When I stay up too late, I get brilliant. When I get brilliant, I envision and order Beyonce themed necklaces from one of those custom name necklace websites. Less than two weeks later, BAM, my dream has come to fruition.
I have some badazz Beyonce themed nail decals on the way, but until I get them, my “Diamond” charm from Hex Nail Jewelry makes for a good Bey referencing manicure (THIS DIAMOND. MY DIAMOND. THIS ROCK. MY ROC.).
I WOKE UP LIKE THIS.
GAH! Once I get going on that, it’s pretty hard to stop.
I’m wearing Floss Gloss’ new color, for Spring 2014, “Lean,” and it’s just as gorgeous as I was hoping. This whole set up I have going on today is a BOSS one. You know when you got some good shit, and you feel all proud of yourself? That’s me right now. Also, in the sprit of “Drunk in Love” I totally have a hickey in that photo up thurr. I cropped it out. YOU’RE WELCOME.
Let’s talk about Hex, baby! Let’s talk about these and me! Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that will be…
I bought these nail shields the second they were available. I’d been keeping a lookout for them to go on sale because I was not going to miss having this FABULOUS hardware on my nails. I placed my order, got super excited, and waited for them to show up in the mail.
Hex Nail Shields over Floss Gloss’ Dinge
Whoops! I forgot to take more pictures, and so now you guys get to see a little peek into my living room. There’s my couch, and one of my pillows, and part of my lamp. Pretty boring stuff, right? What you can’t see, out of frame, that’s where all the magic is happening. I can’t tell you what’s going on outside these pictures, that’s classified.
When they came in, honestly, I was a little bit concerned. Some of the plating on one of them was sort of cracked and funny, and there appeared to be some discrepancies in the size and thickness of the charms. But, I forged ahead anyways because I am impatient. I took them with me to a nail appointment to have my manicurist apply them, and we ran into more problems! It was hard to get the charms to match up to the curves of my nails, the edges were hard to glue down flush to the nail surface, and, they were sort of big for my nails. If you have acrylics, or whatever, you might have an easier time with these. Even with my nails pretty grown out, I had a little bit of overhang. Again, I forged ahead.
See? I make dumb mistakes so you don’t have to.
When we finally got them all settled on my nails. I was IN LUST. I mean, look at them. They look so fucking cool. Outstandingly cool. Your hands look beautifully adorned with just flat out absolute coolness. This is where my big conflict with these charms comes in. My experience with them was they didn’t wear as well as the previous Hex charms I’d used, but they look so amazing, I can’t totally be mad about it.
I got my nails done on a Friday afternoon, by Sunday, I’d lost all four of my nail shields. Not lost forever, but they’d all popped off at some point over the weekend. I lost one in the car later that day while I was delicately scratching my head, I lost two of them in the shower, and another one just popped off. I was re-gluing them all weekend. I had to at least get them through until Sunday night, because we had a very busy social calendar in LA that weekend, and there was no way I was going out with my nails covered in dried glue remnants. Also, there was no way I was going out without being able to get all the compliments that would for sure come my way once people saw how amazing my nails looked. So, I fixed them as best I could, and went out. I was right about the compliments, btw. Because, like I said, THEY LOOK AWESOME.
AUUUUGHHHH!!!! It makes me so mad when things like this don’t work how I want them to work. I wanted them to be easy peasy like the other charms, but they just weren’t. I kept catching them in my hair, it was so annoying to glue them back on a bunch of times, I put a top coat over one to try to seal an edge, and my nail turned greenish grey, also, I almost threw up when I had to pick them out of the hotel shower drain. What else was I going to do?! Leave them?! No way! I have determination, dammit.
Ultimately, I have mixed feelings about these charms. Hex does really, really cool stuff, and I’m willing to give these charms the benefit of the doubt that they were kind of funny because they were the first run. I try really hard not to be super picky, because I know I’m super picky and that’s annoying, but I also know I have a bad habit of keeping my mouth shut when I should speak up. I really have no doubt that if I’d contacted Hex about the cracked plating on one of my charms, they would have sent another one. They’ve been super cool with any other questions I’ve had about their products, and as best I can tell, they’re really into keeping their customers happy. So, it’s kind of my fault for going ahead with them anyways even though I had my concerns. I still have all my charms, and I do plan on wearing them again. Now I just know that I shouldn’t plan to have them on for a long period of time, but, if I want to wear them out for a night, they’ll be totally fine.
Both of these nail shield styles are sold out right now, and I wonder if anyone else had the problems I did. Maybe I was a fluke? Maybe my nails are too little. Maybe I’m hesitant to assign any blame here because, sometimes, these things just happen.
I still love all my Hex charms so much, and when they come out with the next set of nail shields, I’ll buy them because I am ever optimistic, and also stubborn. I can’t give my whole hearted recommendation on these because of all the frustration I encountered, but, if you love the look of them, definitely pull the trigger on buying them. Just be aware that you might not get a real long wear, and you will probably definitely get some hair caught under one of the edges. But, like so many beauty products, they’re potentially worth the trouble for the look. Do you SEE those pictures? How great do they look?! And on that dirty pink color?! UGH! GORGEOUS.
When I think of cobras, I think of the line in The Cramps song, “Sheena’s In a Goth Gang,” that says Sheena’s in “the Cult of the Cobra.” So, I call this nail look, “Sarah’s In a Goth Gang.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBguttUsPyw
If you don’t click play on that, I feel sorry for you.
Sarah’s in a goth gang! Sarah’s in a goth gang! Sarah’s in a goth gang nowwwww! I love it when I can easily make a song about myself, I hate having to force it.
Now to the important stuff!
I don’t remember how I discovered Hex Nail Jewelry, and their gold plated brass nail charms, but the first night I was on their site, I had a cart FULL of product. They’re SO boss, and at $1.75 each, it’s easy to pick out a bunch of them. When I finally placed my order, I had some big decisions to make, I was like, “Cobra or scorpion? Cobra or scorpion? BOTH.” I didn’t get the spider though, I have some self-restraint.
My delivery came really fast, so, +1 right away, right? I decided on the cobra first, because I had the opportunity to finally try PARTYBRUISE, and I was already thinking “Sarah’s In a Goth Gang” to myself. I’m always thinking that to myself.
After my two coats of polish and top coat were completely dry, it was time for the main event….
Hang on.
My nails don’t look that great because, FULL DISCLOSURE, I did them with pizza fingers while I was drinking beers, watching Project Runway and talking with my soul sister. It was a nail pizza party! So, basically, two of the best kinds of parties you can have with a friend! Slumber party would be another, key party would be another, NEW YEAR’S PARTY IS ONE! New Year’s Party is like a slumber party and a key party all rolled into one! A chaste key party, but still! I kiss a lot of friends on the lips at midnight, I’ll tell you that much. A lot.
So, the nail charms. Honestly, I fucked mine up a little bit. They make them so hard to fuck up, they’re curved to fit the bend of your nail and everything, but I figured out a way. Here’s what happened, to put them on your nail, you place a tiny bead of nail glue where you want the charm, then, you put the charm on top of the nail glue. Easy. Really easy. Well, I dropped the charm onto the nail glue, then I went, “Mmm….no,” and tried to slide it over a little with my finger. I instantly got my fingertip stuck to the charm and my nail by the still wet glue, yanked my finger up, ripped up the charm by accident, screamed, then had to press it back down, and hope like hell there was enough glue left to keep it stuck to my nail. There was. But, now I had nail glue stuck all over my fingers and the charm. Next time, I’m going to use an orange stick to make adjustments. Hex says you don’t need to put a top coat over the charm once it’s stuck to the nail glue, but I had kind of scuffed mine up with glue, so I threw a top coat over it to shine it up a little. I fucked that up too. I put the top coat on under my ceiling fan, so it went on all thick and stringy.
I think it really speaks to the radness of this nail charm that despite my best efforts, it still looks great. I’ve been wearing this cobra on my nails since Saturday, and it hasn’t snagged on anything, popped off, or lifted. It’s worked out great because my polish is starting to look like it wants to be changed.
To remove the charms, you just pick them off, and wipe the glue residue from your nail with polish remover. Then, you can throw the charm in your jewelry box to reuse!
I love my little baggie of charms, I already have my next manicure planned out!
P.P.S. If this entry seems super long and meandering, please know I’m on drugs. I need a backeotomy, but I’m on drugs and a heating pad. I *need* to be trying to work up my photo space because my poor backdrop went into the trash. Instead, I’m going to put a bunch of pillows under my knees and wait for someone to come pull the plug because I’m obviously falling apart. See?! Meandering! Shut up, Sarah!
