Susannah Taylor tries DIY nail wraps and comes unstuck
I love a bright or crazy nail. Right now I am rocking a bright fluoro pink (Camera by Essie, since you ask) on my hands and a bright fluoro orange on my toes (Bazooka by Essie, they do the best colours), so when I saw these Bridget Riley style geometric print nail wraps from Nail Rock , the artist and colour junkie in me couldn’t resist a whirl.
I’ve never tried nail wraps before despite having seen them every time I walk into Topshop or Selfridges. If you are unfamiliar with them, they are basically stickers for the nails rather than stick-on nails, and are available in every design imaginable, from dots to leopard print to tribal prints.
You get a flat packet and within each packet is a sheet with different sized stickers on them, and you are instructed to buff your nail and wipe it with the nail varnish/grease-removing wipe before peeling off the back, adhering them to your nails and pushing it down with the orange stick provided. So far, so easy - or not, in my case.
At this point I came unstuck so to speak – I found that not all the stickers stuck to my nails properly so in some cases there was a gap between the sticker and my nail. On the ones that did stick, there were creases in the design (you’re trying to get a flat sticker to fit a curved nail so that’s bound to happen). But what bothered me most was that there weren’t enough stickers to fit my nails and you then end up cutting a nail shape out of the large ones which even for someone who’s quite arty and dexterous with a pair of scissors like myself was difficult to do.
At a glance, the overall effect is pretty effective and think it’s a great idea for a mad night out (perfect for Halloween, theme nights, etc) but as someone who gets a thrill out of a perfectly manicured nail, I’ll be sticking with my Essie nail colours any day of the week.