China Glaze Real Nail Polish Appliques Cherry Blossoms

I have previously declared my love for real nail polish appliques/strips on this blog. They’re so easy, look great and wear very well. What’s not to love? So when I was at Beauty Brands and saw a display for China Glaze Real Nail Polish Appliques I knew I had to give them a try.

It took me awhile to decide on a design. Several were designs available from other (and less expensive) brands and others looked like something I could do myself. Finally I picked the Cherry Blossoms. The design reminded me a bit of the Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom packaging. I was pleased with my choice and went on my merry way.

Admittedly, this package of real nail polish appliques collected dust for several months. But this last week I went to Birmingham for Thanksgiving and needed a no fuss manicure that was going to last. It was the perfect time to give these a try.

I wore these for 6 days and was overall quite pleased with my experience. For a full review (including info on the packaging, application, wear and removal)  check below the jump!

Packaging: The China Glaze Nail Polish Appliques are packaged similarly to the OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps. It’s just a flat cardboard package with the strips in a shrink wrapped foil pack inside. China Glaze also includes a nail file and a wooden stick.

One thing I don’t like about this packaging is that all the nail strips are in the same package. Since my nails are on the shorter side I cut the strips in half so that I only use half the strips provided. In order to save the rest for later I had to tape up the packaging to prevent the strips from drying out.

The outside of the packaging claims that these strips will last up to 7 days and are easy to apply. The ingredients are also listed on the back as well as the price ($11.50).

Along with the nail strips, the packaging also includes detailed instructions on how to apply these strips.

Application, wear and removal: Applying these strips was similar to apply the Sally Hansen or OPI real nail polish strips. I did an entire post where I go into great detail about the application, wear and removal of these strips. Instead of rehashing it here, if you’re interested, check out this post.

I didn’t find these as easy to apply as the OPI and Sally Hansen nail polish strips for one reason. I have fairly narrow nail beds so often times the strips are a bit too wide for my nail. With the other strips it was easy to remove the excess once the strip was applied. For some reason the China Glaze strips were not easy to trim with the provided wooden stick.

I wore these for 6 days and was pleased with how well they wore. I had some noticeable tip wear but nothing major. I removed these with no trouble using my favorite nail polish removal method.

Overall I like these real nail polish appliques but I don’t love them. I much prefer the Sally Hansen Salon Effects and they are less expensive! Or, of course, you could just make your own nail polish strips…

Unless China Glaze comes out with a design that I’m just dying to have I won’t be purchasing any more.