Julep Appliques in Rivets

The night before I left for my vacation, I tried out some Julep Nail Appliques in Rivets. I've heard good things about this type of product, and I've been wanting to test them out, but I haven't been in a good position to do so with work. So when I had a week of vacation coming up, I figured it would be the best time!

I applied them the night before I left, and the entire process took about 15 minutes. They're essentially stiff stickers (mine were actually studded so they had a bit of a texture to them and increased the stiffness) and you match them to your nail, stick them down, apply pressure, and then file off the end.

The sizes were awesome and fit my nails perfectly. Finding the right size was pretty straight forward, and sticking them on was a bit of work at first trying to find the right technique, but once you get the hang of it, it goes super quick. I liked to set the sticker down on its edge near my cuticle, push back a little, and then push down toward the tip. I then used the included orange stick and applied pressure over the whole sticker, and then used the pointed tip of the orange stick to run in between my cuticle and the sticker to make sure I didn't catch my cuticle under it since I was applying it so far back on my nail.

Once you have them all on your nails and you're looking pretty scary ...

Sorry for the camera phone picture, it was all I had with me that night.

Then you take a nail file (there is one included, and I used that one) you place the file perpendicular to the end of your nail and file down to "cut" the rest of the applique off. It took a few swipes but it eventually "cut" and then I kinda peeled it off. I needed to be careful not to press too hard because I changed the shape of a few nails. Oops.

You are all done. You can seal it with a topcoat to help increase the wear length time, and I did a coat of Seche Vite just because I was going to bed and I didn't want to get sheet marks in the top coat.

Aren't they awesome? Very edgy.

They lasted about 3 days with minimal wear or lifting before I had significant problems with them and on the 4th day I peeled them off because they were lifting enough near my cuticle that my hair was getting caught. The glue residue stayed on my nails, but that was easily scraped off without any nail damage. This is what they looked like before I peeled them off.

I apologize again for the phone picture, and all that craziness around my cuticles was topcoat, but you can see the shrinkage (from the appliques or Seche Vite, I'm not sure) and minor tip wear.

I got many compliments on them, and it was nice to have "done" nails for a period of time that was quicker than doing nail art or even layering colors. I plan on getting more or trying some brands at the drug store. I was very pleased with the wear time. The package says 3-7 days, and I think they'd last longer for people who don't have their hands in water so much. I take long hot showers daily (TMI, I know) and wash my hair daily, and soaking them in warm water is how you get them off, so the fact that they lasted three days despite what could be considered me trying to remove them daily, says a lot!

And don't forget, you can become a Julep Maven by clicking here and you can get your first box for one penny using code SHAREONMARCH.