Beauty Tips For Nails Part 1. - A nail salon in the comfort of your own home?

on 11/13/10 11:58 PM

Tested version: 1.0
Latest version: 1.0
Requires Android: from 1.0

USD 6.36 – Buy app

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Summary

Nails, nails, nails: they’re almost sacred to a lot of women, as is the science about how to take care of and polish them. Yes, the simple act of applying nail polish is considered an adventure by some: sometimes you paint over the edges, other times there isn’t enough polish covering the nail. And – worst case scenario – if you’re working with polish that’s clearly past its prime (i.e. it’s lumpy and dried-up) you can just about forget getting a decent outcome from the whole procedure. Let’s not even speak of “exotic” looks such as French tips.

Nail salons were invented for hopeless cases such as myself. Whenever a woman feels like treating herself she picks up that phone and makes a call to one of those sacred retreats. There’s nothing like discussing your worries and sorrows in a familiar atmosphere whilst having your hands massaged and feet soaked. And sometimes you simply have to share your woes with every last person in the salon, not just your personal aesthetician.

BUT: whether you go to cheap nail studios or high-end salons, the end result is sadly always the same: the places aren’t doing your health any favors. An alternative would be to simply do your own manicures, at in the comfort of your own home, sitting in a well-ventilated room. Beauty Tips For Nails Part 1. is meant to ensure that this endeavor doesn’t lack luster.

Features & Use

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Beauty Tips For Nails Part 1. provides you with 20 videos which are meant to visually teach you different techniques on how to care for and embellish your fingernail.

Here are the categories:

• How To: Grow, Care & Paint Your Nails
• How to Paint Your Nails
• Black and Teal Nail Design for Short Nails
• Burberry Nail Tutorial
• Butterfly Nails
• Neon Orange & Dark Blue Nail Tutorial!
• Marble Inspired Nail Tutorial
• Pink and Green Polka Dots
• Razzle Dazzle
• fireworks Inspired Nail tutorial
• Funky Neon Nails
• Funky Pink & Yellow Paw Prints
• Aqua Blue Fresh Nails
• Hot Pink and Black Nail Design Tutorial
• Neon Green Color Block Nail Design
• Keynotes for Peace nail tutorial
• Lady Bug Nail Tutorial
• Lady Gaga – Bad Romance Inspired Nails
• Rainbow Nails Tips
• Marrocan Magenta

Unfortunately, you don’t get to see the overview of the different designs until after you download the app: erm—well, they certainly aren’t run-of-the-mill, in fact some of them are pretty out there, but the question is whether these works of art are office/everyday-wear appropriate.

The only thing this app can do is play 20 videos. Now, if only these would at least play without any problems. It takes several attempts to load a lot of them, others never load at all. Also, the app is only available in English, which could be problematic for our international community as some of the steps are explained via text only, no image.

I should also add that the videos which are featured in the app can also be found on YouTube. This leads me to ask the – debatably harsh – question: is this app functional or even useful?

Bottom line:
The featured videos may not correspond with my personal idea of beautifully manicured fingernails, but there are a lot of different styles to choose from. There’s a wide spectrum to get inspiration from, depending also on how much time you’re willing to spend on a look.

I decided to give the butterfly look a go. I was surprised to discover that making my nails presentable is a lot easier than I had assumed.

Please note that you will need quite bit of paraphernalia before your can achieve a look from the comfort of your own home, and two or three bottles of polish simply won’t cut it. So get informed before you take the plunge: pick a look and get the tools you need to achieve it.
The app doesn’t come with any other functions.

Screen & Controls

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What can I say? Beauty Tips For Nails Part 1.’s 20 videos are displayed one beneath the next. There are two – identical – images in the menu… And that about covers describing the screen.

I already explained that the app doesn’t have much to offer as far as features and use go, which leads us to conclude that the app’s menu can’t exactly have much to offer, either.

Controls: click on the caption in the video overview and the video in question will start loading, or then again, it might not, as is sadly more often the case.

Speed & Stability

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Another negative rating for Beauty Tips For Nails Part 1. It takes ages for videos to load. Once a video had finally loaded there were a lot of crashes.

Price/Performance Ratio

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Beauty Tips For Nails Part 1. costs 4,75 EUR.

Seeing as you can watch YouTube videos for free it strikes me that’s it’s no great feat packing these videos into an app, and the price certainly doesn’t seem justified considering the all-round poor performance.

My recommendation: park yourself in front of your computer at home and watch a few manicure videos. That way you’ll not only be able to find videos in your own language, but also styles that match what you’re looking for. Way better than buying this app.

Really disappointing!

USD 6.36 – Buy app