As much as I love the ease and affordability of press-on nails, I hate the fact that they almost always come off within a couple of days.
You can imagine my excitement when I discovered BTartbox’s new line of glue-on nails that they claim last 30 days.
I’m calling them press-on nails, but they are more like a cross between press-on nails and gel nails. They really just add a couple of additional steps (such as curing the glue under a UV light), but this doesn’t take too much longer and it makes the nails last for weeks longer.
As great as this sounds, do these actually live up to the hype? I received a few X-coat nails to test out myself and see, so let’s dive into it (spoiler: I’m highly impressed).
How Do X-Coat Tips Work?
BTArtbox’s patented technology combines soft gel tips, tip primer, and a base coat.
Instead of using regular glue that typically comes with press-on nails, these come with glue that is designed to be cured under a curing light. This makes them last extra long.
First, you pick the right size nails and then apply the gel. You stick to your nails, hold it down, then cure them for at least 60 seconds.
Then, you can add your own nail polish and/or decals (or just leave it blank), then use the builder gel provided in their kits and cure, and then finish it with the topcoat and cure.
Although this sounds like a long process, each step is pretty quick once you get the hang of it, so it shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to apply these nails. And best of all, they are designed to last a month.
My BTArtbox X-Coat Nails Review
Styles: 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Although the X-Coat series doesn’t have many finished designs, I love that their false nails are essentially a minimalistic base coat that can be added onto if desired.
If you don’t want to deal with the extra effort of painting your own nails, you can just skip painting on anything extra and add the builder gel they provide in the kit, then just paint the top coat over the top (which is exactly what I did because I’m lazy).
I selected a couple of the French tips styles in various lengths/cuts. They do have a wide variety when it comes to different nail shapes and lengths, which is nice. They also have a few X-Coat Natural options, which is essentially just a blank canvas. Aside from this, their X-Coat Cat Eye option with shiny finishes in different colors and they also have some cute pastel French tips that I’m loving.
It would be nice if they had some styles with designs already provided on the nails, this would make the process even quicker for people who want more fun designs. Regardless, I think it’s great that they started off with the basic styles that look good both by themselves or when adding your own nail polish designs or decals.
Note: In the photo above, I accidentally applied a different nail shape/length to my middle finger and realized it after I had already cured it. I had two packs of shapes and I had been deciding which one to try, then accidentally grabbed the other shape here. I do actually prefer the middle finger shape, which is the Short Coffin shape from their French Tips collection (you can also get this shape on Amazon). The other nails were the Extra Short Square.
The length of the Extra Short Square is easier to work with, but I prefer the longer statement look of the longer nails, plus I really like the coffin look – it’s more sleek in my opinion. The Extra Short Square is a great shape if you’d like a more natural nail look though.
Look: 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
After my first application, these nails look gorgeous.
I will say that I can see the glue and my normal nails underneath if I look super closely, but it’s not super noticeable unless I look at them super close. And if you end up painting a solid color over the base coat, you’d never notice glue underneath.
Otherwise, the nails look so good! I will say it’s definitely important to make sure you apply your polish and top coat ASAP after you glue your nails down. I didn’t realize this and ended up scuffing the nails a bit before I was able to apply the top coat (they are pretty easy to scuff up).
Prep is also important, such as pushing back your cuticles and removing them. I did a fairly lazy job the first time with this and they didn’t look as amazing as they could have (but they still looked pretty dang good)!
Ease of Application: 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I will say that I thought these would be fairly difficult to apply after reading the instructions, but they weren’t too bad. They are a bit of extra effort compared to your basic press-on nails, but I’d say it’s well worth it.
In total, it took me about an hour to apply my first set of nails. It was a bit of a learning curve – I’m sure I could get it down to 30 minutes or even less after a few more applications.
I will say it’s a little difficult to hold down the nail and put it under the tiny UV lamp they provide in the kit (the glue doesn’t dry unless you cure it under the lamp). I think it would have been super useful if they provided nail clips in the kit, this would be significantly easier than holding it down with my other hand. I have some of these clips from when I tried doing polygel nails, so I’ll have to search for those and give them a try.
Also, if you’re debating between a longer set or a shorter set, I’d go for a longer set. The Short Coffin nails were easier to apply compared to the Extra Short Square nails I got. Since you need to press down on the nail while curing it, it can be hard to get a good grip on the shorter nails.
Longevity: 5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Although I have only been wearing these a week, I already give them 5 out of 5 stars. Normally, press-on nails start falling off after just a couple days for me (or even a day depending on what I’m doing), and it’s so frustrating to have to keep replacing individual nails. Every single nail has already stayed a week, which is pretty impressive.
They do advertise that their X-Coat nails last 30 days, which would be extremely impressive!
Sizing & Fit: 5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sometimes it’s hard for me to find the perfect sizes for my nailbed, but these did a pretty good job. It’s nice that they provide an array of sizes to choose from, so it’s more likely to find that perfect match. There are 15 sizes to choose from in each kit.
My nails are also pretty flat and although the BTArtbox nails seemed pretty rounded at first, they molded to my nails super well.
They also come with plenty of nails, so each kit provides 150 pieces with 15 sizes to choose from. This adds up to enough for 5 nail applications. If they actually end up lasting a month, that’s 5 months’ worth of manicures! Plus, there will be extra sizes left over that you might be able to share with friends or family members.
Bottom Line
Overall, I’m super impressed with the X-Coat tips.
They’re super easy to apply and have already lasted an impressive amount of time compared to regular press-on nails. They look like acrylic nails and are so much easier and less time-consuming than doing acrylic nails myself, not to mention significantly cheaper than getting my nails done at the salon.
I’m pretty impatient and lazy when it comes to nails and these have been my favorite among all the nail trends. The price is hard to beat too – at $39.90 for the whole kit on their website, this costs less than $8 per manicure (assuming that you only find one size that fits your nails). For me, there were two size options that worked fine for each nail, so that doubles the number of manicures I can get!
At the end of the day, I have very few negative things to say about this product, and this is pretty rare for me. I would definitely give them a shot!
