Reviewed: The Velvet Manicure

I’ve been petting my fuzzy nails all day.

The people who brought you the Caviar manicure have a new product on their hands: the Velvet manicure. The set, which will sell at Sephora for $19 starting in August, includes a polish, some velvety powder, and a little brush. We gave it a whirl.

Soooo… Here’s how it works:

3. First, paint a coat of polish on all your nails. Let it dry for a few minutes.

4. Once they’re dry, start applying the second coat. After you paint a nail, sprinkle the velvet powder on.

5. You MUST sprinkle the velvet bits on right after you apply the second coat of polish to each nail. If you want to sprinkle until you’ve painted the whole hand, the polish will dry.

6. Apply the velvet powder liberally, tapping on the bottle to make it come out. Don’t worry about running out — you won’t.

If you have friends around, you might have them help you with the sprinkling. It’s definitely easier than doing it yourself.

7. Let it sit on your nails for a few minutes so it can dry.

8. Brush off the excess powder with a little brush.

9. You should know, you will probably make a mess.

The powder is easily wiped up with a wet paper towel, so don’t worry too much.

10. So — how does it look?

It looks fuzzy and textured, but not exactly velvet.

11. It’s more like crushed velvet.

But without the shimmer.

12. It feels a LOT like the fuzz on a peach.

13. Or those fuzzy stickers you used to fill notebooks with as a kid.

Source: farm5.static.flickr.com

14. So: is it worth it?

It doesn’t really feel like velvet, or really look like velvet. It’s pretty subtle. I thought it was pretty easy to do, and I’m having fun petting my fuzzy nails. But I guess it looks a little bit gross.

BuzzFeed Cultural Director Jamie Urso said it looked like “scraping your nails against something while they were still wet.”

“It looks like you put a thumbprint on your nail,” Senior Editor Katie Notopoulos reasoned.

BuzzFeed Shift Intern Jessica Testa put it this way: “I think it’d be enjoyable for a night out, but that’s it.” Even a few hours later, the fuzz has started to wear off considerably.

Look, if you have a half hour to spare, $20 laying around, a space you don’t mind getting a little messy, a fondness for fuzzy textures, and a desire to be on the cutting edge of manicure trends, well then by all means, go for it. Otherwise, you’ve been warned.