I take that back

Remember what I said about the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips being miraculous wonders of manicure manna? I take some of that back. After a few lovely lady friends who always have amazing nails and happen to write about such styley things for a living told me that they had mediocre experiences with the marvel stickers, I decided perhaps one go was not enough. And so I bought (yep, with my real money) three more packages.

(A pause for the bloggers shaking their head at the lack of swag in this post: I KNOW! I spent $27 whole dollars of my own -- $36 if you count the first box I tried. My accountant is going to be super psyched to add those receipts to the pile.)

This time, I chose a pink metallic flavor. The color made my disco heart pitter-pat but twirling them around the dance floor was far more disappointing than my first daisy-nail partner. The strips were far thinner than the first kind I tried (which were akin to photo paper, but about half the thickness and still pliable). That made the pink metallic strips much harder to apply to my nails and much easier to crumple up. Sure, I was putting them on while traveling on a plane cross-country and had a tiny cup of ginger ale and a sleeping lady leaning a tad too close to contend with, but I still ended up trashing two strips and barely saving another. During my first go-around with the strips, this wasn't an issue at all.

The thinness of the metallic strips also meant that I had perfectly lovely pink glitter nails for seven whole seconds before I cleared my tray table and turned the tiny plastic dial to secure it. With that simple move, I a corner of the thumb peeled off. When I itched my arm a moment later, it somehow left a scratch in my middle finger nail strip as well. That went on for two more hours until I arrived at my destination with nails that looked like the sweet-smiling manicurist really put the clamps on me for information rather than helping me look pristine for a trip to see my Not Boyfriend.

The next day, the nails were a total mess and I desperately peeled them away somewhere between my fourth conference call of the day and dinner out with the cute guy who can't remember what dress I wore yesterday but always notices my nails. 

I have not given up yet, but I am not necessarily as sold on the whole nail strip idea as I was at first peel. We shall see what the gold leopard print and black-and-white-daisies-take-two hold for these hands and the dates to come.

Any tips on nail strips to offer?