ImPress Press-On Manicure: A Drugstore Favorite
Affordable, Easy, and Reliable.
What’s in the Box?
In these kits, you get the nails, an orange stick, a pre-moistened prep pad, a small file, and printed instructions.
The Nails
These nails come with adhesive already on the nail. To apply them, just peel off the plastic covering and stick! Removal is also pretty easy with the included orange stick and some polish remover to unstick the adhesive.
The majority of these nails are light grey with a printed design and a matte finish. Most are a light grey to black gradient but there are three matte accent designs featuring silhouettes of headstones and a mansion. The mansion windows and a crescent moon glow in the dark!
There are also a handful of black glitter accent nails in this kit. These are a bit different — they consist of a black base with silver and blue glitter and a gloss finish. These black glitter accent nails are more stiff than the rest and might not be comfortable on flat nailbeds.
ImPress nails on the whole have what I would consider an average c-curve. The brand generally does a great job keeping their nails flexible enough to comfortably fit on a wide range of curved to flatter nailbeds!
The Numbers
This kit states that it contains 30 nails but in reality, there were 33! Twelve of these were accent nails in a total of four different designs. The twelve accent nails were all in size 5, 6, and 7.
From thumb to pinky, I wore nails in size 1, 6, 5, 5, and 10. A size 4 would have fit my middle nail perfectly but there was no accent nail in size 4!
Here’s a breakdown of how many nails were in each size.
Size–Number
0–3
1–2
2–2
3–2
4–3
5–4
6–4
7–4
8–2
9–1
10–3
11–3
Purchasing Experience
I purchased these nails at my local Walgreens — easy as can be!
If you order directly from ImPress’s website, www.impressmanicure.com, a set of nails will cost roughly $9 at full price and shipping is free on purchases over $30. The last time I ordered direct from ImPress, it took a total of seven days (including processing time) for the order to arrive — that’s fast!
Brand Details
ImPress is about as accessible as you can get. ImPress is a sub-brand of Kiss and is available in practically every drugstore and also in bigger retailers like Target and Walmart.
Since ImPress is part of the colossal company that is Kiss, they’re able to put out a huge variety of styles. Not only do they stock plain colored nails, they have both on-trend and classic designs, holiday and seasonal designs, and even blinged-out designs with gems! All of their nails have an adhesive backing for peel-and-stick application.
Lengths available: Medium, Short, Petite (for small nails!)
Nail shapes carried: Square, Coffin, Almond
(If we want to split hairs with the nail shapes, I would argue that ImPress offers squoval nails as opposed to square nails as the corners are almost always rounded to create a less sharp shape.)
The Wear Test
Now for what you’ve been waiting for: the wear test.
The adhesive on these nails is almost always longer than my natural nails — this means that someone with longer nailbeds would still get a rock solid hold! I covered the excess adhesive with clear nail polish but in the past I’ve also used translucent setting powder or corn starch. All these options work like a charm but I do prefer using clear nail polish.
I wore these nails for four full days before they gave any indication of coming loose. For nails with adhesive pre-applied, that’s impressive. I absolutely could have worn these longer (and have in the past) but I was getting tired of greyscale.
Generally, I go for colorful or shiny nails so these matte monochrome nails were a bit of a drag. That being said, the moon and the windows in the spooky mansion glowed in the dark and that was sick as heck. The spooky aesthetic is also right up my alley! I added little crystals to the crescent moons partway through wear and they did wind up falling off — that’s the damage you see around the moon in the photo below.
I prefer nails that taper at the tip (like coffin or almond tips) and the square tip on these wasn’t my favorite.
My main critique of these nails is the whole situation at the free edge. Since the gradient is darkest at the tip of the nail, filing them to smooth the edge out reveals the pale grey of the nail itself. You’re left with this whiteish stripe that just looks messy and weird.
This specific design could be improved by either printing the designs on a dark grey nail or by flipping the direction of the gradient so that the darkest color was at the cuticle.
I also wish there was more variety in accent nail sizing. All of the accent nails were in sizes 5, 6, and 7. A size 4 would have been a perfect fit for my middle finger but I felt this manicure looked best with three accent nails so I sized down to a 5.
The Verdict
ImPress nails are available everywhere for a reason. They’re sturdy, reliable, and offered in a comprehensive range of designs. Next time you’re near a drugstore and want the easiest manicure humanly possible, check them out!
