Scratch Nail Wraps Review

A while ago I tried out my first set of wraps from Jamberry. It didn't go well, and I haven't been interested in buying any wraps since then. (You can read about that experience here.)

Then, in November, Scratch contacted me about their new wraps. I posted their announcement and a great video of their idea here. The video did a great job of convincing me to give wraps another try, so I was sent a set of 16 wraps to try.

Here's how my experience went this time.

Please note, I've only ever tried Jamberry shields and Scratch wraps, so unfortunately I can't really compare any other products besides the two.

Scratch wraps are a lot different than Jamberry shields in a few ways, particularly:
  1. There's no heat involved to apply Scratch wraps.
  2. The Scratch wrap are much thinner and more pliable.
These two reasons alone make them more ideal for me, and made my experience much more enjoyable. The idea behind wraps is that you can slap them on and run out the door with some great looking nails. Jamberry didn't allow that as you had to sit down, get out a hair dryer or a rice bag, and spend a lot of time filing and shaping the thick wraps to conform to your nails correctly. Their thickness also make them difficult to adhere to the curved shape of the nail.

What Scratch offers yields a much better experience. Thin wraps can be pulled easily over your nail to fit as closely as possible, and the excess either ripped (as they show in their video) or cut off (as I chose to do.) 

Their more delicate nature does make them more prone to unwanted ripping though, as I accidentally found out on my ring finger.

Read more about my index finger's issues below.

No heat is involved either. The adhesive side of the Scratch wraps sticks very nicely to your nail, and stays down with less creases and lips forming.

You simply peel back the plastic sheets on either side of the wraps and adhere them to your nail. Simple as that.

Each size of the wraps can be placed over your nail individually to see how closely it fits. I like this better than trying to eyeball the size fit when the shields all come on one card.

Picking the right size wrap is important to getting the best results. My index finger is using a shield that's slightly too large for it (see the image earlier), and trimming off the sides along the edge of my nail isn't super easy. To combat this, I lift the edge slightly to cut it down, and then restick it to the nail. It doesn't seem to lose any of its adhesion when I do that either, which is nice.

Now for the stress tests.

I painted a layer of Seche Vite topcoat on two of my nails (index and ring), and left the other three without. I was curious to see how this changed the nail wraps and their durability.

I tried a few things for my stress tests. First, I dug into my purse, and spent some time juggling my keys around at the bottom, along with the shuffle of unknown objects that eternally live at the bottom of any girl's purse. Pulling my hand out, the middle finger (no topcoat) took a little bit of a beating. The edge on the tip was a little peeled. Overall though, everything is still holding up well.

Next, I took my other hand's nail and scratched the surface of the wraps. It's no surprise that the scratched wraps with topcoat didn't suffer much damage. Those that didn't have a topcoat did rip if I dug hard enough. Hard enough is harder than you'd normally scratch any part of your body though, so I'd say these are quite durable.

Finally I tried removing the wraps. If you have a corner of the wrap to lift and you start to pull it, the wrap protects itself nicely by ripping into smaller pieces, rather than in one solid chunk, just as nail polish usually chips off gradually. I like that quality of the wraps! Obviously, they're not invincible, and obviously, you're going to find them losing their quality on your nail eventually. Seeing that it mimics nail polish in that way is nice, and a clever detail to add. A company that thinks about not only how great the product is at its best, but also how it performs as it begins to fail is a smarter company than one who doesn't, in my humble opinion.

Now for the bad part of these. Don't worry, it's minimal, but I have to give an honest review if I'm going to give one at all.

The shapes of the wraps don't accommodate the majority of my nails. They're all really too big. That's a personal gripe I have, but obviously that won't translate across everyone's experiences. They did fit my cuticles nicely though, so I had no issue with that.

Another sad part of Scratch wraps is their current limited inventory of designs. The design I was sent was called Evil Eye, and since then, that design and two others have been retired. They're only offering a few designs at a time (currently three). I also realize that this is still an infant company and wouldn't expect them to have many more than that right now. It sounds like they're really focusing on improving the product first, then expanding their inventory of designs.

So what's my overall opinion of these?
Not bad at all!

Though they're not the perfect substitute for nail polish, they come pretty damn close! Their ease of use and lack of any tools needed to apply takes them far above Jamberry. They stay on pretty well, and you can bolster that by slapping on a topcoat if you'd like. I haven't tested their longevity, because let's face it, I never keep anything on long enough to properly test, but I see these lasting longer than Jamberry would. (Again, not a tested theory, but a guess.)

I am really proud of Kim and her cohort at Scratch for thoughtfully creating this product. They clearly put a lot of thought into it, and I fully support Scratch for that!

You can pick up the wraps from the Scratch website for $12 each, currently offered in the following three designs:

Photo courtesy of Scratch

Photo courtesy of Scratch

Photo courtesy of Scratch

The designs were created for Scratch by the UK brand, NailedIt UK. (I feel like I should somehow know of this brand, right?!) I love the designs she came up with, particularly Sublime Sapphire.

Included in each set is 2 sets of 8 different size wraps (for a total of 16 wraps), a cuticle stick, and a file.

I hope this review has been helpful to you all! I'd love to hear about your experiences with the wraps as well if you do decide to get some. I recommend it!

This product was sent to me by Scratch. The review is based entirely on my experience with the product and was in no way influenced by anyone.


  1. I love the design but I am not a fan of nail wraps. :)

  2. Thanks for the review! I've been wanting to try nail wraps/shields/the like but I've been leery! :)

  3. I am looking forward to try some nail wraps myself.

  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

  5. I've tried a lot of the Sally Hansen nail wraps and they are great and convenient but I notice my nails are weaker after I have used them. Did you notice that with these wraps?

    1. Really? That's interesting I've never heard that. I've never noticed that, but I also haven't worn them long. Perhaps if you're more used to polishing your nails, then switch to wraps, they might feel weaker. That may just be because layers of polish adhere more securely to your nails, and provide a much thicker layer (especially with base and top coat). That's just my guess though. Maybe if you try the wraps with a top coat as well, you may see a change.

  6. The designs by Scratch look really cool and are creative. It'd be kind of hard for someone like me to achieve the same look.

  7. Have you tried Incoco. They are quality polish appliqués. I think they are easy to put on and wear well.

  8. Now there are a lot of designs on the Scratch Nail site. The Zodiac designs are sick – especially Scorpio.

