Marta Experiments: Sally Hansen Nail Effects

Let it be known: I suck at doing my own nails. A long-time nail biter, I almost always had short nails until I got engaged and I was like, hey, I should probably have nice lookin' nails now that I have a nice lookin' ring to show off.

But I cannot master the art of left-handed nail painting, and I'm pretty unsteady. Being a neurosurgeon was never in the cards for me.

So the idea of Sally Hansen Nail Effects excited me. Foolproof nail color, right?

Well, sort of (for me anyway).

I am sort of a mess. You'll see from the photo.

I would ask for my money back if I left a salon looking like this.

My biggest issues were finding the exact right size for each nail then tailoring it perfectly to my nail. I also had a hard time getting the strip to stay put in the top corners of some of my nails. Finally I picked the color - Squeezed - thinking it was more of a yellow, but it turned out the front strip that showed at the store had been faded by the light! You can see in the picture below (lame iPhone pics) that it's a totally different color from the rest of the strips!

The middle strip is a pretty yellow - but the rest are orange. As you can tell, my fingers did not need the skinniest strips (or the fattest, thankfully).

What I'll do differently next time:
1. Line up the the bottom of the strip with the top of my cuticle more perfectly.
2. Do it in a slightly warmer room (it was pretty chilly, and made my hands cold. Sally Hansen advises warm hands for better pliability).

My other critique is that so far, they've already chipped quite a bit. Maybe if I do it better, this won't be as big of an issue?

However, even though I need some practice, I will definitely be trying these again. I'm eager to try the lattice-looking Misbehaved as well as some other neon colors!

Does anyone have any tips on how I can not suck at using these?