Beauty Nails The 13 Best Nail Wraps and Stickers of 2023 Achieving a beautiful DIY manicure has never been easier. By Rebecca Norris Rebecca Norris Rebecca R. Norris is a full-time freelance writer living in the DC metro area. She writes for a variety of publications, covering everything from beauty and wellness to style and celebrity news. When she's not writing, she can be found out and about with her Jack-Chi, Cash, sweating her way through an Orangetheory class, or taking it easy with family and friends. InStyle's editorial guidelines Updated on March 30, 2023 @ 05:04PM Pin Share Tweet Email In This Article Expand Jump to a Section Our top picks Reviews What to Keep in Mind Your Questions, Answered Why Shop With Us We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more. InStyle / David Hattan Let’s be honest: Painting your nails at home can be a challenge. While super handy tools (like the Olive & June The Poppy Manicure Tool) make it a touch easier to paint with your non-dominant hand, it’s still all too easy to accidentally get a smidge of polish outside the lines. Thankfully, nail wraps and nail stickers exist to make perfecting at-home manicures easier than ever. “Nail wraps are perfect for at-home DIY manicures,” says celebrity manicurist Pattie Yankee, who is a consultant for Dashing Diva. “They are already dry and ‘cured,’ so [there’s] no chance of messing up a nail if you need to get a phone call or attend to your child. You can stop the application process at any point in between without compromising the results, which is impossible with other nail coatings.” We’re all for making DIY manicures as simple as possible, so we set out to find the best nail stickers and wraps of 2023. With the help of Yankee (and four other manicurists) we narrowed down the over-saturated nail wrap and sticker market to just 13 picks that offer countless designs and salon-quality results — all from the comfort of your home. We Tested 13 Press-On Nail Sets, These 6 Give You a Salon-Worthy Mani in Minutes Our Top Picks Best Overall: Color Street Nail Strips at Colorstreet.com Jump to Review Best Budget: Olive & June Nail Art Stickers at Oliveandjune.com Jump to Review Best Splurge: Lauren B. Beauty Gel Nail Wrap at Laurenbbeauty.com Jump to Review Best on Amazon: Teenitor Nail Art Kit at Amazon Jump to Review Best Bold Designs: Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips at Walmart Jump to Review Best for Wide Nails: Orly x Lisa Frank Nail Wraps at Orlybeauty.com Jump to Review Best for Short Nails: ManiMe Stick-On Gels at Amazon Jump to Review Best Long-Lasting: GellyDrops Gel Nail Strips at Gellydrops.com Jump to Review Best Nail Sticker Designs: Deco Miami Nail Stickers at Deco.miami Jump to Review Best Nail Wrap Designs: Lily and Fox USA Nail Wraps at Lilyandfox.com Jump to Review Best Overall Color Street Nail Strips Color Street View On Colorstreet.com What We Love: There’s a wide variety of patterns, colors, and finishes to choose from — and many are sold in a variety of sizes. What We Don’t Love: The strips are very sticky, so you need to put them on carefully because they’re difficult to adjust once placed. Professional manicurist and Nailing Hollywood CEO, Mazz Hanna, can’t recommend Color Street Nail Polish Strips enough. The ultra-popular strips are sold in sets of 16 and are designed to be applied directly to the nail — no need for any extra adhesive or a UV light to cure. What really sets these strips apart, though, is the fact that there are hundreds of designs to choose from, many of which are sold in standard and petite sizes, so they cater to a variety of nail bed shapes. Right now, some of our favorites include Grow on You, a clear sticker with delicate floral designs, and Waterfall’s Edge, a sparkly pastel wrap with fun geometric designs. Though the strips are relatively easy to apply (simply peel and stick!), know that the adhesive is very sticky, so you’ll want to precisely place them as they can be difficult to adjust once on the nail bed. Price at time of publish: $14 per pack Designs: 100+ | Number Per Pack: 16 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 10 days Best Budget Olive & June Loveliest Day Nail Art Stickers Olive & June View On Oliveandjune.com What We Love: These stickers are sold in a bunch of cute themed packs, with flowers, fruit, stars, and other designs to choose from. What We Don’t Love: They don’t wear well without a topcoat, as the edges get snagged on things if not sealed down. Celebrity manicurist Marisa Carmichael loves the Olive & June Nail Art Stickers because of how easy they are to use, and how they instantly update any DIY nail look. The stickers, which are sold in over 20 themed packs (including simplistic minimalist designs and kitschy snack foods), simply need to be pressed on and sealed with a top coat for up to seven days of seamless wear. Price at time of publish: Starting at $8 per pack Designs: 23 | Number Per Pack: 36 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 7 Days Best Splurge Lauren B. Beauty Gel Nail Wrap Lauren B. Beauty View On Laurenbbeauty.com What We Love: The finishes — including glitter and holographic mirrored options — feel and look more luxe than other nail wraps. What We Don’t Love: Compared to other options on our list, there aren’t many designs to choose from. Hanna is a big fan of the Lauren B. Beauty Gel Nail Wraps thanks to their thicker design. Each wrap comes pre-painted with gel nail polish, which makes them feel a bit more like a true gel manicure (and ultimately extends the longevity). Sold in 14 designs — including holographic and glittery options – each pack includes 18 gel nail wraps that simply need to be stuck on and filed down to fit. Price at time of publish: $16 per pack Designs: 14 | Number Per Pack: 18 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 14 Days Best on Amazon Teenitor Nail Art Kit Amazon View On Amazon What We Love: This kit includes thousands of nail accents. What We Don’t Love: Not all of the decals are stickers, so some require more patience and precision to apply. Looking for near-instant gratification with your nail sticker purchase? The Teenitor Nail Art Kit on Amazon, which has over 1,500 five-star reviews, includes 12 sheets of stickers (each of which has over 100 individual stickers) along with five cases of sequins (that feature 12 different designs per case). So, for less than $15, you’re getting roughly 1,200 nail stickers and thousands of nail sequins. Talk about a steal! While the stickers are designed to simply stick on, the sequins have to be adhered with top coat or nail glue, making the application process a bit more painstaking. Regardless, though, both the stickers and sequins should be sealed down with a final layer of top coat to increase their longevity. Price at time of publish: $10 (originally $14) Designs: 3 | Number Per Pack: 12 Sheets of stickers and five boxes of sequins | Adhesive Type: Stick-on and nail glue | Longevity: Up to 10 Days Best Bold Designs Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Walmart View On Walmart What We Love: They’re sold in funky designs and are easy to apply and remove. What We Don’t Love: These sell out often, so it can be difficult to buy the set you really want. If you love bold nail designs, Hanna says to check out the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips. Many of the nail stickers we found came in solid colors or simplistic designs, but these have more eclectic options, like checkered and leopard print. Each colorful set includes 16 peel-and-stick strips, and once adhered to the nail, all you have to do is file down the excess and finish with top coat — simple as that! If you see a design you really love, we recommend buying it sooner rather than later as many of them sell out. Price at time of publish: $8 per pack (originally $10) Designs: 18 | Number Per Pack: 16 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 10 Days Best for Wide Nails Orly x Lisa Frank Nail Wraps Orly View On Orlybeauty.com What We Love: The Lisa Frank designs are so nostalgic, we want them all. What We Don’t Love: Orly doesn’t have any simplistic nail wrap colors or designs to choose from. Carmichael, Hanna, and celebrity manicurist Steph Stone are big fans of the Orly Nail Wraps — particularly the Lisa Frank collab. “It’s really catering to the nostalgia in my elder millennial brain,” Stone says. It includes 20 nail wraps per pack, which are on the wider side compared to other options we tried. This is great for folks with wide nails, but not as fab for people with narrow or short nail beds, as the design may have to be significantly filed down to fit. We’re also a bit disappointed in the lack of simplistic design options from the brand. Orly also has a collab with NASA, which doesn't have such intense designs, but we do wish they offered solid colors, too, because of how well these fit on wide nails. Price at time of publish: $12 per pack Designs: 4 | Number Per Pack: 20 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 10 Days Best for Short Nails ManiMe Stick-On Gels Amazon View On Amazon View On Manime.co What We Love: ManiMe offers custom nail wrap sizing, so these are guaranteed to fit your nails. What We Don’t Love: Custom packs have fewer nail gels. Mani Me Custom Stick-On Gels are great for short nails (a blessing considering nail wraps can be a challenge to apply if you have shorter nail beds) but honestly, they’re some of our favorites for all nail shapes and lengths. “Mani Me has you input photos of your hands so they can scan your nail bed size and custom print them for you,” Stone marvels. “[Plus, they have ] lots of collaborations with amazing nail artists to create on-trend and next-level designs.” The one downfall of the customization? They come with fewer strips. So if you mess up, you may not have a backup strip to remedy your mistake. Price at time of publish: $10 for standard sizing; $20 for custom fit Designs: 100+ | Number Per Pack: 15 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 14 Days Best Long-Lasting GellyDrops Semi-Curel Gel Nail Strips GellyDrops View On Gellydrops.com What We Love: They’re sold in a seemingly endless array of designs, and they’re thicker than the average nail wrap. What We Don’t Love: They have to be cured with a UV lamp — but a lamp doesn’t come with the strips. GellyDrops stand out for their functionality and the many, many designs. Like regular nail wraps, they arrive flat on a sheet, however, once cured under a UV light, they harden into a curved silhouette that makes them firmly adhere to the nail, offering up to two weeks of wear. While a UV light is required for their application, most sets don’t come with one, so it has to be purchased separately. Price at time of publish: Starting at $12 per pack Designs: 600+ | Number Per Pack: 34 | Adhesive Type: UV-Cured | Longevity: Up to 14 Days Best Nail Sticker Designs Deco Miami Nail Stickers Deco Miami View On Deco.miami What We Love: The designs are truly unmatched — with butterflies, smiley faces, trolls, zodiac symbols, cherries, and more. What We Don’t Love: They have to be sealed in with top coat if you want them to stay put. I think I have a dozen different packs of Deco Miami nail stickers sitting in my nail drawer — they're are my all-time favorite. I’m not the only one who swoons over these adorably themed nail stickers, though. Carmichael and Stone do, too. “Deco Miami has lots of adventurous and playful options,” Stone says, pointing out that they’re great for anyone looking to recreate current nail art trends, as opposed to solid swatches of color. As with all stickers though, you’ll want to finish of your mani with a clear top coat to ensure the edges don’t curl up and to help them last longer. Price at time of publish: $10 per pack Designs: 31 | Number Per Pack: ~150 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 10 Days Best Nail Wrap Designs Lily and Fox USA Nail Wraps Lily and Fox USA View On Lilyandfox.com What We Love: There are endless colors, finishes, and prints to choose from. What We Don’t Love: These skew wide, so if you have narrow nail beds you may want to go with another option. If you love trying out the latest trendy nail art (but don’t have the steadiest hand to paint the designs on yourself) Lily and Fox USA nail wraps are for you. The brand’s nail wraps are sold in over 900 designs, ranging from chic ombre patterns to intricate artwork, and even holiday-inspired graphics. Each pack consists of 16 stickers, giving you plenty extra in case you mess up, too. It’s worth mentioning that, overall, these stickers are on the wider side, so they may need to be trimmed down for narrow nail beds — which can be a lot of work and leaves more room for mishaps. If your nail beds are narrower, we recommend trying Mani Me Custom Stick-On Gels instead. Price at time of publish: $3 per pack (originally $10) Designs: 900+ | Number Per Pack: 16 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 14 Days Best Solid Colors Paintbucket Nail Wrap Kit Paintbucket Nail View On Paintbucketnails.com What We Love: The solid color offerings cover the basics and make completing a clean DIY manicure quick and easy. What We Don’t Love: Some shoppers report that the stickers don’t feel sticky enough. If you’re hoping to stock up a bunch of solid colors, Paintbucket has you covered. While the brand may be known for their fun designs, their solid colors are beautiful, and virtually guarantee a mess-proof mani at home. The Nail Wrap Kit includes a sheet with 20 wraps on it, along with a nail file to easily file off any excess. And, if you find that you love the colors and designs, know that there’s the option to buy in bundles, so instead of paying $36 for three kits, you can snag them for just $27. While we haven’t experienced this when trying out these wraps, some shoppers mentioned that they weren’t sticky enough, resulting in a short-lived manicure. Price at time of publish: $12 per pack Designs: 40+ (as well as bundles) | Number Per Pack: 20 | Adhesive Type: Stick-on | Longevity: Up to 10 Days Best Gel Nail Strips Dashing Diva Glaze Strips Dashing Diva View On Dashingdiva.com What We Love: They’re designed to look just like a high-shine, in-salon gel mani. What We Don’t Love: They require UV curing and a lamp isn’t included in the box. The Dashing Diva Glaze Strips will give you the closest appearance to a classic salon-made gel mani. “These strips are slightly more advanced but if you read the instructions, they are definitely user-friendly,” Stone assures us. The reason they’re a bit more involved is because they have to be cured by a UV light (which isn’t included in the kit). Still, the brand stocks a variety of minimalist and maximalist designs in sizes for adults and kids, and once you get over the application learning curve, these are foolproof. Price at time of publish: $10 per pack Designs: 100+ | Number Per Pack: 34 | Adhesive Type: UV-cured | Longevity: Up to 14 Days Best Nail Tattoos Inked by Dani Color Nail Art Tattoo Ulta View On Ulta View On Ulta View On Beautybay.com What We Love: These apply similar to a temporary tattoo, so you don’t have to worry about them peeling off. What We Don’t Love: These fade away rather quickly if you don’t seal them with a top coat. If you love the look of tiny nail stickers but get annoyed when they start to peel up, check out these nail tattoos. Rather than sticking them to your nail, these apply just like any temporary tattoo, and can be used over polish or on your bare nail. Each pack comes with a variety of fun decals and patterns, so you can easily create a statement mani. Just be sure to seal them with a top coat, otherwise they can fade away pretty quickly. Price at time of publish: $10 per pack Designs: 4 | Number Per Pack: 100 | Adhesive Type: Water | Longevity: Up to 7 Days What to Keep in Mind Design In terms of design, both nail wraps and stickers come in hundreds of designs, including trendy patterns, intricate nail art, and even simplistic solid colors. The design you ultimately choose depends on your personal preference. For example, if you like your manicure to make a statement, opt for a bold design: Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips has some of the most eclectic options. On the other hand, if you prefer solid colors, the Paintbucket Nail Wrap Kit offers a variety of richly-hued solids. And when you want just a small statement decal, go for mini nail stickers, like Deco Miami Nail Stickers. It’s also important to think about the design, or rather the functionality of the different types of nail wraps, though. “Gel wraps are thicker and give more protection to the nail as well as giving them a plump gel polish finish,” Yankee says. “Wraps made of plastic or vinyl are medium thickness, while those composed of polish are the thinnest, offering the least strength and protection to your nails.” Gel wraps are especially great for weak, brittle nails as they serve as a protective barrier. Dashing Diva Glaze Strips are our favorite. Stickers per Pack Point blank: The more stickers per pack, the better chance you’ll have of creating the nail art idea you have in mind. For wraps, the greater number per pack, the easier it will be to find a size that most closely matches your nail bed shape. GellyDrops Semi-Curel Gel Nail Strips come with 34, the highest number on our list. Size While Mani Me offers custom nail wraps which makes sizing a no-brainer, pretty much every other nail wrap brand sells in standard and petite sizing (with petite silhouettes often geared toward kids). That said, Yankee explains that the best way to determine sizing for your nails is by trial and error — just as with press-on nails. “Most strips are on a sheet, though, so you can ‘hover’ the sheet over each nail, which will help you easily select the proper size,” she explains. The trick when sizing is to make sure the wrap isn’t too wide. “If it overlaps onto the skin, it will lift prematurely,” she adds, noting that it’s often best to choose the smaller nail wrap if you’re in between sizes. Your Questions, Answered What is the difference between nail wraps and stickers? “The difference between nail stickers and wraps is the fact that one offers a full nail coverage and the other is just a sticker focused on decoration,” says Nailing Hollywood Artist, Morgan Dixon. “Nail wraps are used to provide the full nail look and stickers provide more specific nail art you can apply over polish.” Traditional, in-salon nail wraps also exist (but they’re not typically recommended for at-home use). “Traditional nail wraps are technically referring to a fabric coating such as silk, linen, or fiberglass strips cut into shapes and applied to the nail with an adhesive,” Yankee shares. How do you apply and remove nail wraps and stickers? Though each nail wrap product comes with its own set of instructions, Carmichael has a method that she swears by: “Clean the nail to remove any oils with acetone, apply a base coat, and let it completely dry,” she says. From there, find your perfect fit by hovering the strips over top of your nails. Once you’ve selected your strips, peel off the back and press them into place as close to your cuticles as possible. Fold the excess over the free edge of the nail, file it off, and finish with top coat. For gel nail strips, you’ll need to cure them with a UV lamp, too. The application process for nail stickers compared to nail wraps is a bit less intensive: as all you have to do is place stickers with a pair of tweezers (for precision, says Carmichael) and seal with a top coat. The removal process for both is relatively easy — nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol should do the trick. If you’re removing gel nail strips, soak your nails as you usually would post-gel to avoid causing any damage. How long do nail wraps last? According to Carmichael, individually-placed accent stickers typically last for between seven and 10 days. Meanwhile, nail wraps can last up to two weeks depending on the quality of the products and how they were applied, Yankee says. Are nail wraps and stickers bad for your nails? So long as you apply them and remove them with care, no. “If you peel them off, they will likely strip up layers of your nail with them,” Stone warns. “Proper removal is necessary with any nail design and that includes stickers and wraps.” Why Shop With Us Rebecca Norris has covered beauty for nearly 10 years. For this story, she chatted with celebrity manicurists Pattie Yankee, Steph Stone, and Marisa Carmichael, as well as Nailing Hollywood CEO Mazz Hanna, and Nailing Hollywood Artist Morgan Dixon, who is the owner of Lab & Lounge: A Concept Salon in New Orleans, to determine the best nail stickers and wraps of 2023. With their expertise, she supplies everything you need to know about what to look for in a high-quality nail sticker and wrap, as well as how to apply and remove them with ease. The 12 Best Top Coat Nail Polish of 2023