There are two of us writing here, and neither of us works in the industry. That is the whole point.
My name is Ingrid. I bought my first set of press-on nails because I was tired of booking a salon appointment every third week, and because I wanted to see whether they would actually stay on. They did. Partly. The thumb lifted on day four, the rest held until I took them off myself. Not one of the articles I had read beforehand said anything at all about why.
So I read more. What I found was either an advert with a headline on it, or advice that was flatly wrong. One page told me to file down the natural nail so the glue would grip better. That is not a trick. That is filing away nail.
This site is the answer to that. We buy the sets ourselves, we wear them through completely ordinary weeks, and we write down what actually happened.
Who writes here
There are two of us, both in Norway, both working from a kitchen table. We run the site alongside our jobs, and we pay for the sets we write about.
I take wear time. That means I put a set on and keep it on until it gives up on its own, through washing up, training, shopping bags and five working days in a row. Then I write down which nail lifted first, which day it happened, and what I think caused it. Usually it is not the glue. It is the prep.
Sunniva takes shape, colour and nail health. She is the one who picks a short almond over a long coffin because it survives a keyboard, and she is the one who asks the same question every single time I finish with a set.
But how is the nail doing afterwards?
That question outranks everything else here. A set that stayed on for two weeks is no success if the nail underneath is thin and flaking by the time it finally comes off.
How we test
There is no secret in the method. It is just boring enough that few people bother to do it properly.
- We buy the sets ourselves, in an ordinary shop or online, at the ordinary price.
- We wear them until they lift on their own, not until the photo has been taken.
- We take notes day by day. Which finger, which day, what we had been doing just before.
- We take them off gently, and we look at the nail underneath in the days that follow.
- We write it up even when the result is dull, and it often is.
We are not going to tell you how many sets we have tested, because that number says nothing. It says far more that a set lost its thumb on day four than that it was set number thirty.
What we will not do
What this site is not going to become matters just as much as what it is.
- We do not invent numbers. No percentages, no studies we have not read, no claims we cannot show you the source of.
- We do not pretend to be something we are not. Neither of us holds a title in the nail trade, and neither of us is going to acquire one on paper either.
- We say so when something is not worth the money. Including when that is inconvenient for us.
- We do not give advice that costs you nail. If a technique leaves the nail thinner, it does not appear here.
Who owns this site
The site is run by X Beauty AB, the company that also runs the shop xnails.no. It says so in the footer of every single page, and it says so here, because you should know it before you read a recommendation from us.
Gentle removal, and why
There is one position here we are never going to move on. Do not use acetone. It dries the nail out and leaves it brittle, and you simply do not need it.
What works is warm soapy water and time. Fill a bowl with comfortably warm water and a little mild soap, and let your fingers sit in it for ten to fifteen minutes. Work a little oil into the seam at the cuticle while the nails are still warm and damp. Then rock the set gently from side to side with a wooden orange stick, never with anything metal.
If a nail will not give, it is not ready. Back into the water it goes. Two rounds is perfectly normal, and it is not a failure. No rush, no force.
Sunniva is writing the full guide to this. What you have here is the short version, so you know where we stand from the very first post.
What comes next
The first guides are already being written. One on why nails lift at the edge and what to do about it. One on prep, which is the dullest and most important part of the whole business. One on shape and length that survives an ordinary week. And a proper walkthrough of gentle removal, written by Sunniva.
If you want them as they land, you can sign up to the newsletter just below. One or two emails a month, new tests and new guides, nothing else.
If you take one thing away from this post: the nail under the set is the real product. Everything we write here, we write with that in mind.
