I am the type of person who likes to have their nails done. It was something my Mom and I would do after school and work on a Tuesday evening or on the weekend when I was still in high school. But once I got to college it became increasingly more difficult to find time to make it to the nail salon or even just to finance getting my nails done. That is when a friend of mine suggested that I used press-on nails. She had been using them for about a year and said she liked buying clear ones to paint herself. This way she had pretty nails for a fraction of the price and she could do them whenever she had the time from the comfort of her dorm room.
So one night I commissioned her to paint a set of press-on nails for me. I have never had press-ons before and I was excited to give it a try. They only lasted a few days before falling off. This is when I gave up on press-ons for a while. But Halloween rolled around and I was in the store browsing the make-up aisle when I saw some cool nails I wanted to try and was determined to make them stick!
Okay, so my Halloween nails didn’t really stick or last for long. BUT I have been using press-ons for almost four years now and I have a few tips on how I learned to get them to last upwards of two weeks.
- Select the correct size press-on for each nail. The biggest mistake I’ve noticed is using the wrong size nail will make it more likely for them to pop off.
- Cut and file your actual nails so that way they don’t poke out and lessen any chances of being snagged. (Again you shouldn’t have to file too much of your real nail, maybe just around the sides because you should be sizing them correctly first).
- Dehydrate your real nails. This can be done using a nail dehydrator but also using acetone works just as well and is one less product you need to purchase.
- Here’s the biggest tip: File the underside of the press-on nail to make it a rough surface so it wants to stick to your real nails.
- Spread the nail glue on your nail first but also add a bead of nail glue to the base of the press-on. Once you’ve done this apply the nail at a 45 degree angle starting at the cuticle and lay it down moving up the nail. This way you are sure the nail glue is evenly distributed and that no air bubbles form.
- Be sure to put pressure on the nail and hold it there for about thirty seconds before moving on to the next nail.
- Lastly, clean up with an acetone soaked q-tip as needed to get any excess nail glue spillage.
These are the steps that have worked for me and helped me make my press-ons last at least two weeks. However, it was a lot of trial and error on my end. So if these tips do not work for you don’t be discouraged. Do whatever works best for you. Finally, I have had the occasional nail pop off here and there. If this happens don’t worry just repeat the steps above to reapply it. Start by filing down the nail glue on both your actual nail and the press-on to get both back to being rough surfaces and then dehydrate and apply the nail glue for reapplication. I hope this helps those of you who have not yet been successful with your press-ons and for those of you looking to try press-ons I hope this makes that an enjoyable experience for you!