Nail glossary

Press-ons

Pre-made nails applied with adhesive — the zero-commitment set.

Press-ons are pre-formed full nails applied at home with adhesive tabs or nail glue. The modern generation deserves none of the drugstore condescension the name inherits: today's press-ons come in proper shapes and sizings, often hand-painted, and a well-fitted set photographs convincingly next to salon work. Tabs give a day or two of wear and painless removal; glue gives up to a week or so with more care needed at removal (soak, never pry).

Their honest role is commitment-free drama: an event weekend, a trial run of XL length before paying to live with it, a job that forbids long nails on weekdays. What they do not offer is the three-week durability of a cured salon system — different sport entirely. Kept and reused carefully, a good press-on set is also the cheapest recurring manicure there is.

Now on the App Store

Now go design it.

Vocabulary is the map; a real set is the territory. Design your exact nails in Nailly and send them to an artist who can make them — live on the App Store for the US and Canada.