for the decals to fit. They were difficult to work with, and tore up my natural nails.

So there I was at 2am, tired and with bare, torn up nails. I was going to just toss a couple coats of polish on and call it good, but then I remembered I had another set of the Sally Hanson Salon Effects polish strips (still more of the free ones they sent me). No drying time or bottles at that hour were pretty appealing...

 

And 20 minutes later, I had fun & funky zebra nails! I know it sounds like a commercial and I did get these polish strips free, but I'm definitely going to keep a set on hand all the time, just for occasions like these. I would have been up much later yet if I'd had to do a full polish manicure last night.

My final thoughts? Skip the full-nail plastic decals, and stick to real polish, even for quick strips like these. The plastic ones just aren't worth the hassle or work - the polish strips are re-positionable, easy to apply, light to wear and remove with nail polish.

Obviously I won't be accepting any more of the full nail plastic wraps/decals for review. I may see what other brands of polish strips I can find for comparison though...and water decals would be good too, I think...

Until next week, happy polishing!