Jamberry Nail Wraps

 Recently a friend of mine started her own Jamberry nail wrap business, Kiss My Tips, and when she offered to send out some samples, I jumped at the chance to try a new nail product and review it here on my blog.

In case you're not familiar with nail wraps, they're sort of like stickers for your nails. You can use them for an entire manicure, or pick a cute patterned one to use as an accent nail, as I did for my space-themed nail look here. For new, skeptical customers they suggest that you pit Jamberry against traditional nail polish for one week, by wearing your favorite color and some wraps for one week and seeing which looks better at the end of the challenge. Well, instead of using a favorite color I picked a random color from my stash that looked good with the galaxy-patterned wraps. This proved to be a mistake as the nail polish was old and from a random brand and didn't go on well and didn't last long even with a base and top coat. I was ready to remove my manicure after only about 4-5 days but I stuck it out for the full seven and this was the result:

The wrap on my left nail is in perfect shape! The one on my right looks pretty good but it was peeling away/fraying at the tip. I think when I applied them I didn't seal that edge well enough because it started peeling at the corner almost immediately, whereas the left one pretty much stayed in place.

Application and removal were pretty easy. You apply them with a bit of heat and pressure -- I used my space heater and it worked perfectly. I feel like it would take a little practice to line them up perfectly, because they went on a little crooked so I had blank space on one side, but you could only tell if you were really examining my nails. To remove, just heat them back up again and peel. They left some sticky residue on my nails, but I slathered on some cuticle cream and the oils broke up the adhesive. Easy-peasy.

I have really long nails, as you see, and by cutting a strip in half I was able to do two nails and have excess on the ends. During the week that I wore them, I did all the sorts of things that would abuse a manicure... Lots of handwashing and showers, including using using some body scrub, plenty of crafting, playing with pets, dance classes and performances, I even had to replace a split ring on my keys which did a number on my traditional nail polish. If they can hold up to my lifestyle, they're pretty sturdy. I'd definitely recommend them for my fellow dancers who lead a busy life and want to still have fabulous nails for class and gigs.

Although I still like traditional nail polish and enjoy taking the time to give myself a manicure, since Jamberry wraps come in a lot of fancy designs (patterns, ombre fades, even sports team logos), they're ideal for when you want one of those cool nail art manicures without stressing about how quickly it's going to chip! I've also heard that they come in glitter colors which don't leave sparkles all over your nails after removal, so I'm pretty intrigued by that. Oh yes, and you can of course use them on your toes, too.

FTC disclaimer: These wraps were provided for free for testing purposes. I chose to blog them of my own volition.