Easy Sticker Manicure for Only $5!!!

I have to admit that I was skeptical of the Sally Hansen “Salon Effects” nail polish strips. If it is so easy, unmessy, has really cool colors, and lasts so long, then why is it only $10 per box? I can’t even get a professional manicure for $10 with tip. Plus, the cool patterns are impossible for anyone to get at a manicurist unless you pay an inordinate amount of money. Okay, so I decided to give it a try.

I won’t hold you in suspense for much longer; the sticker manicure ended up working really well and they are now one of my current obsessions! Plus, I found a way to cut the price of each manicure in half bringing each box to last twice as long! I will save this secret for you to find out in the rest of the article.

I bought the Sally Hansen “Salon Effects” nail polish strips at CVS for $9.99 to review. I believe that you can get them for a dollar or two cheaper at larger stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and such. They had a wide selection, but I chose a cute neon-flower pattern one to try.

Since the fun of this is the novelty of the patterns as well as the ease of use, I would suggest trying a pattern or a fun glitter color for your first time.

First Steps

Each box comes with two unopened packages of nail stickers, one nail file, and a wooden stick for applying the nail stickers. I also used tweezers for pulling off excess sticker and for shaping. The stickers feel like rubbery soft stickers. They are easy to apply if you line them up with your nail.

Neat Trick

Additionally, I found a trick: you can use one nail sticker for two nails. I have fairly short nails, so one nail sticker ended up fitting onto two nails; one on each hand. So, I used 6 nail stickers for both hands, cutting the price of the ‘manicure’ down to $5 for me! And, it ended up looking pretty good; see the picture.

Also, I added in an extra tool: my tweezers. This gave me an extra level of precise control for removing edges and areas near the cuticle. This worked really well.

Timing

I did these in a bit of a hurry this morning. The whole process took me about 30 minutes to do because it was my first time. I also did not follow the directions about cleaning cuticles, washing hands, and cleaning with nail polish remover. The stickers still stuck very well and I will update you soon on how long they lasted. The insert says up to 10 days, but I have read reviews that they last well for up to 12-14 days before needing to be removed. Perhaps mine will not last as long because I did not follow the nail cleaning directions. I will let you all know!

They do take time and effort to apply, but I think that it is worth it for the number of positive comments that I got. These stickers are still new enough to awe people, so try them out and be a trendsetter because I guarantee that these will become very popular very soon! The “no dry time!” add on the front of the box is a bit misleading because these actually take a bit longer to apply than nail polish takes to put on and dry.

These babies are made of real nail polish so they can be removed directly with nail polish remover. However, when I read some other reviews, I see that some people even have trouble removing the glittery nail stickers because it is real polish with real dots of glitter. It is also a lot of polish. It is the equivalent of about 5 layers of polish on the nail, so it takes a lot of scrubbing to remove if you get the glitter one.

Fun Final Thoughts

This would be SUPER CUTE on the toes for a fun summer pedicure! You can get the perfect color to match your bathing suit and you would probably get lots of comments. I will try this next and let you all know how it goes.

It would also be fun to add another layer of clear polish to the top for some extra shine! Or, maybe even adding a transparent color on top if you want it to match something even more. This would be especially neat with the glitter series; you could get silver glitter and then add a layer of color on top to customize it with even more colors.

Good luck ladies and HAVE FUN!