I Tried The Viral Gel Nail Stickers & Here's What Happened...
Happy Monday my lovelies! What a busy but fun weekend it has been - I celebrated my birthday with the hubby’s family and mine, and I have to say I really do feel blessed. I have the best support system and so many people who care about me. It was truly overwhelming in the best way possible. I feel grateful for all that I have.
Knowing that my big day was coming up, celebrating the big 3-0, last week I was in a panic about something so silly… My nails. Flashback to summer 2023, when I got my nails done for the last time. Not because I wanted to stop, or save money, or give my nails a break. Because I had to.
I had been doing my own nails at home for at least a year, and every now and then would go to a salon to get a nice manicure set done before a vacation or a big party. I did buy myself a few products to do my own nails at home in between those sessions in order to save money throughout the year and avoid going to salons once a month. My lovelies who do this regularly know how costly getting your nails done can be! For those who know, everything that you need from a UV lamp, primer, gel base coat, gel nail polish colours and a gel top coat… I basically had everything I needed to do my own gel nails at home, and was refilling my gel nails at home in between my sporadic nail salon trips throughout the year. It was great to help me save money, but I didn’t know a nightmare would come out of it…
One day, just a few hours after doing my own nails, my fingertips and cuticles became incredibly itchy. It was a painful itch, one I just could not scratch to the point that even in my sleep I was scratching them. I woke up with painful, red fingertips and cuticles, and was starting to even develop a rash on my neck. After hours of extensive research, I found that I had developed some kind of allergy to an ingredient in the gel polish. The same gel polish I had been using for over a year at that point. How was it possible?
Without getting too much into the science of it, there are many different ingredients in gel polish, and not all are safe for the human body. Technically, the UV lamp for your nails is supposed to fully cure them so that the ingredients do not get absorbed by your body. But, if you’re not careful or not using the correct wattage on your lamp for the specific gel polish, small leftover particles from the gel can begin to seep into your skin. This can lead to an allergy development to that specific ingredient over time, which you need to get tested for in order to find which one you're allergic too. The typical allergens are found in the adhesive ingredients of the polishes. Further allergy testing will be required to determine exactly which ingredient I'm allergic to.
So, I’m definitely not a doctor, but trying to explain it in the most basic possible way: I could no longer do gel, shellac, acrylic or any other manicure. I also can’t use any glues or adhesives such as press-on nails, and not JUST for my nails: eyelash glue counts as well. I don't use fake eyelashes, but now I never can. I also learned that any kind of adhesive used in medical work, such as for surgeries, hip replacements, and even in dental work might have to be avoided, too. Because with each exposure to the allergen, your reactions supposedly get worse and worse. So I wasn't taking any chances.
I immediately stopped doing my own nails, removed them all, started working on growing my natural nails, and only put on nail polish (since it was the only thing I WASN’T allergic to at this point). I really, truly missed getting my nails done, even with the fear of a worsened allergic reaction looming. Every week they would chip and break off. I tried everything to get them growing long and strong but NOTHING was working.
I finally came across an Instagram advertisement one day of a company selling “semi-cured gel stickers” for nails. It looked very interesting to me, since they were not liquid and only stickers, but I was skeptical about whether I could get around my allergy and finally get my nice nails back. After testing out 1 nail sticker for a week... They did JUST THAT. Here’s my journey, how they work, as well as their pros and cons. Because you know I’m here to tell you it ALL. Not just the good stuff.
Ladies, say hello to DANNI & TONI Semi-Cured Gel Nail Stickers. These babies have SAVED my nails and made them stronger than ever.
What you need:
DANNI & TONI Semi Cured Gel Nail Strips (colour of your choice, between $18-$22). Each set of nail stickers comes with:
Nail File
Nail Wipe (can be swapped for rubbing alcohol pad)
Nail Scissors
Cuticle Stick
Why I love this…
Affordable - For under $30, you can get yourself a pretty manicure that lasts a week or more, depending on how careful you are with your nails and how often you use your hands.
Compact - The little lamp and nail stickers are so compact, they’re easy to store but especially useful to pack on your next trip in case you need a quick fix on your nails! I’m going on a few trips this year and will definitely be taking those babies with me, just in case!
Variety Available - The nail stickers have a variety of colours, patterns and sparkles to choose from, so there is literally something for everyone! It also comes with 2 packs of different sizes, so no matter the size of your nail bed you can easily find what fits. Because you have 2 sets of sizes, it’s also possible to strategically make 2 manicures from this one purchase. That’s like paying $8-$11 for a manicure. CRAZY!
Ease of Use - I have a very steady hand, so I found it was super easy to apply the stickers to your nails and adjust even if you make a mistake. You can just unstick and try again. You just need to get as close to your cuticle as possible without touching your skin.
Quick Fix - If you’re in a pinch, and need a quick, reliable manicure, applying these stickers only takes about 30 minutes! You simply push down the cuticle area with the stick if necessary, clean your nail with the provided pad (or alcohol pad), apply the nail stickers according to the size of your nail bed, cut to the length of your nail, and cure under the UV lamp for 60 seconds. Once they’ve hardened, file to shape them as you wish. Check out the photo on the left of how the stickers look when you apply them and before cutting them to your nail length.
Ease of Removal - When your nails have grown out and it’s time to remove them, the process is so easy. Simply apply some oil near your cuticle to massage, and use the cuticle stick to move the oil under your nail sticker in order to gently lift it. It’s a slow and steady process but removes the stickers from your nails without damaging them whatsoever! The company sells its own DANNI & TONI Remover Oil which you can buy and use to remove the stickers, but it worked just fine for me with some coconut oil. A little way to save you some money if you plan on trying these. Cha-ching.
And yes, even though there are so many good things, you know I won’t skip out on the cons for you, so here’s everything I noticed while testing these:
Duration: The amount of oil and cream you use, and hand-washing or sanitizing you do can affect the durability of the nail stickers. The first time I tested them out, I was able to keep them for 10 days before removing them because they were beginning to unstick. But my nails had grown tremendously at that point, which they were never able to do before because they kept breaking.
Wasteful: Each pack of nail stickers you purchase comes with nail scissors, a cuticle stick and a little nail file. It seems like a pro rather than a con, but when you think about it long term, if you do this manicure once a month, after a year you’ll have 12 nail scissors, nail files and cuticle sticks to throw out, which just seems wasteful. I wish they had an option to buy just the nail stickers on their own without all the tools each time.
Not Super Hard: The stickers don’t cure to be as hard as a gel, shellac or an acrylic nail would. They’re not super strong, and actually remain flexible as your nails would, but with a thicker layer on them. For this reason, you cannot use the sticker to extend the length of your nails like you can with press-on nails or nail tips at the salon, it really needs to be filed down to the shape of your natural nail. Some may find this is a con, so I’ve mentioned it here. But I’ve found this soft flexibility to help my nails not break in all the house chores and tasks I use my hands for.
That’s been my journey so far with the viral Instagram semi-cured gel nail stickers. I’m so happy to have found a solution to keep my nails looking cute, staying strong, and all without any allergic reactions from harsh chemicals and ingredients. I cannot say whether this would work for others suffering from similar allergies. But for myself, I tried one nail sticker for just one week to see if it would affect my skin before starting straight away with a full manicure. As they always say, test on a small spot before use!
Here are my nails 1. Before applying the stickers, 2. After finishing the sticker application, and 3. My nails 1 week later:
Thanks for stopping by and reading about my journey. I hope you can learn from my lessons and be extra careful if you're doing your own gel manicures at home! I wish someone would have told me so that I could have been more careful in not developing the allergy. I also hope that if needed, these could be a solution for you some day and that you give them a try, too. I’m certainly glad I did! Until next time…
Love, Annamaria
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