Self Care: Color Street Nail Polish Review

hello, this is my naked hand

I love myself, but I'm self-conscious about my hands. After nearly 15 years in the service industry, I've subjected them to a lot. Washing your hands constantly in steaming hot water might feel good and be the best thing for customers (whether that's in the food industry or when I was a licensed massage therapist), but it's left my hands with micro-wrinkles and chronically dry. Or maybe that's just naturally my hands! Either way, it's not often that I look at my hands and think "oooooh, pretty!" 

Now that I'm no longer in the service industry ( 🎉), and not working with food, I can afford to start exploring ways to indulge my hands! While I'd love to be boujee enough to get fancy manicures at a salon all the time, my student loans say HECK NO. 

I keep hand lotion with me at all times to treat my skin, but I don't ever take the time to paint my nails. Why?

1) I'm HORRIBLE at it. People with those kind of fine motor skills are my heroes!
2) It chips right away anyway
3) It takes foreeeeverrrrrrrr

At my current job, I work with a ridiculous (fantastic) co-worker named Liz whose nails always look fabulous. She uses Color Street strips (100% real nail polish), and is the entire reason I've been wanting to try them. 

After over a year of nice-nails-envy, I decided to finally try Color Street for myself!

The SUPER HONEST Review

I started with the free Samples, which I'm SO grateful I did. I made all my mistakes with the free samples, rather than with my first full set.

Using the SAMPLE 

How I used them: 
I used the two sample strips on four fingernails (this is how most folks can use the strips, unless you have super long nails). I did two nails on each hand, then painted the other nails with TWO coats of nail polish AND a clear coat on top of that. 

Mistakes I made with Color Street Samples: 
1) Didn't put clear nail polish on after
2) Tried to cut one to size
3) Tried to stretch one from side to side (it broke in half)

The Experience:
I painted the non-color street nails first, which took FOREEVERRRRR and made me remember how much I freaking hate it. By the time I got to the color street nail samples, I was ready to quit. But then the samples went on so incredibly fast in comparison! It maybe took me ten minutes max to put on the samples? And I'd say it was probably way less time than that. I was a BIG fan of how fast it was. 

The Results: 
Remember the mistakes from before? Even though I didn't put on a clear coat over the nails, they held up the SAME as my regularly-painted nail polish (the ones that had two coats PLUS a clear coat). But Color Street took a fraction of the time to apply, and I didn't have to worry about nail polish sploshing over onto my fingers. 

BUT!!! The good results only lasted about a week, and by the end of the week was looking just as chipped as my regular nail polish. I had to use acetate nail polish on a cotton ball to remove it. 

Using the FULL SET

One Week: 
I decided to put on my full set, which was Penny Lane, a solid golden color with a shimmer finish. 
Putting on the full set naturally took longer to apply than the samples, but was still quicker than multiple coats of traditional polish. I used my clear coat on top, and it's definitely held up WAYYY better this time. However, the tips of each nail still rubbed slightly off (the color, not the actual nail! Don't worry, this hasn't damaged my nails AT ALL). That part doesn't really bother me and isn't very noticeable. However, yesterday tiny cracks or scratches appeared across most of my nails that I hadn't noticed before. That does bother me, and I'm going to take them off and reapply a new set. 

Overall Rating:
I give Color Street Nail polish 3.25 STARS OUT OF 5. I'll definitely try them again, but won't wear them constantly.

Who is Color Street For?

• Folks who don't want to splurge on a professional salon visit
• Folks who want 100% REAL nail polish (not fake nails) 
• Boujee Babes on a BUDGET

Reasons I like Color Street:

• A good affordable middle, for splurging without actually splurging. (Solid nail colors = $11, Glitters = $12, Nail Designs = $13, French Tip = $14) 
• Quicker and easier to apply than regular nail polish
• Each packet comes with 16 strips (so that's enough to wear/have pretty hands twice) 
• IT MAKES ME THINK MY HANDS ARE PRETTY!!!! 

Why it doesn't get 5 stars:

• Unlike the 2-week results some friends get, mine only seem to last looking good for one week
• I'm not spending $11 every two weeks (although if they DID last two weeks, that would just be $11/one month)
• While it's still a lot easier for me than putting on regular nail polish, there's still a learning curve! If I could afford it, I would just hire someone to do my nails professionally

Will I buy again? ABSOLUTELY. I don't expect perfection, and it's the perfect middle-ground way for me to pamper myself while sticking to a tight budget. 

I decided to have one of those online parties for Color Street -- if you feel like joining, feel free! It ends this Friday (January 31st). You can get free samples -- which I highly recommend doing first! 
You can also just use my shopping link, if you are like "JUST GONNA BUY A SET, CHICA." 

How do you feel about YOUR hands?  How do you self-care them? Do you use nail polish, get your nails done, or any of that boujee stuff? Let me know in the comments below!

The Color Street samples! The glitters are the sample, the non-glitter is my regular nail polish :)  The last picture is one of the samples I was able to share with friends!