Mommy and the Minister: Hey, That's my Jam....Berry

One of my very favorite things in life is to get a pedicure. My girlfriends and I go about every other month and treat ourselves. We are usually scouring Pinterest for the latest designs. We then show our manicurist and they "attempt" to re-create the design. More often than not, it is a poor second to the original design, but it at least makes me feel a little more pretty when my toes are pretty too.

As much as I love to have my toes pampered, I usually don't do my fingers because I have problems with getting the polish to stay more than a day or so. And there is nothing more frustrating than chipping nails after you spent time/money/effort on making them beautiful.

A few months ago I was invited to a Jamberry party. What is Jamberry? "The wraps are a solid film covering that can be applied directly to the nail to achieve a look not found anywhere else.
Unlike traditional nail polish, they won’t chip and require no drying time. It’s so easy to achieve a professional, salon look at a fraction of the cost."

I was sent a sample of one of their wraps. There was only enough to cover one nail but it was intriguing. I contacted a local sales rep Ginny Bergkamp about sending me more to try. She generously sent me a half sheet of wraps. This was enough for a complete manicure and pedicure.

I asked for something wintery since this was right after Christmas. She sent me an adorable set called Winters Edge that had snowflakes all over it. I followed the included instructions and for the first day they were great. As I wore them to work the next day I started having problems with flipping and peeling. I contacted Ginny who was super sweet about it. She suggested reason why this was happening and ways to fix it. Such as I was over heating my nail so the wrap was not staying. She even offered to come to my house and put on a new set showing me step by step how to do it properly. I photo documented the process so you could have visual aids on how to apply and hopefully won't have the same issues I had.

Step 1: Make sure your nails are completely clean. Use rubbing alcohol to clean nails and wooden stick to clean up edges of cuticles.

Step 2: Measure a strip to your nail size. Trim it to fit, cut it a tad longer than your nail. This is VERY important. I did not do this, so some of the wrap would touch my skin on the sides, this is what caused most of my flipping. Tip: wrap should not reach to the cuticle. Trim to make sure it is just slightly smaller than your nail.

Step 3: This isn't shown but heat wrap for 1-3 seconds. Ginny has a really nifty heater, but your hair dryer would work perfectly. If the wrap starts to curl you have heated it too much. Next place is on the nail, while placing pressure.

Step 4: Gently pull out and down on the edge of the wrap where it is longer than your nail. This will help it to seal to the edges. By stretching it a bit you will help to reduce or eliminate creases at the edges. This was a BIG problem for me when I attempted to do it on my own.

Step 5: Continue on the rest of your hand. Do not trim the edges until you are done with the entire hand. The wraps will shrink as they cool and if you trim too early they will shrink smaller than your nails. Again, another problem I had when doing it by myself.

Step 6: Once wraps are placed on the entire hand and have cooled, trim MOST of the excess of the edge. Then use a nail file and file at a 90 degree angle. ALWAYS file down, this helps to seal it to the edge of your nail.


Step 7: Use a buffer to smooth out the edges. Use lots of pressure, and make sure you go over the entire nail and all the edges. This is the last step to seal everything down.


One week after application. As you can see a little bit of peeling, but I just filed the edges back down and it was good to go. Update I found this awesome video from a Jamberry cosultant on youtube. She explains how to get rid of bubbles, and creases using your flat iron. I have tried this and believe me it is awesome! I have very curved nails and had lots of bumps and creases that lead to flipping. Since doing this technique they look much smoother and have lasted much longer. If one of the edges is coming up I just zap with with a warm flat iron and boom, fixed! Wraps will last up to 2 weeks, more if you are very careful with your nails. The best thing is that when you are done, they are SO easy to remove. You can just peel them off, if they give you a little trouble then just add a little heat. It might leave a little residue kind of like a band-aid would, but it easily comes off. No nail polish remover, no smell, and an adorable design. Love it.

Nail wraps featured are Everything Nice Mint Green Chevron and the gold one is discontinued, similar here

I love the designs that Jamberry offers, on of my complaints before was that although they have some amazing designs, sometimes it is just too much to have a bold design on every finger. And I didn't want to buy 2 or 3 different sets so I could use them together. BUT they recently came out with some really cute collections where you get 2 or 3 designs on a sheet so you can mix and match yourself. I am drooling over these: 1.Tinted Classics 2. Desert at Dusk 3. Get Hoppy 4.Love Spell

And those of you with little girls, they even have Mommy and Me sets. I can't get over how adorable these are: Destiny paired with Mint to Be or Teal Mini Polka paired with Mini Polka/Mirage

For those of you who aren't as excited about the collections as I am, can create your own. Right now all wraps are buy 3 get 1 free! Ginny is such a sweetheart that she is offering a special just for my readers. Get a FREE accent sheet with any buy 3 get 1 free purchase.