ALDI brand Lacura Nail Polish Strips

This week, ALDI had Nail Polish Strips on sale.  I'm right in a nail strips kind of mood at the moment having just tried that Ulta3 full nail stickers and the PERL Nail polish strips.

Here is the design I chose to try out today.

A friend at work mentioned to me last Monday that they were on sale on Wednesday, but of course I didn't remember until I walked past ALDI on Saturday morning. There were eight designs to choose from, but sadly by the time I checked them out, the one I really wanted (the butterfly's) was sold out.  I even checked three other ALDI stores, but they were all pretty much down to only a few packets left.  I didn't bother buying the plain pink ones, the skull and crossbones or the pink cheetah strips, because they looked identical in appearance to the PERL set I still have some of. Interestingly, the cream small cheetah spots design looks nearly identical in appearance to the PERL strips that Nihrida reviewed.

Here is what the packets looked like.  It had a single sealed foil packet with two sets of nail strips.  The packet says they are made of real nail polish and like the Sally Hansen strips, they will dry out if left unsealed.  The packet comes with 20 strips, so enough to get two full manis out of them, just like the PERL strips.  I put the second set back into the packet and sealed it with sticky tape, so it will be interesting to see how long they last.

Cost

The strips cost $5.99 and you will get two full manicures out of the packet. So to update my quick comparison based on cost per manicure:

• Sally Hansen $18 (Australian price at Target)
• Incoco $10 (online price)
• Ulta3 $5.00 (In store price)
• Perl $4.50 (online price)
• ALDI $3.00 (in store price)

So, we have a new leader in cheap nail polish strips

Ease of application

I found these very simple to apply.  It's easy to select a size that fits because they are all individually cut and ready to apply.  Like the PERL strips, each strip has a plastic backing and fronting which you remove and put the sticky side down on the nail. 

 

I had to trim off some of the sides on about half of the strips to get them to fit perfectly, but the main thing is they they are wide enough and you can trim them, rather than them being too narrow.

 

You have to file off the excess ends and these were nice an thin so they filed off easily, although I did make the error this time on a few fingers of pulling and stretching the strip a little too much before filing, therefore after the excess was filed off, it shrunk back on some fingers.

 

These strips are thin, but not a thin as the PERL strips.  In fact I was able to lift one strip off the nail again because I didn't place it correctly. I applied a single layer of top coat and wrapped my tips for extra protection.

I completed my full manicure, both hands, and it took 20 minutes.

Quality

So far so good. I've only just put them on today so I can't tell you about how they have worn or if the tips ended up rough and scratchy.  They feel nice and smooth and no thicker than if I were wearing about four coats of polish.  I'll update you on wear when I post about another design.

I'm really loving these for a full manicure cost of $3.00.  The only real down side that I can see so far is availability.  In fact by the time you read this, if you haven't already purchased them from an ALDI store near you, then you may have missed out this time round - but if you can get to ALDI tomorrow, I definitely recommend trying them out.  The good news is that ALDI always seem to bring back these sorts of things, so keep an eye out on the catalog to see when they are on sale again.

On a side note, ALDI also had nail lacquer today when I was looking for the butterfly design.  Has anyone tried the ALDI Lacura brand nail polish?