If you've been following this blog for a while, you know that I am no stranger to weird and funky mix up manicures. Today's is another one of those crazy ones! But this one actually has a purpose, more than just making a statement (which it does, too).
Nail wraps are pretty big right now. They are everywhere, and in every style. I've seen wraps made out of real polish, wraps that are essentially nail stickers, and more... The wraps I am wearing in this manicure are actually vinyl, and they are by Jamberry Nail Shields.
The usual problem with wraps is the cost. But, never fear! I've come up with a solution to extend the life of your set of wraps: the mix up manicure!
For my design, I chose the Peacock nail shield. You can see it in action on my fourth finger and on my thumb.
I very much liked working with the Jamberry Shields. I've tried the sticker type of wraps, but they buckled along the edges of my nails and left them incredibly bumpy and looked unfinished. I've also tried the real polish wraps, and while I liked those, they are fragile and easy to mess up when applying. Jamberry shields are applied by heating the wrap to activate the adhesive. Then you stick the freshly heated wrap on your nail and smooth it down. The heated adhesive is incredibly sticky and the bond feels very very secure on the nail. Then you just file off the extra from the edge of your nail! (For extensive application details, check out Jamberry's page.)
The only thing I would do differently is to add a bit of nail glue along the free edge of the shield. Jamberry includes this as an optional step, so I skipped it. Admittedly, I was pretty hard on my nails while I had these on, but the edges had a bit of wear to them after about four days. The nail glue would have helped this, I'm sure.
Let's talk about the rest of this manicure. For my pointer finger, I did a marbled design using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Sally Hansen Going Green, China Glaze Sky High Top, and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky. I chose those colors to mimic the colors that can be found in the peacock nail wrap.
On the middle and pinky fingers, I did a half moon design using China Glaze Sky High Top and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.
I then added on a small bit of bling by attaching some green rhinestones. Seeing a pattern here? I tried to incorporate the blue, yellow, green, and white of the shields throughout this whole manicure.
So as you can see, by simply applying the shields to only a few nails every time you use them, you can really get a lot of mileage out of a single sheet of wraps!
Jamberry Nail Shields are available for $15.00 per sheet on their website. Jamberry says that each sheet will do 2-3 full sets of fingers and toes, so if you are doing a mix up manicure, who knows how long you can make it last! You can also check out Jamberry Nails on Facebook.
The Jamberry Nail Shields in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR for review.