Nowadays, there are a lot of products out there marketed as faster, easier, and longer-lasting alternatives to nail polish.  Three that I see advertised often are by Kiss, Sally Hansen, and imPRESS.  I don’t know about the rest of you, Lovelies, but it’s a lengthy process for me when it comes to painting my nails.  I wondered if these products were too good to be true, and if maybe there was a “miracle” product out there to save time…

These ponderings led me to decide to buy one of each advertised products, try them out, and review them to weed out the good and the bad so my readers wouldn’t have to.  Read on to see my experience with nail polish strips and press-on nails.  

Kiss Nail Dress Strips in “Princess”

Bought at Wal-Mart for $5.97.  Seems like the strips don’t want to stay air-tight on longer nails, so I suggest trimming your nails short before applying.  Other than that, the application was easy.  Took a while, but not as long as it does to apply a base coat, color, and a top coat of actual polish, with drying time.  The package boasts 10-day wear, with easy application and removal.

My nails did start to chip after the first couple days, but it wasn’t very noticeable.  It was easily remedied by trimming down my nails to a point where they weren’t chipped anymore.  After a week’s wear (4 days at work) the nails had finally chipped off enough that I had to remove the strips.  It was a bit of a painful process, and there was glue residue left on my nails as well as I pulled layers of my nails off, leaving them rough.  I got a week’s wear out of them, but there was a lot of chipping.  You can, counter-act the chipping by trimming down your nails some, and applying a clear top coat on top.  On day 4, I did have one strip pop off, but since the set has a lot of extras, it was easy to replace.  Maybe they would hold up better for someone who doesn’t do so much hands-on work.  In the end, I would recommend these nail strips, though because for the most part they did hold up, and I got too many compliments to count on the leopard design.  It’s been almost 2 weeks and my toes still look perfect.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in “Fly With Me”

Bought at Walmart for $8.50 … Cute butterfly design.  Boasts 10 day wear.

It was very frustrating applying the strips.  You can’t use the end of the strip that you peel off because it rips or bends, and it was hard to line them up because the strips are flimsy.  Since they are made out of real nail polish, they have an unpleasant chemical scent.  So far, not liking this product.

After one day at work, 9 ot of 10 nails had huge chips.  They looked so bad I had to take them off.  Removal was pretty easy.  Even though I did get some compliments on the butterflies, I wouldn’t recommend this product to anyone.  My friend, Ashley, backed me up and said she had the same experience with the zebra-print ones.

imPRESS Press-On Manicure in “Shout”

Bought at Wal-Mart for $6.97.  The advertised wear-time is a week.  Took a while to apply – it was very hard to find the right sizes.  I had to trim down all my nails to practically nothing to get the strips to fit.  I’m not used to fake nails, so they felt weird on my fingers.  And they’re square-cut instead of rounded, like I prefer.  So far, I’m thinking the Kiss Nail Dress strips are my favorite out of all 3.

After one day at work… Nix that, after just one hour at work 5 out of 10 nails popped off.  One came off before I even got to work.  Apparently washing my hands and brushing my teeth was just too much for it.  As I told my coworker friend, Patty, “Obviously these weren’t made for people who actually have to work.”  The removal for the rest of the nails took longer than the package says.  They suggest soaking each nail in polish remover for a minute, but I had to soak each nail for 3 minutes, and the removal was still painful.  Needless to say, I will never buy these again.  If you’re someone who uses fake nails regularly, then I advise sticking to the regular glue-on nails.  Don’t waste your time with these failures.

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The obvious winner of all 3 products was the Kiss Nail Dress strips.

Even though removal is a little rough on your nails, I fixed the rough patches by buffing my nails.  The wear-time and cute designs definitely out-weigh the cons.  Also surprising is that the Kiss strips were the cheapest of all tested products!  I recently bought another pack, and I’m trying out the “Bustier” design next.

Well, Lovelies, I hope this review of the alternatives to actual nail polish helps you out when making future purchases.  If you’ve tried any of the products above, I’d love to hear about your experience.  Just leave a comment.