Charmed, I’m Sure: A Daily Charme Review

Back at the beginning of my burgeoning interest in nail art and nail art-related activities, I remember quite clearly telling my most impressed, but still amused, friends that the day I showed up with sparkly nails with, like, unicorn pendants dangling off of them, they could have me committed. I’m just not much for working with props, and nail charms, decals and the like have always seemed like the makings of a needless bridge too far.

So naturally the day has arrived for this little birdie to fly over the cuckoo’s nest, because I recently received my first order from Daily Charme, a company that sells charms, studs, decals, beads and other goodies for use in nail art, and I’m well and truly charmed (also notice how I said, “first”?) The charms themselves run the design spectrum from cutesie pie (candy, bows and those unicorns, although sadly not of the dangling variety) to the more, shall we say, traditional (marijuana leaves, mini guns and diamonds), with brief stopovers in Stylish City (gorgeous little jeweled wreaths and twee bundles of opaque gemstones) and Punktown (silver and gold spiked crowns and grinning skulls with garnet eyes.) Unless otherwise stated, the charms are sold in packs of two and retail for between approximately $2.00 and $10.00 US. Here’s a look at the mostly foodie-themed nail charms I chose.

Okay, so they’re super cute – that much is apparent. But how do they perform? Beautifully! And I wouldn’t lie to you, because I take this nail charm business very seriously. See, I wasn’t quite exaggerating when I told my friends they could drag me off to the nuthouse should I show up sporting nine-foot-long talons encrusted in unicorn-shaped gemstones. I have always just despised stuff on my nails, including nail polish itself (yes, I am the nail artist with a nail blog who doesn’t particularly like to wear nail polish – your astonishment is justified!) I also never thought I’d wind up wearing nail charms because I like to keep my nails on the shorter side (that much has not, and will never, change) and I didn’t think there was room on my “nubs” (as the kids on Instagram call them) for giant, jewel-encrusted nail charms.

But as you can see, these nail charms are actually pretty discreet, and fit nicely even on my wee little nails. The charms themselves are plated in either gold or silver (or gold-type and silver-ish) and sport gently curved backs that allow the charm to hug the surface of your nail. Daily Charme recommends that you apply these charms with nail glue, presumably to increase wear time and durability, although I simply dropped this lollipop charm onto my ring finger nail after applying one light coat of Seche Vite (and waiting for it to dry a bit before fluttering my hands about, because while they’re not heavy per se, the charms are heavy enough to slide right off a topcoat-slick nail if they haven’t been given enough time to dry down.) For test and wear-around-the-house purposes, this is enough, although I’d absolutely go with Daily Charme’s recommended glue option if I were, say, wearing this look out of the house or anywhere else my hands were going to be seeing a lot of action (oh, my…) And although I still feel like nail charms are a type of manicure enhancement we’re powerless not to lose or destroy in the long-term, if you can hold on to them, these charms are reusable. Simply pry off your nail when you’ve grown tired of your mani and clean off the back with a cotton swab dipped in a little bit of nail polish remover. And you know, if you do happen to lose one or more (it’s called life, and it’s hard on your hands), these charms are priced reasonably enough that you can order up beautiful, sparkly reinforcements in no time.

And on that administrative note, as a first-time, international (by way of Canada) customer, I had zero issues with ordering or payment, my (admittedly very small and light) package was shipped and delivered promptly, and Daily Charme was even kind enough to include two of their newer charm designs with my order as a lovely little freebie. Nice!

For my first foray into the charming world of nail charms, I decided to go with the natural match of a pink, rhinestone-studded lollipop over Dollish Polish’s cake batter-in-a-bottle, Get Your Sprinkle On! I love this combination, and the surprisingly not tacky (there, I finally said it!) charm is my favourite part. Just a really great experience with Daily Charme all around. As a great big, bulgy, Austrian Terminator once said, “I’ll be back.” 😉