Bling Nail Appliques

I got these during a recent trip to Sally's and they were price $2.49. I hadn't yet seen them reviewed on any blogs that I frequent, so I thought I'd give them a whirl. End result = pleasantly surprised!

These are similar in concept to the Sephora Nail Bling. Full nail art stickers with a textured effect.

There are 18 individual stickers in the packet. I'm one that usually has problems with fit. My thumbnails fall on the large side, but the biggest sticker in this pack was PERFECT for my thumbs! So I'm sure it will fit well for a wide range of consumers.

 You can almost see the bubble texture to these stickers. Each bump/rhinestone is just a tad smaller than bullion beads. I fell in love with the gradient arrangement on this set.

 I painted my nails with 3 coats of Orly's Pink Slip (this polish is quite sheer, but I just wanted a light flush of pink as my base). Make sure your base polish is completely dry before proceeding. 

Simply peel the sticker and place it along your cuticle.

Smooth it down along the sides of your nail.

I found it easiest to trim the free edge with scissors before "filing away the excess" as the instructions state. Cutting through the tiny rhinestones is not that difficult. They seem to be made of a silicone type material.

Then I filed the free edge with a downward motion to shore up the ends. I had trouble with wrinkles on my nails that have a stronger curve to them. You know how not all nails are straight from cuticle to free edge? Some of mine have a stronger downward curve than others. Because the sticker is slightly thick, it's not easy to get it to lie flat against a curved nail.

 Two down! These took me a while to apply, mainly because I was trying to be uber careful and get them just right.

In the end, I REALLY loved how they looked! They have a slightly bumpy texture to them when you run your fingers across them. The instructions state to apply topcoat to seal the edges and increase wear time, so I applied 2 coats of Seche Vite. The topcoat didn't take away from the texture at all, it just lessened it a bit.

I wore them for 2 days before removing them. The only troubles I had after that time were slight lifting at the same spots where I had wrinkles. 

For $2.49 I think they are well worth it when you don't want to spend 72 hours placing individual bullion beads in complex patterns on your nails. :) I will buy them again if another pattern catches my eye.