My experience with false nails :|

So I tried false nails..... 

Pals.

Oh my goodness. 

I'm egged on by pictures of Kylie Jenner and her talons, and motivational pictures on Instagram of perfectly manicured nails. 

My nails are nice as they are, just not super long and smooth.

 I did a bit of a primark haul and bought some lovely clothes, some of their new Primark range nails (and a nail drier a few days later) and because they didn't have the nail colour I wanted, I went and bought some clear ones from Boots, called Elegant Touch, with the intention of painting them my favourite nail polish colour, Mauve Along by Sally Hansen.

Did they look nice? Yes!





Where they an absolute pain to put on and wear? Yep. Let me tell you all about it.

My Experience

So I gave the Primark nails a go. 

For one, I COULD NOT get that glue open.

If any Da Vinci code master can tell me how you get that little tube of secret chemical wonder open, let me know, because I was stumped.

 I seriously don't have a clue. I googled, I twisted, I stopped the urge to nibble it open, and I solemnly gave up, and used the glue out of my Elegant touch, which also stumped me at first. I eventually realised that in the pack it included a little green pin that I could stick into the end of the nail glue tube to open it. 

Then I measured the nails for size on my own hand. The first thing I realised is that there is one nail on my hand that fits one of the sizes perfectly - the rest are way off. I then spent a good hour clipping and trimming the nails to get them to fit. Fake nails where flying and falling everywhere.

My room looked like I had opened a nail salon for hobbits and was offering free pedicures. 

Finally, with a kind of fit, I followed the instructions carefully and glued a layer to my nails, and then immediately pressed the nail onto mine, applying even pressure for 5 seconds while it bonded. 

The pain started there. The fake nail was so curved, it wouldn't adhere evenly to my nail. If I made it fit, it tried to pull my nail off my nail bed. It was like my own nail was too flat, and grew too straight, something I had certainly never thought before.

I quickly gave up with the Primark Nails and moved onto the Elegant Touch ones.

I had a similar problem with those ones too! Not as bad, they did seem to fit better but even then, oh my gosh. Applying pressure to the fingertips, in actions such as opening a packet of crisps, killed. 

They did look nice. I did feel good!  

I chopped them down to an alright length because I simply couldn't type, eat, drink, write, you name it. But my Mauve Along colour just glided onto the fake nail gorgeously, smoother than my own ridgy nail. They looked luxurious. But the feeling! The pain! What!

The first one fell off that night. Not enough glue. The other two fell off the next day.  

WARNING

Listen, Happy beauty pals. If you value your nails, shiny and healthy, never file off nail glue!

The fake nail comes off, leaving a swirly pattern of dried glue on my fingernails. It kinda looks like you've had serious calcium deficiencies. It's also hard, and lumpy, and the texture is a little alien and distracting. 

 To get the fake nails off, I soaked them in Superdrug Concentrated acetone remover: 

The fake nails dissolved in a matter of minutes - I rubbed them off with cotton wool balls - but the GLUE!

THE GLUE.

I'm sure I had an ex like this once. 

It WOULDN'T GO. 

I tried filing it away with a nail file, like the one that came in the packet - but it filed away my natural nail too. I was so careful for it not to but now the surface of my nail has....scratches on it. It's very strange. It went back to normal a little after a couple of days though, a bit of hand cream and moisture appeared to work wonders.

In the end, I worked out how to get MOST of the glue off. Pals, I have suffered, and I want you to learn from my unhappybeautypalette experience . 

How to get fake nail glue off your nails

1) Buy a bottle of Superdrug Concentrated acetone remover.

Get a face pad, the type that you put make up remover on - I use home Bargains ones! The wool shouldn't come apart.

2) Half fill the lid with the remover, and dip your fingernail in - like you were doing when you were dissolving your fake nail (you could use a soak bath or whatever) and after you dip, you should feel the sensation of the cooling acetone on your fingertip.

3) Take the wool face pad and rub round in circular motions with the cotton pad.


4) As soon as it gets dry, usually after a few seconds, Repeat. Dip your fingernail back in. Dip, rub, repeat, until the glue is gone enough for you. It will get annoyingly repetitive and tiring, but stick with it. Do not use the nail file like they suggest, it's bad news

My theory is the acetone melts the surface area of the glue,and in turn the melted glue melts the deeper layers of the glue. Then the acetone disapears and you need to do it again. 

There were tiny bits of dried glue remaining, so the next day, I used a Q-tip dipped in the Concentrated Acetone Remover and rubbed it off, repeatedly dipping into the remover.

I don't think I would do this again, even if I was Kylie for a solid 12 hours. Maybe one day I will find nails that work for me ! I did like how they look. Until then I will have to grow my nails long and paint them! 

Take care of yourselves. 

A sore, regretful Em.