It’s really important to look as good as you can while making the minimum amount of effort, and the one hack — a term I’ve never used except to describe Dane Cook — that instantly makes me feel put-together every single time is Sally Hansen nail stickers. Or if we’re feeling French, Sally Hansen nail appliqués.
If you have last-minute plans, nail stickers are the single best thing to always keep at your desk. Here’s all you have to do. If you have any remnants of nail polish, take it off (I like to keep these nail-polish-removal pads at my desk, too), put on the nail stickers, then file them down to the size of your nail with the mini-file they give you.
That’s seriously it. Just be careful as you’re applying them to make sure that you’re lining them up with your nail just right (I speak from experience). Once you have the hang of it, the whole thing takes under ten minutes, and they last much longer than a regular manicure; I’m talking up to two weeks. Sally Hansen’s lineup includes a lot of standard colors that are perfect for a professional setting, like a French tip manicure, a pale pink, or deep purple.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can also consider Jamberry’s nail wraps — they come in fun designs like glittering rain, sparkly Mai Tai, floral blossoms, rose-gold sparkle, or a graphic gold-and-white design they call Gatsby. The only difference is that they require a bit of heat to apply. (Jamberry recommends using a blow-dryer on your clean nails a few seconds before application and once again afterward, though I’ve been known to skip these steps.) Particularly with the Jamberrys, every single time you have them on, someone will ask, “WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR NAILS DONE?” and then you have a choice. You can either give the Mona Lisa smile and shrug, or you can be the kind of woman we all want to be on our better days: the kind that tells you exactly where she bought something. I’ve decided to pay it forward.
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