Review - Talika Instant Manicure

When added to water, this effervescent powder enables you to whiten and clean your nails in just a few minutes, giving you the benefit of oxygenation power and the rich cleansing and nutritional values of plant extracts.
Your fingers are delicately scented, you [sic] nails are protected with and [sic] imperceptible film and their tips become whiter use after use. Cuticles are made more supple and the skin around the nail is thoroughly cleansed.

In this review, I hope to channel the good people over at The Impulsive Buy. Their product reviews are a sight to behold.

It took me a while to try this product, because I so rarely have naked nails. My nails, like me, like to be clad in bright colors at all times. But I decided to give them a little rest and a little spa treatment with this Instant Manicure.

Before you go getting all excited, this is not really a manicure. It is part of a manicure, yes, but the name is misleading. Basically, you take this little packet of powder, throw it in a bowl, fill the bowl with warm water, and get to "wiggling" your fingers. (They used the quotation marks first; I am just being consistent with their conventions.) The first thing that happens is EFFERVESCENCE. As anyone who's ever drank (drunk? drink...en? and I was an English major, people) Schweppes knows, effervescence is just a fancy name for bubbles, the kind you get when you plop, plop, fizz, fizz or when you make one of those volcanoes with vinegar and baking soda.

So basically I figured I was going to be soaking my fingers in a bowl of Alka-Seltzer. But to my great delight and surprise, it smelled a fair bit better than Alka-Seltzer, AND it fizzed for a longer time. I didn't really notice a huge difference in the whiteness of my nails, but that's a really weird thing to be vain about. Almost as weird as eye whitening (the weirdest of all whitenings). But it felt nice on my fingers and even once the fizzing had stopped, the warm water was a lovely green color, like this:

So I sat there for a while, watching a syndicated episode of The Office that was on our DVR, with my fingers in a bowl of warm water that reminded me of Yellowstone National Park, until I realized that was a really weird thing to be doing.

The end result was that while my cuticles did feel nice and soft, it wasn't any more soft than if I'd taken a shower or done the dishes, and for $33 for 8 of these treatments, I can just stick my hands in some warm ginger ale.

Pros: Effervescence. Single-serving packets. Baking soda volcanoes. Soft cuticles. The Office on TBS and on my DVR. "Wiggling."

Cons: Costs $4 per single-serving packet. Needing Alka-Seltzer because you ate too much. Eye whitening. Being a weirdo with their fingers in a bowl of turquoise water.

Sultana says: I've been growing my nails lately so I was excited to try this. The bubbles were fun and it wasn't a long process but I honestly didn't see any results. My nails weren't any whiter and my cuticles looked exactly the same. At $4 a pop, I would skip this.
Perhaps you would need to use this continuously to see long term results. I think the price is a bit too high to maintain.

Hillary says: I have to totally disagree with the ladies on this one.  Although I'll admit, I sort of cheated.  I liked the fizzy feeling and after the "suggested" amount of time I noticed my nails were a little whiter (just a tad).  So I sat and I wiggled and I sat and I wiggled for at least 3 to 4 times the recommended 3 minutes.  Lemme tell ya, I had some gleaming white nails when I was done.  I don't know why the say to leave your fingers in for such a short time, because if you are willing to sit there & wiggle, eventually these little packets do wonders.  I'm currently a little compulsive about nail polish- the second it chips I either fix it or take it off (my teacher told me that chips scream unprofessional in the world of Make-up Artists').  So that's stuck in my head and I rarely paint them anymore.  But as long as they are super-white, I no longer care.