What is Color Street?
If you had asked me 2 months ago, I couldn’t have told you. In January, a long-time friend of mine invited me to a “birthday nail bar” on Facebook. I had no idea what in the world it was, but I do enjoy having my nails look well-maintained (even if they don’t look that way as often as they should). I took a look at the party invitation, and my curiosity was piqued! Is it really as simple as it looked? Do the “nails” really last a while? I am pretty hard on my nails, so I was a bit skeptical.
So what is Color Street? Well, it is real nail polish that has been through a patented process to end up as a stick-on nail color solution. Sounds crazy, right? Now you see why I was a bit skeptical? For the price of $11-14 per set, it seemed to be a pretty economical way to have a manicure.
The Nail Bar & My First Set
I joined the “nail bar” on party night, and I decided to order a few sets – both to help my friend and to try something new. I finally got around to putting on my first set on Sunday night, February 3rd. It was my first attempt, and it was definitely as easy as the package said: 1) Clean your nails; 2) peel the plastic off the nail strip; 3) find the size to fit your nail; 4) peel the “nail” off the strip and remove the tab; and 5) stick on the appropriate nail, gently stretching the stick-on, as needed. You have the option to follow up with a top coat, which I did.
Below is how my nails looked that first night. It’s a lovely shade called Bourdeaux Glitz, and since the indication was that they should last until around Valentine’s Day, it seemed an appropriate color choice out of the ones I had purchased.
What did people think?
I got TONS of compliments on them throughout the 10 days that I had them, and unlike regular nail polish, they didn’t try to peel away from my regular nail. My fingernails do grow super fast, so after about a week, I began to really notice the separation of the cuticle from the base of the color, but from a distance, they still looked good. I had trimmed some of them down around the 1 week mark, as it’s difficult to type if they are too long, and I type A LOT for work and outside of work.
On the evening of day 10, I began to peel at them, as it was definitely time for them to be re-done. Some of the tips were still in great shape, but a few had small chips out of them. The part that I noticed more than anything, though, was the amount of white by my nail bed. For people with slower-growing nails, they likely would last 2 weeks+, but I maxed out around 10 days. It is possible (and I am going to try!) that with experience at applying them now, I can do a better job up front so they will last longer.
My Review
My nails are fairly short, and I only had to use one of the strips in the package, making it double the value for a manicure! It also means I’ll get to enjoy the lovely color again for another week or two in the near future. Check out my “after” photos below. I apologize for the clarity on a couple of them, but I didn’t realize the photo quality until it was too late to re-take them. The polish did not leave my nails discolored like regular nail polish, either, so that’s another big win!
If you want to try them for yourself, here’s a link to the site of the stylist through which I ordered: https://www.colorstreet.com/brandidixon/
Have you experienced Color Street nails before? If so, I would love to hear your story and see how your nails turned out!