I Hate Press-On Nails, but This Luxe-Looking Pair Lasted 17 Days Without Budging

They turned my short, bare nails into well-manicured talons.

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Courtesy of Tamim Alnuweiri

Courtesy of Tamim Alnuweiri

I have never been a press-on-nails girl. I’ve always found them flimsy, thin, and incredibly short-lasting. When I want faux length, I go for cured gel options like Apres nails, calgel, or polygel but those are time-consuming and expensive. But in the interest of science, I have continued to test glue on nails and finally came across some from Nail Reformation that is undoing my decades of prejudice after lasting 17-plus days.

Nail Reformation Press On Nails

Nail Reformation 

Nail Reformation

The first part of my prior disdain for this product category was design options. I find that there are usually two—the first is some squiggly line art and the second is old-school French manicures or solid neutral colors. The reason I even entertained Nail Reformation’s options was because they are genuinely fun nail art that reminds me of the manicures I used to spend hundreds of dollars on. The quality of the nails and the glue is also exceptional—they’re thick but flexible and the glue is at least 76 percent of the reason these lasted 17 days. (The combination is so effective these nails made my very cutthroat favorite products of the year list.)

InStyle

InStyle

Each set comes with 32 nails, a nifty cuticle trimmer, glue, an alcohol prep pad, a nail file/buffer, and cuticle oil. There are dozens of designs and new ones are added often (I can attest to this as I check the website regularly).

The application process is standard: clean nails with the alcohol pad, file and buff them, apply glue to the underside of the press-on then directly onto your nails, hold in place tightly for 5 to 10 seconds, and voila. It took 15 seconds and $18 to transform my short, bare nails into red cat-eye manicured talons. Depending on how rough you are on your nails, these can also be reused a couple of times.

Nail Reformation 

Nail Reformation

I had a small learning curve, though. I wasn’t initially diligent about cleaning and buffing my nails before gluing, so a few nails popped off after a day or two. I followed instructions to a T, reapplying them and they didn’t budge after that.

I’m still not convinced of press-on nails entirely, but thanks to these Nail Reformation ones, I know a beautiful long-lasting set is possible

Nail Reformation 

Nail Reformation

Nail Reformation 

Nail Reformation

Nail Reformation 

Nail Reformation

Nail Reformation 

Nail Reformation

Nail Reformation 

Nail Reformation

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