We Tried Kiss' Valentine's Day Press-On Nails & They're Cute Despite Poor Sizing
You may have already booked a nail salon appointment for some festive pink hearts and red roses with the year's biggest day of love right around the corner, but on the understandable chance that you haven't gotten around to it, a blast from the past may be your saving grace. Press-on nails are likely to stir up some nostalgia for those who grew up in the '80s and '90s, and we're seeing a resurgence of the easy DIY manicure with updated materials and designs. "Press-on nails were first invented in the '50s but didn't get popular until the '80s when nail art became more popular," celebrity nail artist and Nails of LA founder Brittney Boyce told Sunday Riley of the press-on trend.
In anticipation of Valentine's Day, we decided to test three sets of press-on nails from Kiss' Voguish Fantasy Valentine's Day collection. More specifically, we chose the Candy Hearts, Red Roses, and Be Mine sets. Each of these fun, flirty, and romantic sets retails for $8.99 on Kiss' site and contains 28 fake nails, a nail file, nail glue, and a manicure stick. Furthermore, each set offers a variety of sizes and shapes to accommodate your nail beds, and the press-ons are said to last up to a full week. But did they pass Glam's quality check?
First impressions of the Candy Hearts set
As soon as we opened Kiss' Valentine's Day press-on nails, we could glean that they were high quality. The matte finish of the Candy Hearts set was perfectly smooth, and the shimmering glitter nails felt extra sturdy. Unlike the other two sets we tried — sorry, spoiler alert — this set's nails are long and coffin-shaped. As mentioned previously, Kiss offers several shapes and sizes in its press-on nail kits, so we sifted through them to find the ones that best fit each finger. However, we noted quickly that the thumb nails were a bit awkward, not sitting quite right on our hands, but we hoped that the issue would be resolved once they were glued down.
Next, we put just a dot of the glue included in the kit on the back of the fake nail and the base of our natural nail, per the included instructions, and held the first nail down on our thumb. Kiss recommends five seconds of pressure to secure the nail, but we found that wasn't quite long enough, as the nail popped off. We reapplied a dab of glue and held the nail for about 10 seconds, which seemed to do the trick. Our first impression of the first press-on nail was that the design and coloring were top-notch; however, the nail felt a bit flimsy and, well, fake. We weren't sure we could see the nail staying on for seven days, but we proceeded optimistically.
Red Roses were charming and realistic
The next set we tried was Red Roses, which consisted of medium, almond-shaped press-on nails. The extra glossy press-ons were pale pink with white and gray hearts and "xoxo" details. Essentially, they couldn't be cuter. Some of the nails also featured a French tip. This set felt more understated than Candy Hearts thanks to its muted tones and shorter length. We followed the same directions as we did previously after finding the closest shape for each nail, which, again, was a bit hit or miss.
A few of the press-ons fit like a glove, but other nails had to suffice as they were. We will say, though, that this set looked more like a real manicure than Candy Hearts, possibly due to the almond shape of the nails, which seemed to fit better than the coffin-shaped nails. The glue, however, posed the same issue. It immediately felt tricky to gauge if these nails would stay on as long as promised, as they didn't feel super sturdy, which was a bummer given the brand's seven-day marketing.
The Be Mine set was perfectly festive
Lastly, we applied "Be Mine," which definitely falls into the Barbiecore fashion trend for all of you pink-loving babes. These hot pink press-on nails are matte with navy blue speckles, cursive designs, and heart decals. They're also medium in length and almond-shaped. These press-on nails also looked like the real thing in our opinion. We opted to add a bit more glue this time around to see if that resolved the flimsiness we previously experienced. Kiss' website says the press-on nails are waterproof and can withstand frequent handwashing, which is a plus, but we were skeptical due to the issues we had with the first two sets.
This set has garnered 4.5 out of 5 stars on Kiss' website, which definitely counts for something, but its overall rating only includes 15 reviews at the time of writing. With such a small sample pool, it's hard to determine if we're the only ones having these issues or not. And while we aren't sure these press-on nails would be our pick in place of a traditional manicure, they certainly do the trick — and without the long drying time or potential smudges that can come with nail polish.
Ultimately, the festive designs Kiss produces are romantic, charming, and flirty. For $8.99, these press-on nails could be a saving grace come Valentine's Day. After all, you only need them to last one day, making our sticking issue less of a problem in this scenario. Just maybe add a touch more glue than the package recommends.