Review and Swatch: Kiss gel dress strips in Royal Flush

All pictures are after one day of wear

Every time I go to my local dollar tree, I always make sure to check out the beauty section and really advise everyone else to do so! You often find great discontinued or seasonal makeup and for only a dollar. Sometimes though, you figure out why something is discontinued when you try it out.

Lately, I’ve been really into nail decal and, after finding the Essie nail strips at the dollar tree which are fantastic, I decided to try out the Kiss gel dress kit. While it says it’s a gel kit, there is also an option of not curing with a gel lamp and so, I decided to try it out.

The kit that I bought is called Royal Flush and contains 40 full nail strips in both black and gold sparkles with many (and I mean a lot) of little accessories for the nails like triangles, ovals, and studs. To apply, you simply peel off the strips, apply to a bare nail, smooth over the nail and then file off the extra. Then, you can add the little extras and then top with a top coat (or use a gel top coat and cure under a lamp. It asked for a non fast coat top coat, but all I have are fast drying top coats.

The first thing I noticed it the largest nail strips are so large that they are too large for even my thumbs and the smallest ones are almost too big for my pinkies. These strips are quite large for me and I have medium sized nails. The next thing I noticed it they are really thick and so don’t stick to well to the nails, both the sides and the tips. They stared peeling immediately. I thought the decals were nice though but the process of the top coat unnecessary.

Overall, I though the gold strips might be worth it because glitter polish is annoying, but not the plain black strips. Also, I noticed the black strips peeling more, and yeah, they peeled on the first day of wear. Not off, but up at the edges. I will use the decals though, on other polishes not just these strips. I think these are maybe worth $1 for the decals and occasional use on fingers but are not great and do not expect long wear. The gel dresses go for $5.99 on the kiss website (though this design isn’t listed so I do not know it it’s an improved formula). They also sell normal nail dresses so maybe it’s the gel action making them thicker? If anyone has tried the normal nail dresses let me know! They have some cute designs I’d like to try (but not for $6 to find out they are not very good)