Strip Newbie

I want to make a confession.  I've never tried nail strips.  I thought about why and really don't have a good reason for it.  Maybe the price point makes it too expensive versus a bottle of polish?  I really don't know.

I was contacted by OMG Nail Strips to try their strips and review them on my blog. Now you all know that I really don't do reviews.  It's not something I want to do a lot of nor have I really ever been asked if I'm being honest.  It took me almost a week to think about whether I wanted to do this or not.  I looked at the designs and saw some cool ones that I knew I could rock and finally decided why not try them.

I replied to the email and gave them the four designs I was interested in.  I said pick which ones of these four you would like me to try.  In a few days, I got the strips.

Now since I already told you I've never tried these before, I had no idea what to do or how to put these on. In my mind, I was worried that these wouldn't last the two days I needed them to last through work etc.  I didn't want to have chippy nails at work. Since I never tried strips before I had no idea what to expect. I did read the application page on the website but was told not to bother doing the last step with the polish remover, but to definitely use a top coat.

Again, I don't know enough about nail strips to know if you normally use top coat or not.  Regardless, I'm so anal that I knew I wanted to use base and top coat regardless of the instructions.  I've always told you I'm a rebel and like to break the rules.  Well this mani is a perfect example of my rule breaking tendencies.

I decided I wanted to totally do my own thing and not use the strips as a whole entity.  I wanted to make sure these things stayed on.  Boy did they with what I did with them.

Let's start with the silly bottle shot.

This is Bettina Flip Flops, Contrary Polish Indigo Rose and Bettina Purple.  Flip Flops is more purple IRL. In the back are the two sets of OMG nail strips I was sent to play with.  Didn't I pick good?  Aren't these the coolest things ever? You know how much I love black and white!!!!

I started with a skittlette of these gorgeous purples.  Indigo Rose is touted as purple, but to me it's a dark blue.  It's gorgeous nonetheless.  I just love Contrary Polish!

Here are the starting shots.

Sun

Indoor Sun

Sun

Indoor Sun

Would you look at that sparkle in Indigo Rose?  Swooooooon people!  And when did my nails get so long?  I've been rockin nubs for so long, that I hadn't really noticed that finally the damage has grown out.  Jojoba oil people.  If you're not using it, you really need to.

So I told you I was breaking all the rules with these strips right?  So I cut them up! I've never seen anyone cut them up before and decided that was going to be my new thing besides my funky.  I cut the black and white ones into small squares and the dots into stripes.

Again, I have never used these before and let me tell you, when you cut them into tiny pieces, it is very hard to get the backing off.  I had to use my seriously pointy tweezers.  Plus, I didn't know there is a clear plastic sleeve on top of the design as well.  So make sure you remove that too.  What I did was, remove the backing, stick it on my nail and then remove the plastic.  It seemed to work well that way.

Here is that step.

Indoor Sun

Check me out, rocking the Sammy Nailasaurus pose.  Isn't this cool so far?  I think so!  These strips are really awesome to work with.  Being the first ones I've ever used, I had no problems getting them to stick to my nails.

Next I added some dots of my own.  Here are the very cool results.

Sun

Indoor Sun

Ott Lite

Sun

Indoor Sun

Ott Lite

Indoor Sun

Close Up

Macro

How freakin cool are these?  I am totally loving these strips!  I can see all sorts of possibilities with the ones I have left over. I did use top coat on this and it lasted the two days I needed it to with no problems or peeling whatsoever.  When I put these strips on, I did wrap it around the tip and used a nail file to get the excess off.
I did a sneak preview of this on Instagram and people seemed to really like this. What do you think?

Make sure you go and check out OMG Nail Strips.  They have a ton of very cool designs, free shipping US and International, and they are having a sale right now!  I will be trying these again, and I will try using these on a whole nail so stay tuned for that! They also have a Facebook page for you out there who do that and I'm told they do a giveaway every month.  How cool is that?

I am so glad I decided to review these strips!  I'm a convert and can't wait to play with these again!

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?