I spent most of high school with a face bare from make-up (aside from a brief emo phase, which my traditional parents did reign in ever so slightly). My nails, however, were a different story. I started wearing nail polish as soon as I hit high school, and my mum had provided nail polish allowance on weekends and summer holidays before that. A French Manicure was my nail of choice when I was in secondary one, something that is a little creepy looking back on it - a 12 year old with nails that belong an a fully grown American woman. As I entered my mid-teens and discovered MySpace, I began to embrace the dark brown nails (I would have went for black, but that was something my mum did decide to reign in and I was too lazy to get a job so I could exclaim "but it's my own money!"). Then at university I branched out into a wider array of colours, such as green for jolly St Patrick's Day. I also gave nail art a very bad attempt somewhere along the lines.
However, until recently I had never tried nail wraps. Not out of sheer avoidance, but just because I had never gotten around to it. I know; I'm a pretty awful beauty blogger because I haven't single-handedly hunted out the best vegan nail wraps this world has to offer. Though one of the best things about beauty blogging is that sometimes the products come to me (I might be a working woman with a salary these days, but I'm still lazy). Recently Jamberry Consultant Vikki Cameron got int contact asking if I'd like to try anything from her store. That nail-art loving teenager who still exists inside of me was very happy to oblige.
About Jamberry Nail Wraps
Jamberry Nails were founded by three awesome sisters and #girlbosses who wanted to create a cheaper do-it-at-home alternative to visiting a salon. That was in 2010 and now they're selling in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the USA through their network of independent consultants.
The company seells 300+designs that are vegan and free of Dibutyl Phthalate, Toluene, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, and Camphor. When I sat down to pick I was sat there a while. I eventually settled on Peaches and Cream - my decision helped by the Instagram carousel showing what the wraps look like on real-life fingers.
The application
Needless to say I was ecstatic when they arrived. The design was just as cute in real life as they were on the Instagram posts. But I was still unsure how I would get on with the application. For this, you match your nail with the correct size, cut it at roughly the correct length, heat it up (with a blow dryer, for example), press onto the nail, file down any overflowing edges and set it with more heat. It was fiddly to start off with, and sometimes the heat of the hair dryer was a bit much for my hands, but as the photo at the start of the post proves the end result could have been a lot worse. Judging by some of the fantastic Instagrams of other girls wearing nail wraps I choose to believe that they are something you perfect over time and don't need to be a professional manicurist to apply them.
How long did they last?
The wraps were applied a week and a half ago and only one nail has completely come off. All my other digits still have their nail wraps firmly bonded on. Albeit they have started fraying at the edges but altogether the nail wraps have lasted longer than most coats of nailpolish.
Would I use Jamberry nail wraps again? I can definitely imagine it. Not as an every day thing, but I certainly would consider them again for a special occasion where my nails required just a little bit extra attention.
