NOTDs from the previous two days: Milani Bare to Wear and Incoco Oscar Night

My cuticles are still a bit travel-ravaged even though I've been treating them with Mango Mend every few hours since getting home. Sigh, traveling does do quite the number on my body. I'm still dead exhausted.

Milani Bare to Wear

This is supposedly somewhat close to Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas but I don't have that polish. This is a very greyed-out light taupe that can pull lilac in some lights. Very pretty, understated color and it only required three coats to be opaque but it took forever to dry (with Gelous and Diamont, which is usually a very quick drying combo on me). See that big chink on my pinky? Got that several hours after I applied the mani. Grr. Didn't notice it until I took the photo. Double grr.

Incoco Oscar Please

Satiny champagne shimmer made up of darker and lighter gold. Incoco sent me this for review and their review samples don't seem to have names. Either that or I can't find them. Judging by the swatches on their website, I think this is most likely to be Oscar Night. This is not the neatest or nicest Incoco mani and I'll tell you why: I did this on the plane in fifteen minutes during turbulence!

I didn't have a nail file or anything to trim down some off the less-well-fitting pieces but luckily, most of the pieces fit me alright. Because I lacked a file and just had to tear off the extra length at the end, some of the pieces ended up a bit too short for me but generally, I thought it looked okay, if a bit worn for just one day.

I peeled off -- yes, gross, I know -- my Paradoxal mani before applying it. Paradoxal lasted for four days without chips and then on the fifth and last day of the conference, a few small chips started coming off while I was on the plane. Being bored and nervous on a plane, I started picking the entire manicure off. And because my nails were stained from previous manis -- though not the Paradoxal mani -- I decided to try out the Incoco nail appliques I had been carrying in my carry-on for such an "emergency". (The emergency was that I was vain and bored.)

The flight attendant saw me putting on the Incoco nail appliques and asked me incredulously whether they actually work. I was happy to report to her her, yes, they do. :)

Incoco Dry Nail Appliques: Bling Bling and a french manicure (First Love)

I got these to review from Incoco... a very long time ago. And wore them... a very long time ago. And these photos were taken just as long ago. *headdesk* But never got around to a review because I really wanted to do a thorough review of them, as they are a relatively newfangled way of doing nails. And then I put it off until now.

For those who do not know, Incoco Dry Nail Appliques are kind of like nail polish stickers. They are essentially dry but have a tacky side to them that adhere to your nail. Each pack, which sell for about $8 each, comes with a set of nail stickers in many different sizes, enough for all your fingernails, no matter how big or small. They are advertised as being less hassle than doing your nails with traditional nail polish (difficult application, long dry time, etc) and indeed, right after putting them on, they are as good as dry and ready to go. Application, imo, was more of a hassle for me, but I've put on and removed traditional nail polish at least a thousand times... and I've only put on and removed Incoco maybe three times.

I wish I had taken pictures of the process of applying Incoco but this is what's involved, more or less:

1. Pick out the nail stickers that match the width of your nail size best. They will almost always be too long for your nails.
2. Remove the backing off of the adhesive side and place it on your nail. If it's crooked, worry not, you can remove it carefully and readjust it.
3. Smooth down the sticker onto your nail, making sure there are no air bubbles.
4. Bend the remainder of the nail strip over the free edge of the nail and use the included emery board to file the extra length off.
5. Enjoy your relatively indestructible nails!

Overall, I really liked them, mostly because of their longevity: I wore them for about a week when I was traveling and they held up really well. The best part was that I carried some of the leftover nail stickers to do some patch ups, just in case any of the nail stickers came off. I did have to patch up one of my thumbs (which are always abused) and it took a single minute at the airport to do so. The most annoying thing about it was that I felt like I had to work harder to get a good fit for my pinky. Otherwise, all other nails went swimmingly.

Incoco Bling Bling

Not the best application at all for me. I didn't apply the nail stickers as carefully as I ought to have. Even though it's sheer, I really liked this manicure: very sparkly and bright, holo glitter and silver shimmer.

Close-up of Bling Bling

Below you can see the mismanagement of my pinky nail. I was simply too lazy to trim down a thicker strip to match my pinky (the second thinnest was perfect for my ring finger so that sticker got used for that). These are easily trimmed down to proper size using scissors.

The worst of the tipwear and chips after five days:

I also gave one of the Incoco french manicure a test run...

Incoco First Love

This was actually my first set of Incoco nail strips and egads, I should never have started out with these because they are harder than the normal ones. The French ones are actually two sets of nail appliques: the white tip and a sheer pink layer to go over the white tips. It took me about twice the time to do this, partially because I had to put on two sets of stickers and partially because I had a hard to aligning these to cover my real life smile lines.

Also, the sheer pink nail strip part kept on adhering to itself when I tried to realign it, which then made it look messy and creased. This doesn't show up as strongly when it's an opaque color but it does tend to make it look dented and weird in a sheer color.

All in all, I really like these for times when you don't have time to redo your manicure and when you have to travel by plane and get anxious that someone might confiscate your nail polish at airport security. It's also great for doing your nails on the plane, for those of us who have always wished we could do our nails during long, boring flights. ;)