Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

In my usual CVS excursion, I spotted these Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips and was intrigued. What? A super quick way to change up your nail look with no dry time? And the strips supposedly last for 10 days and removes easily with nail polish remover? Sign me up! I ended up buying 3 of them; Lust-rous, Tattoo Much and Sweet Marble Floret.

I’ve only used the Sweet Marble Floret and Lust-rous so far. Sweet Marble Floret is a shimmery, almost holographic marble pattern with spots of silver, black and pink. Lust-rous is a glamorous nail look. It is a black base with chunky gold and silver sparkles.

I tried the sweet marble floret the last week of June and they actually held up pretty well. I used them as accents vs covering all of my nails.

It made it through hair wash day which I find amazing because that never happens with regular nail polish, but it didn’t make it through the 2 day crab feast we had for the Fourth of July.

What’s included in the box

The instructions that come in the package are pretty simple. First, you pick the right strip for your nail. Then take off the clear plastic and the tab from the strip. This is where I had the most difficulty the first time. After I tore off the tab, I had a hard time getting the paper backing off. I couldn’t separate the sticky part of the strip from the backing. The trick is to bend the tab first then tear.

The instructions suggest that you stretch the strip slightly before you put it on your nail. My wide nail beds definitely benefited from a little bit of stretching. But be careful not to stretch too much or the strip will rip. (That happened to me a couple of times.) Then you just place the strip on your nail. And know that you can’t reposition the strip once it is on the nail. The instructions also recommend that you do your thumbs last.

Out of the 2 that I tried, I think Lust-rous was my favorite. It took a little getting used to a first, because I am not really a glitter person, but I ended up liking them a lot. I guess I prefer chunky glitter vs shiny little sparkles.

Crabs 1, Nails 0

Like I said above, the marble one only lasted about a week because of the crab demolishing I did, but the second time, I ended up leaving them on for 9 days and I didn’t even use a top coat. I had a few chips but nothing too bad.

9 days in…

I have to say that these are not easily removed with nail polish remover. The first time I used the strips, it took a bit of scrubbing to get them off. But the second time I used this trick I saw on Pinterest and it worked amazingly. I was a little doubtful at first but now I might have to use it all the time; it works so well.

Trust me, it looks a little weird but it works.

I am definitely going to get more of these strips. It is so easy and takes no time at all. And you don’t have to wait around doing nothing until your nails dry. You can just put these strips on and go! They have all kinds of colors and patterns, so I have a lot to choose from.

Have you tried these before? What did you think of them?

Until next time,