Recent NOTD: Sally Hansen Cut It Out

So when we last looked at my nails, they were shorter than they'd been in some time and coming off two weeks of rehab with OPI Nail Envy. I mentioned that I'd run out of patience for having unadorned nails at that point. I knew they still needed treatment, though, so I compromised and put on one coat of Nail Envy (Sensitive & Peeling formula) under some Sally Hansen strips in the Cut It Out pattern from the core collection.

In putting them on, I realized a good thing about having shorter nails is I'd be able to get a full mani from only one of the two strip packets. It took me a few nails to figure out that cutting the strips in half before applying was the way to go, so I ended up with some wonkiness. I rationalized that since it was such a busy pattern, no one was likely to notice the parts where I'd messed up. I did have to cheat a bit on some of the nails and leave bigger gaps than I'd normally do, but it was worth it to me to be able to leave that second packet "factory sealed" since these strips will dry out and become inflexible once they're out of that packet. I've had some luck slipping leftovers into the plastic sleeve the file in the package comes in and wrapping them up tight with tape. I've been able to use those to replace a strip when I've ruined one on my nails in the same week, but after a few weeks, air does sneak in and dry out the strips. I'm still pondering a better way to seal them up or some way to re-wet them after they've dried, but in this case, I've got a fresh packet of 8 strips ready to go.

Now, I don't know about you, but for me, all those white spaces with black outlines were just begging to be colored in. I lasted four days before I gave into temptation and got out my Sharpies. (A sidenote: cleaning up stray Sharpie marks is harder than cleaning up nail polish slips.)