My First Attempt at Nail Decals, or Hi, I'm In 6th Grade!

Ok, so it's no secret that I like to experiment. Well, unfortunately I've seen all sorts of fabulous manicures that incorporate nail decals, but no real tips and tricks as to how to do them well. I think I need those tips and tricks. Let's look at the damage, shall we?

The good news is that it's not horrible, totally. It's just a bit much. I used decals from the Little Fing'rs Girlie Nails Nail Art Variety Pack, the one with cheerleading decals, various animals, and these cute punkish skulls and hearts. I absolutely love them on the sheet, but I think I went a bit overboard with them.

I was hoping to add a touch of whimsy to my Deborah Lippmann Between the Sheets manicure. What I ended up with was more like a 12 year old girl putting Lisa Frank stickers on everything she owns. It's not bad, exactly, it's just not what I was hoping for.

Now, that being said, I have to admit that I love these decals. The little skulls and crossbones are so, so cute, and I adore the bit of iridescent glitter in the white middle of the bigger hearts. So CUTE!! And even if this was a bit over the top, well sometimes you simply need to go over the top with your manicure!

I learned some important lessons while working on this manicure, as well. First off, it's very, very important to make sure the edges of the stickers are away from the edges of your nails. If you don't, then those edges just might stick WAY THE HECK UP, and refuse to stick once you get your topcoat on. Then they will catch on absolutely everything until you've lost your mind, pulled the sticker off, and totally redone that nail.

Also unfortunate- stickers don't remove with nail polish remover. Instead, the nail polish remover will remove the polish all around the edge, letting the edge of the sticker come down enough to make a seal all around it, so that you then have a small raised sticker on your nail that refuses to come off, no matter how much acetone you throw at it. Those of you with some sense might be able to figure out a way to get that sticker off your nail without causing damage.

I, however, am not that sense-bearing person. I ended up scraping the sticker and the remaining polish off in one solid chip that left very angry, flaky, awful place on my pinkie nail. I then wanted to call a do over so that I could try again without being stupid. But it's life, and it's just nails, right?

When I took the rest of this manicure off, I did it in stages. I took off the clear topcoat just until I could see the sticker raised above the surface of my nail. Then, I used my pinkie nails to scrape the stickers off, and once they were gone I removed the rest of my polish. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to do this, and I am positive there's got to be a better way. I just haven't figured it out yet.

So, those of you who use nail decals... what did I do wrong? Is removing these little bundles of adorableness really that annoying? Is there an easier way to accomplish this? Help me, because right now I'm ready to never use a decal again!!

Polish was provided by PR for evaluation.
See my disclosure statement for more information.