Saturday, December 25, 2010

Incoco Nail Polish Strips Review/Tutorial: 24 Karats: Gold Bling

Merry Christmas everyone! In the spirit of Christmas, I'm going to talk about one of the most gorgeous gold nail polishes I've ever seen - but it doesn't even come in a bottle! Incoco Nail Polish Strips in 24 Karats is a gold glitter that blings and shines under both low light as well as strong light, and it's absolutely gorgeous to look at. It's also perfect for the festive Christmas season just upon us!

Incoco nail strips 24 karat

Incoco calls their products dry nail appliques, but they're strips of nail polish that you peel off from a backing and stick onto your nail. Pretty cool, right? I've tried a couple of them, and while they do have a slight learning curve, once you get them right, they're very easy to use, and produce a very professional effect.

incoco nail strips 24 karat


However, it can get a bit used to applying nail polish strips instead of liquid nail polish, so here's a step by step guide of how to apply them:

1. Find the size of nail strip that most closely matches the size of your nail, and tear off the relevant nail strip. In this case below, I'm using the last strip for my little finger.

incoco nail strips 24 karat


2. Peel off the plastic covering on top of the strip. Then peel off the nail polish strip from the paper backing. Be careful not to tear the strip when doing this!

incoco nail strips 24 karat


3. Gently smooth the strip over the nail. I personally find the easiest way to do this is to start with center of the nail, and smooth out towards the sides to avoid any wrinkles in the strip.

incoco nail strips 24 karat


4. File off any excess nail polish strip. I think the best way is to file downwards, isntead of from side to side. This way, the strip isn't disturbed by any filing motion.

incoco nail strips 24 karat


5. And viola! All done.

incoco nail strips 24 karat


I guess the fit of the appliques for the nails would vary from person to person, but for me, I found that I was able to find a match for all my nails. I thought the strips were nicely sized, and they also matched the natural curvature of my nails and cuticles. I also liked that these strips were very thin, unlike some other nail appliques I've tried, and thus easier to place on the nail. As far as nail strips go, I think these are one of the best.

Here's 24 Karat, in it's full glory. I don't think I ever got such a neat gap by painting manually, LOL.

incoco nail strips 24 karat


I've also discovered that if your nails are short, you can further save money by cutting each nail strip into half - so that instead of wasting the free end (shown in the image in Step 3), you could use it for another nail - perhaps the same nail on your opposite hand. I've managed to do this successfully, but your nails have to be pretty short in order for this tip to work.

These strips lasted about 3 days on me - a bit shorter than if I had painted my nails myself, but given that they were very little trouble to put them on, I thought it was still worth it.

One thing makes me wonder though - these strips so happen to fit the curvature of my cuticles perfectly, but I'm wondering how they would work for other women with more square-shaped cuticles. Also, I'mm wondering how the strips would work for girls whose nails are differently-sized compared to mine. My sister is tiny, and I think most of the strips would probably be too large for her teensy nails. But on me, they fit perfectly, so I'm not complaining, and I imagine they'd be fine for most women. But I could imagine on very petite girls (I'm talking about having to get your clothes from the kids' department petite, not size 2 petite here), the strips might be too small.

These strips would probably appeal to women who want to wear nail polish for special events, but who don't wish to paint their own nails or hop into a salon. I don't foresee these replacing the traditional method of painting nails due to the higher cost, but I do think that Incoco products are a beautifully executed concept, and might be worth it for that special occasion.

(Product was sent to me for review. This is my honest and complete opinion of the product. I am not compensated by/affiliated with the company.)

10 comments:

  1. oh wow! those results are great! Quick question though, I have very little hands/ nail beds. For instance when I got a minx last year, they had to use a lot of pinky and ring finger sized ones, and even then they had to file a lot off the sides. How would someone with small nail beds fair with these?


    Merry xmas!

    xoxo
    Y

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  2. @vonzi: I suspect that the same might happen for these nails. It's been my experience that these strips don't really vary too much in size from one brand to another (they must have a "standard size" template or something similar), so it looks like you might have a bit of a problem. But if you really want to go for it, these are a LOT easier to file, cut or reshape than Minx, because they're very thin. I hope this answer helps!

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  3. Beautiful and very festive! I love your post and must compliment you for taking such beautiful, crystal clear photos! :)

    Thank you so much for your comment on my post about Chanel's Christmas collection! I'm following you, and I hope you will follow me as well! :)

    theperfectpout.blogspot.com

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  4. They're gorgeous!! How much do these strips go for should you try to buy them? (Obviously I've never tried them before.) I do love how neat around the edges they look.

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  5. @Beauty Reductionista: They go for US$7.99 for each packet of strips. The French Tips (yes they have French manicure tip strips!) go for $5.99. Hope this helps! :)

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  6. One of my favourite colours! I want them really bad!

    Kisses, Melanie

    http://beautymeetskawaii.blogspot.com

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  7. Oh, I've seen those in the stores over here! I wanted to get some, but I was worried because they looked a little too wide for my nail. I might just buy some to have a play and see if they work out.

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  8. Wow, those look great on you! I doubt I'd be able to wear them as well. My nail and cuticle shape are totally different.

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  9. These look great! Thanks for the good review i have been wanting to try these for quite some time :)

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