Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Product Review: Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs, So Natural Every Day French, Couture Design Artificial Nails and Pink Brush On Nail Glue.

Hi lovelies!

Happy Hump Day! I'm skipping the weekly tag this week as I'm beat! It's been a bit crazy, workwise, so I'm exhausted!

I have a new review for you today, and that's the Nailene artificial nails in So Natural Every Day French* and Couture Design*, which I used together with the Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs*. Now, it's been quite a few years since I last used artificial nails, so I was quite intrigued when these crossed my desk. It actually turned out to be quite serendipitous, as I broke a nail on my thumb quite badly (darn you, antibiotics, my nails have never been so prone to tearing before), so I was keen to see if the artificial nails worked well.

Let's take a look at these and see what we think, shall we?

Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs*

These are a simple concept; you simply choose a size that fits your nail, pull off one of the little adhesive tabs from the protective backing, place it on your nail with the curved bit closer towards your cuticle and gently smooth it out before removing the protective topsheet, much as you'd use double sided tape.


I found it useful to use a pair of tweezers as it was more precise in application. 


If you look closely you can see the tab on my (poor, stubbly) nail bed below, the protective topsheet hasn't been removed yet.



In the photo below, I've pulled off the topsheet and the tab is ready for me to place the artificial nail over.



All you need to do then is put the artificial nail on top, and voila, you're done! The adhesive tab keeps the artificial nail on quite securely, and it provides that extra little bit of cushioning so the artificial nail sits flat on your natural nail.

Now, the instructions do say to make it extra secure by putting glue on the tab and then putting the artificial nail on, but I gave this a trial run without glue and they lasted me at least 3 days before I got bored and took them off. Removal was quite straightforward, you simply roll the artificial nail until it slides off your actual nail. That part was easy but I did find that the residue from the tab was a bit hard to remove, even with nail polish remover.

Nailene So Natural Every Day French Nails*

I thought these natural french design artificial nails were really pretty until I noticed they said 'short' on the pack! That's always a problem for me as my nail beds are quite long, and indeed, this turned out to be the case!


You get 24 pieces in this kit, in a variety of sizes, together with a small tube of nail glue, nail buffer, cuticle stick and instruction booklet. You're supposed to gently buff the surface of your nail, put glue on the artificial nail (or use the tabs/tabs + glue) and then place the artificial nail on your nail bed.


Unfortunately, I could only find pieces to fit my thumb, the rest of them were entirely too short. Shame as they were so pretty! They actually looked quite natural too.

The thing that I loved most about these? You can actually paint over them! Very handy if you've got a single broken nail or you just want lovely, well shaped nails for a special occasion (or if you reaaallly want to use glitter polish but can't be bothered with the removal - just saying).


Nailene Couture Design Nails*

Similar to the French design, you get the exact same items in this pack.


I thought this design was gorgeous and really hoped it would fit...!


Sadly, no go either! I did find one to fit my thumb, though! Isn't it gorgeous? Such a lovely thing to do for a special occasion and it takes only seconds!


Nailene Pink Brush On Nail Glue

While I was on the topic of Nailene, I had to share another holy grail product with you, my favourite nail glue! Nail glue is very different to superglue, so please only use specially formulated nail glue when using artificial nails, or when it comes to repairing breaks/tears.

I love this stuff and always make sure I have a bottle handy. It's slightly pink tinted so it looks perfectly natural, even on naked nails, and the little paintbrush makes it easy to manoeuvre without leaving blobs of glue behind! It also allows you to apply glue in thin layers, which means it dries faster!


I always keep a bottle handy in case I start to develop a tear in my nails. A couple of swipes of this and I'm good as new! You can also fix a really bad break by brushing a layer of this over the crack, snipping a tiny piece of a teabag (I'm talking about the gauze like material that teabags are made from), placing it over the glue (I highly recommend using tweezers) and then placing another layer of glue on top to seal it in.

Wait for the whole thing to dry, buff it gently and your tear should be fixed perfectly!


I hope you enjoyed that review, lovelies. I must say I am a little disappointed that the nails were too short for my nail beds, as the designs on the Couture Nails in particular are stunning!

The Ultra Adhesive Tabs* are priced at $8.99 for a pack of 24 tabs, while the So Natural Every Day French* and Couture Design* nails are priced at $16.99 each. You should be able to get at least 2 uses out of each kit, unless you have the misfortune of having long nail beds like I do. :P

The Brush On Glue retails for $7.99 but it will last you ages (in a pinch, I have even used them to glue things together in lieu of superglue, so it's a very handy product to keep around)!

I hope you enjoyed that, lovelies! Do you ever use artificial nails? Do you think these designs were gorgeous?

Much love,
MM.
x


Note: Products marked with a * were kindly provided for my consideration in accordance with my Disclosure Policy. This has not affected my opinion in any way. For more information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

12 comments:

  1. Great reviews hun!!
    I used to wear false nails a fair bit and could rely on the Nailene brand, hehe the name makes me laugh now as it reminds me of you.
    I actually wore the Nailene french tip falsies to a wedding once as a bridesmaid and the bride commented on my nails and said that they looked better then her salon french tips. lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes, it's very similar to my name, isn't it? :)

      How amazing! I was quite impressed with how well these lasted on my thumbs. :)

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  2. Don't think I like the look of them actually, they do look fake hehe. Great review!

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  3. Great review :) I really enjoyed reading it .
    I haven't used stick on nails before but I think it would come in handy as you mentioned if you break a nail and want to use it as temporary repair.
    I am off to Priceline today to pick up some of the brush on nail glue ... I think that will be very handy to have in my beauty first aid kit.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I'm so glad you found it useful, I hope you enjoy using it as much as I do!

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  4. I love the tea bag trick, It was my go-to repair for broken nails.

    Haven't had falsies for so long, I'm tempted to pull out a pack and have a play now!

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    Replies
    1. It's a handy trick to keep in mind! :)

      Can't wait to see your photos if you do have a play!

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  5. I loved these! I thought they looked really natural too, and I loved that you could paint over them!
    xx

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    Replies
    1. Yes, they were certainly so handy to have around (pardon the pun)! I just wish mine had fit all my nails!

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  6. Thank you for such a fab post! I don't use false nails but I like the Press & Go stuff and nail foils are also awesome. I love that you can use an adhesive to protect your nails against the glue in false nails. x

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    Replies
    1. My pleasure! They are good fun from time to time. :)

      I love the tabs for that very reason!

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