Sally Hansen Salon Effects

As a last hurrah before Oldest Child heads off into rule-heavy private school (collared shirts! no patterned shoes! only clear or pale pink nail polish!), our last bold hurrah was to stick Sally Hansen Salon Effects polish strips onto her nails.

They ain't cheap — $9.99, so whip out the Ulta coupon — but they come in enough wild patterns to make a headmaster blush.

OC opted for a cool, black-and-white floral pattern.

The directions sounded easy enough: Just match one of the assorted size strips to your nail, press it on and use a nail file to get rid of the excess. It proved to be kinda tricky, though. The strips are tough to line up well on the nail, and it's even harder to get a nice, even edge with that file. This is the kind of activity to do with a friend because there is no way I could do my right hand myself.

But, the strips are definitely less pungent than regular nail polish. They're thick and fairly resistant to chipping. And, unless you have polydactyly, you'll have some extra strips to play around with since they come 16 to a package. I used a few to stick on my thumbs to accompany this on-sale mint nail polish.