My first adventure with INCOCO Nail Polish Appliques!

Greetings loved ones! Lets take a journey! (Kudos to you if you know who said that without googling it!) Last month I was contacted by Incoco to review their 100% real nail polish strips and I was super excited! I have tried the Sally Hansen polish strips (and even the old Avon ones from 2005ish) but 'back then' I didn't take care of my nails the way I do now so it was like putting a $10,000 wedding dress on an old muskrat...pointless. SO when the opportunity arose to give it another go you can bet your sweet behind I jumped at it!

Incoco Nail Polish Appliques are 100% real strips of flexible "pre-dried" nail polish that you stick to your naked nails and smooth out to bond it to your nail.  There is no dry time and clean up is as easy as wadding the excess material up and tossing it in the trash. They are 3-free and they claim to last up to 14 days! Removal was simple, just a little bit of your favorite nail polish remover and a couple of cotton balls - no need to peel and no damage to your nail bed. There are nearly 250 different colors and designs to choose from for your nails and toes, from glitters, to neons, to french tips, gradients, stamp-like strips...even a faux water marble! AND they're made in the USA (shout out to New Jersey!)

All the goodies!

Incoco sent me all of the tools I'd need to accomplish the task - a polish removal wipe to prep the nail, an 'orange stick' to help smooth the applique on the nail bed and help it adhere, a double ended file with a course and fine edge to file the edge of the strip down and remove the excess, and of course the nail strips Summer Sizzle and Glory Days. Now I don't know for certain if all the tools are included with each order but I would assume they are since similar mass market products include them with their products but don't quote me. Regardless, if you're doing this yourself you probably already have most of these items in your nail tool box so no big!

Unboxing! YAY! This is 'Summer Sizzle'

The packaging on these is really cute and fun. I loved that the outside of it shimmers slightly and that you can see a printed image of the strips while the actual strips remain safely hidden behind it, protected from harm or fading from light. They are also super portable and would be easy to toss into your luggage when you go on vacation - no to worry about them breaking open or spilling. WIN.

There are 16 strips in each package. Something that I LOVED about these babies is that each strip is double ended! One side is slightly more rounded than the other and they taper differently toward the middle. This was PERFECT for me because some of my nail beds are curved at the cuticle and some are more square, and my middle fingers get wider closer to the tip whereas my ring finger tapers inward slightly. This offers superior fit and I was able to find a pretty good match for each of my nails.

Close up of Summer Sizzle

I started by removing the polish I had on my nails and lightly buffing them. Then I opened the package of strips and separated each strip from one naother, matching them up to each of my nails, and laying them out in a row in the order in which I would apply them (I did thumb to pinky). Its important that you do not open the package of strips until you're ready to start applying them because they will dry out eventually. Then I used the polish remover cloth that Incoco sent with the kit to clean each of my nails one last time before I started applying the strips.

Instructions from the package

Match the strip up to your nail one more time to make sure you're applying the right one/end to your nail and peel off the clear cover and the paper backing, holding onto the silver foil piece. Determine the end you want to use and remove the silver foil piece. Lay the polish strip gently onto your nail near the cuticle. You have a very small window to preposition these so if its not on straight peel it up and preposition before you smooth it. This was the hardest part for me because the strips are so thin that they curl while you're holding them a little bit making positioning them properly a little tricky. If its on straight, gently smooth the polish strip toward the tip of your nail with your finger or the orange stick - I used my fingers and a rubber cuticle pusher to accomplish this and seal the sides and edges. You can gently stretch it along the sides to make it fit your nail a bit better, but I would be very careful if you are using a 'designed' strip like I did because the stretching did create very small lines in the design. It's not a huge deal, they are invisible at a normal distance, its only when you inspect them closely that you can see the lines. I was really pleased that I did not experience any air bubbles under the strip as I applied them, and smoothing them was very simple. To remove the excess, fold the strip down over the edge of the nail and file the end gently in a downward motion. I made the mistake of being a little too rough on the filing part and ended up with a few ripples on the edge of the nail that I couldn't flatten out. When the excess has been filed off you're all done! Lean back and admire your handiwork! For giggles I did toss a fast dry top coat on top before I removed them just to see what it would do and all it seemed to do was just make the edges sharper LOL. Definitely no need for a top coat on these babies.

SO HOW DO I feel about them? I like them but I think I need more practice on the application end of things and they are a little too pricey ($8.99/set) for me to use regularly. I was only able to wear these strips on my hands for a couple of hours before I had to take them off. The ripples on the tip of a couple of them allowed water to get underneath and they peeled up shortly after I did some dishes. Additionally I had to preposition a couple of them which broke the bond with my nail and when I ran my hands through my hair my hair slipped under a lose edge, got caught, and lifted it up. HOWEVER I applied the left over strips to a couple of my toes and they wore FANTASTICALLY WELL for a good 3 weeks before I decided to change my pedi and soaked them off. Its no secret I am very rough on my hands so my inability to wear these for too long on my nails is quite certainly my fault LOL. I am definitely looking forward to using the Glory Days set for the next appropriate holiday, and if the pedi-strips are as sticky as the hand ones I will definitely pick up a set or two for my toes!

Alright so how do you snag a set of Incoco Nail Polish Appliques for yourself? WELL, you can check out their website at www.incoco.com to browse all of the designs and sign up for the newsletter to receive alerts for some really great promos from Incoco. You can also follow them on Facebook: Incoco, Instagram: @incocoproducts, and Pinterest which has some great tutorials and user photos.

AND/OR...

YOU COULD ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY!

Incoco is giving me the opportunity to share their polish strips with 1 lucky winner! Its super easy to enter, just follow the rafflecopter widget! This giveaway will run for 2 weeks, from today until 11:59pm CST on 9/19/2013 and the winner will be contacted sometime on the 20th. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. I will be verifying entries so please be honest! Open to US and Canada residents only. GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway