I have to admit, I looked at the packaging after I bought these and thought "This is going to be impossible to do neatly. I'll never get it to look like the picture." I was very pleasantly surprised.
They are actually not only very easy to use, but very forgiving. It's not a situation where you get one shot to stick it in the right spot otherwise they are ruined. Not at all. They are slightly tacky on the "sticky" side, but can be removed and re-placed a couple of times if you happen to misjudge your mark.
Basically, you just follow the instructions, peel the protective films (there are 2 on each strip) away from the nail polish, place the strip on your nail, smooth it down and file off the excess. It's that simple!
I picked up the skull and crossbones design for myself, and the strips look exactly the same as the picture, as you can see below. I've seen pictures of strips that other people have used, and the patterns/designs are really true to the packaging's image.Obviously, they aren't as cheap as slicking on a couple of coats of nail polish, but i think for the price (which is much less than having a design airbrushed onto your nails, even at the cheapest of salons) they are well worth it.
In terms of wear, so far so good. I've had them on for 2 days now and the only damage they've sustained is my fault because I've scraped them against brick walls carrying things into the house, or I've been indulging my lovely nail biting habit. I really think if I can overcome the nail biting and grow my nails a little longer, these strips would be something I'd use a lot more often.
I've included the pictures of my own application because i wanted to show you all just how good they can look, even on a clumsy first application. Some of them aren't perfectly straight, but I certainly got the hang of them as I went along and next time will be very confident in applying them to a very pleasing, professional result.
