A Full Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Strips Review

I know I don't talk about my nails much because there really isn’t anything to say.

I only paint my toenails because for some reason my fingernails don’t take to nail polish well. After the last manicure I got, which was on a bit of a whim, the nail polish started chipping literally as I was walking out the door of the nail salon. I'm not kidding. That's how it is no matter what nail salon I've gone to or nail polish I used for an at-home manicure.

I've been told by some that I should try gel polish or dip polish. I’m also not sure I want to try either of those because I know some people who have used them and it’s weakened their nails. My nails are already on the weaker side so I don’t want to do anything that could make them weaker.

Cue the Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Strips. I’d had my eye on them for a while and over this year bought a few packs when they were on sale.

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About Dashing Diva

Dashing Diva offers easy at-home manicures and pedicures that give you the look of a salon look with artificial nails.

There are a few different types of product lines of artificial nails that Dashing Diva has

• Magic Press: These seem to be the traditional press-on nails I knew growing up. The only difference is they are gel nails that are coated with a layer of ultra-glossy, chip-resistant color. They last up to seven days.
• Glaze: These are easy-to-apply gel nail strips that cure under the light of a LED mini lamp in just 45 seconds, delivering full-cover, sculpted nails. They say these strips provide mega volume & maximum shine with real salon gel strength for up to 14 days.
• Gloss: These nail strips are chip-resistant, easy-to-apply gel nail strips, require zero dry time, and last up to 14 days.

With all of Dashing Diva's product lines, you can find a variety of colors and patterns.

One of the things I really like is that you can get holiday and themed nail strips to match the current season or holiday.

I opted to purchase Gloss Strips as they are supposed to last 14 days, are easy to remove, and seemed less intrusive because they feel like regular nail polish on the nails.

The two packs of Gloss Strips that I bought were the Rose Sparkle Gloss Palette and the Moody Mauve strips. I decided my first Dashing Diva application to be the Moody Mauve strips as they seemed perfect for fall.

Related read: My Quick and Affordable Option For A DIY Manicure

 

The Application

To start I off I spent some time prepping my nails. I did this by washing my hands, wiped down my nails with nail polish remover, and used some rubbing alcohol to completely clean my nails.

When I opened the box I found the application instructions, a prep pad, the nail strips of course, and a nail file.

The instructions said to prepare my cuticles after I washed my hands so I used a wooden cuticle nail pusher to push back my cuticles.

Next, I used the prep pad even though I had cleaned and prepped my nails with nail polish remover and rubbing alcohol. It came with the strips so I decided to use it.

Now it was time to use the strips. In videos that I’d watched it seemed really easy but I found it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

 

I started with my right thumb first and it looked like all of these strips were too big for my thumbnail. I started to think my right thumbnail may be oddly small.

I thought the smallest thumbnail strip would be the perfect fit but it looked too big. I didn’t want to cut it to size so decided to try another one.

The next one ended up being a little smaller than I would have liked because I could see more of my nail bed than I preferred but I used it anyway.

To apply each strip I

• Lined it up with the bottom of my nail bed
• Pressed the strip down and smoothed it out to make sure there were no bubbles or wrinkles
• After the strip was smoothed out I took the nail file and filed off the excess strip at the end
• I found that if the excess strip won’t file completely off you can help it a little by tearing it off
• I did all of my nails the same way and here was the end result

My experience

I ended up wearing this set for six days. Yep, six you didn’t read that wrong. They are supposed to last 14 days but they didn’t for me.

Within the first 24 hours, the strips on a few of my fingers started lifting at my nail tips. A couple of them got so bad I decided to fully replace those nail strips.

For the others, I saw that you could file down the nail to get to the part where the strip wasn’t lifting. I was able to do that for the other strips because of how long my nails on those fingers were.

I did some quick research online and found that applying a clear polish top coat on top could help. That did help for a few days but on day 6 one of the nails had started to lift so badly that it folded up on itself exposing my nail tip.

It was time to remove the strips.

Removing the strips

The process of removing the strips was very easy. All I needed to do was soak a cotton ball with nail polish remover and hold the cotton ball to the nail strip. Within a minute or so the nail strip dissolved and I was able to wipe it all completely off.

 

 

What I did next

At this point, I was turned off of the strips and didn’t think they were worth the money to buy them, even though they didn’t cost a lot. If they wouldn’t last more than a week they only seemed good for special occasions versus everyday wear.

I still had another set of strips to use though, the Rose Sparkle Gloss Palette.

I decided I might as well give them a try but before I did I wanted to do some additional research to see how I could make them last longer.

I watched a lot of videos on how to best apply the Dashing Diva nail strips.

After watching several and I mean several videos on YouTube I came away with these new tips

• Buff the nail bed so it’s not completely smooth and gives the strip more to grip onto. I did this for my left hand
• Try using a base coat polish first. I did this with my left hand as well
• Make sure to fold the excess strip over the tip of the nail. I did this on both hands
• File the excess off using an up-and-down motion. Did this on both hands
• Put on a top coat of polish. I did this with both hands as well

The result

After the first few days of wearing this set of nail strips, I was surprised and pleased that I was having no issues. The nail strips weren’t lifting, I didn’t have to replace any of them or try to keep them on my nail.

 

This went on for 12 days. Yes, 12 when the last set only lasted 6. I did remove the nail strips on the 12th day, not because they started to lift or there were problems but because I wanted to apply a new set and needed to give my nails some time to breathe before doing so.

Now I am a fan of the Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Strips. I have figured out the secret for getting the nails to last, at least for me. I’ve gone out and bought a few more sets that I can’t wait to wear.

Have you tried nail strips before? If so, how has your experience been? Share in the comments.