Julep Nail Appliques Peacock Review

I received these Peacock Nail Appliques as part of my December Maven boxes. (If you're not sure what the Maven program is, here's my blog post about it! )

The Peacock Nail Appliques retail for $14 on the Julep website, and can be purchased here: http://www.julep.com/nail-color/julep-nail-appliques-peacock

Well, actually, I did a shelf pull on my American Beauty box, to get Classic with a Twist instead. But when I got my boxes they had shelf pulled my boho glam box instead, sent me the american beauty and the classic with a twist.
So I emailed about it, and they kindly sent me the appliques that I was missing.

The holidays were a total whirlwind, so this is the first chance I've really had to use them. The appliques come in a white sleeve, and are in a plastic sleeve inside of that.

Julep Peacock Appliques

As you can see, there are 16 total appliques to use. It also comes with a mini orange stick and a mini nail file inside the sleeve, and the instructions in the back say to clean your nails off completely before using the stickers.

The appliques have a black back with adhesive on them, and the top part has the design that you can see. I was impressed that the artwork was raised and has a 3-D quality instead of being flat. 

 First I cleaned off all nail polish on my nails with my Sally Beauty Nail Polish Remover. (I can take a photo of what brand I use if anyone wants to know)

It's important to do this step because these appliques are essentially stickers, heavy duty ones, but still stickers. So you absolutely need a clean surface for them to adhere to. 

 The second step was cutting up the appliques into strips.
My nails were smaller than the generic sizing that they created. The only one that didn't need trimming was the one for my thumb, which required the largest size available.
For each nail, I would cut the strip with the same two sizes, and then cut the strip in half to separate the individual nail sticker. Then I would hold up my nail to the sticker to see about where I needed to trim it. I also had to trim a mm or so off of the edges on most of them, because my nails were more narrow than the stickers.  The left portion of this image shows all the leftover pieces. I put the part with the "peacock feather" design on my nail, but had tons of leftovers and it would definitely be enough to do my nails again at least once, possibly twice more. I don't have long nails though, as you can see, which makes them stretch further.

Applying them was pretty straightforward. You just cut the piece to size, and place it on your nail. You can move them around easily if needed. After I got it positioned, I smoothed it and then used the orange stick to get the edges down into the edges of my nails more. I also put a clearcoat of topcoat on top just to seal everything.

Here you can see the finished set a little better. All in all these held up fine for the three days I could stand them.

I washed my hands and took a shower with them in. I did experience some peeling on the edges on the 3rd day, and the stickers are on the thicker side, which coupled with the clearcoats I put on top made them feel kind of weird.

I found myself constantly rubbing the texture unconciously, and ulitmately couldn't stand how it felt on my nails anymore and took them off.

  I like them, but they're thick, I wish it came with more sizing options, and that they were more nail polish and less sticker like.

That said, they lasted pretty well and looked really great! There's no way I could ever do a complicated design like that, and getting it done in a salon would be expensive. This is a really great way to change up your nail look to something elaborate in only about 15 mins.  I would use these again for a special occasion or just for fun.

One minor annoyance to me was also that the design isn't mirrored for the hands. It's the same positioning for both hands, so when you hold your thumbs up next to one another, they're not symetrical in design like it would be if a nail design person had done them with real nail polish. Personally I would prefer to have the hands be a "mirror" of one another just for symmetry. I think it's a small touch that makes a big impact and looks more high end and professional.

I give this product a 7/10.