Chromefingers

This is definitely a weird one but, you know me, always willing to try things so you don’t have to! You know how obsessed I am with my nails, right? Have you seen Rihanna’s nails, all done up in leopard print? Or Beyonce’s chrome nails? No? You should read more celebrity magazines then.

Nail art is a hot trend right now – think chrome, prints, patterns and things you might not normally get straight out of a bottle. There are a few options if you want to go the professional route, but who has time to spend with their manicurist (or maybe that’s just me). One of the DIY options is Manicare Glamnails nail enamel strips. It’s 16 coloured strips, or 16 coloured strips + 16 french tips, depending on whether you want to go coloured or classic. It’s essentially nail polish in strip form – peel the backing layer off, then the top protective layer, gently press into place and file the excess off. Sounds easy in theory, but it’s actually quite tricky. It took about the same time as painting my nails, only there was no enjoyable relaxing in between coats. It was also quite messy; between pulling backings off and filing excess bits away, I ended up covered in crap.

For my first attempt, I did a reasonable job. There are catches on about 5 nails, and the edges aren’t perfect on a few others. In fact, I think I only have one perfect nail. Problem is, I can’t patch the chips because it isn’t a polish. This is supposed to last for 14 days, but I’m fairly sure I will take it off the other side of the weekend (it comes off with nail polish remover). Whilst I’m sure you get better the more you do it, I can buy a bottle of nail polish for the price of 2 packets of these nails. Definitely a novelty if you want to do something like Bling Bling silver glitter, but maybe not so much for regular old pink (15 colours in the range).

Price: $9.95 for colours, $10.95 for french tips
From: Priceline, Myer, K-Mart, Target and Big W
Why you need it: Good if you want to give something new a try

Picture credit: Manicare