Avon Instant Manicure
September 6, 2006 by Christina Jones
Filed under Beauty, Nail Care, Product Reviews
I finally got my hands on this product yesterday – if you are unaware of what it is, Instant Manicure is nail polish, partially dried in strips, that you apply to your nails almost like stickers. I will go ahead and say that I am coming into this as a big skeptic as a 20-yr nail tech, so I am not expecting much, even though I have heard quite a few rave reviews.
So, last night I applied it for the first time – and I used a gorgeous metallic dark red (the color escapes me at the moment, but is pictured and linked above to Amazon). Naturally of the 5 shades I had picked out, I chose the most obvious one to use for the first time – I love to make things hard for myself for some reason. 
It went on pretty painlessly, although I did have problems with the polish sticking to the clear plastic overlay on a couple of the strips. The little tab that you are supposed to hold while you are peeling the polish away from the backing and laying the strips down on your nails came off and I had to work to get the polish off the card and then on to my nail. I made a fairly good mess out of one of my thumbs, and had no strips left over to be able to redo it. I also have larger nails, but not as large as some I have seen, and I had a problem finding enough sizes to completely cover my nails, but I was able to take some of the waste from other nails and patch the sides of a couple of my nails well enough that it isn’t noticeable. I would really like to see Avon err on the side of the strips being too large, as it is very easy to remove excess from the sides.
I had a little difficulty getting the strips right down to the cuticle on a couple of nails, but not too bad. I pressed the polish onto my nails, and for the most part, it went on pretty smoothly, and the excess came off without any trouble at all. In fact, I found that I could overlap my cuticle just a hair, and then sort of push it under my cuticle, which got it nice and close to the cuticle. There are a few small bubbles in the polish that didn’t attach properly, but again, that was user error. Even with all of the pressing, the polish stayed beautiful and shiny. Polish drying time was eliminated, but I still felt like I needed to be a little careful with them until things were nice and set. I had no accidents at all, and even did a few dishes an hour or so later.
I can be really rough on my nails, I am always banging them, catching them on drawers and all manner of other things, so it will be interesting to see how they wear this week. I can see a few places where they have already come off of the edges of my nails, but no chips or anything like that. One thing I notice different, that I don’t particularly care for, is that my nails don’t feel strong like they do when they have regular nail polish on, so I have lots of questions that will be answered as time goes on, and I will get back to you on it. I have 4 other colors to try, so I am not coming to a snap judgement here at all. So far, I really am rather impressed. I have used many a regular nail polish that doesn’t dry as pretty as this does.
Berry Fast.
I chose that same color for my review. I liked that color the best because I think the lighter colors were way too light, as if I wasn’t wearing polish at all.
~Shannon
Thanks Shannon – I pitched the package in the trash last night and didnt have the energy to look it up this morning.
I got three of the lighter shades also – seems I always either wear nude or dark blood red. Feel free to post a link to your review here too, it was a good one!
Actually, while cleaning off my dining room table, I found the cellophane wrapper and the color I used is Reddy To Go. It is very pretty, much like OPI’s Deer Valley Spice.
I’m reading this, picturing you putting these on, and thinking, “What a cool job!” You know, in addition to all of the other jobs that fall under motherin’ and writing and such.
Did you picture me cursing when they wouldn’t go on quite right?
This is the best job, bar none. Only better writing job would be the one that got me a live interview with my other man, Brad Pitt. 
So, after all the work you put into getting them on, do you think it would have been faster to paint on two coats of polish? Do they come off with regular polish remover?
Thanks for the review!
Hi Erika – yes, it would have been faster to paint them, but when you consider the drying time, then no. After wearing these for a few days, they are still really looking good. Just a slight bit more worn off the tips, and no chipping at all, not even in the spots I had to patch on the sides of my nails. They are still nice and shiny too. What I don’t like is that I don’t have touch up polish, as I am a bit of a picker, and have found a couple of spots to pick that I normally would have touched up. All in all, it is much more impressive than I was expecting – if you have nails on the smallish side (in width, not length, it can handle quite long nails), this could really be a perfect solution, especially if you are one of those people that always mess up their nails waiting for them to dry. And yes, it comes right off with nail polish remover, although I haven’t tried it yet, I don’t expect any problems. If I have any, you know I will let you know!
Well thank you for letting me provide a link to my review.
I much prefer these to polishing nails anyday, just by the fact that they lasted 12 days. When I put regular polish on after my review, they were chipped within hours.
http://gottaspa.blogspot.com/2006/07/review-avon-instant-manicure.html
Yes, as a narcoleptic who natoriously falls asleep while waiting for my nails to dry, AVON instant Manicure is a miracle product.