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Lily and Fox Review: Are They Better Than Color Street?

Not only will you get my honest review of Lily and Fox Nail Polish Wraps, I will also compare them to Color Street to see who comes out on top. Is Lily and Fox a great Color Street Alternative? Keep reading to find out!

Lily and Fox blue glitter nail strips

(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS LONG & BORING BUT, YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)

Lily and Fox Review: Are They Better than Color Street

Lily and Fox is a nail strip company that’s giving Color Street a run for their money. Today, I’m sharing all the pros and cons in this Lily and Fox review so you can decide if their nail wraps are something you’d like to try.

Some people will definitely choose Lily and Fox over Color Street and some won’t. So let’s get into all the details below and see which one you might be.

Not only will you get my honest review of Lily and Fox Nail Polish Wraps, I will also compare them to Color Street to see who comes out on top. Is Lily and Fox a great Color Street Alternative? Click the link to find out! | We Three Shanes

Lily and Fox Review

I heard about Lily & Fox from someone on Pinterest. They left a comment on one of the pins that leads to our Color Street post saying that Lily & Fox was better than Color Street nails. I try my best to follow up on all comments so I told them I’d check them out and now, here we are.

I tried two different sets from Lily and Fox a solid, neutral color and a glitter design. I know Color Street’s glitter designs always last longer for me so I really wanted to compare the two glitters.

Not only will you get my honest review of Lily and Fox Nail Polish Wraps, I will also compare them to Color Street to see who comes out on top. Is Lily and Fox a great Color Street Alternative? Keep reading to find out! | We Three Shanes

Now that I’ve tried out Lily & Fox, I’m ready to share my honest review with all of you. I’ll tell you all about Lily and Fox and compare their nail strips to Color Street’s. We’ll see who comes out on top.


Lily and Fox vs Color Street

Color Street seems like the top dog of nail polish strips. They are the first to come out with a much easier application process while still keeping manicures and pedicures lasting for 10-14 days. They really changed the game of nail polish strips.

But just because they were the first, doesn’t necessarily make them the best. More and more companies are coming out with their own nail wraps. Today, we’ll be comparing newer company, Lily and Fox to Color Street.

Lily and Fox

Lily and Fox doesn’t share much info on their site when it comes to the company itself. They talk about wanting to find a better way to get salon quality nails at home with out the time waste, poking and prodding, and dollars spent at a nail salon.

I did email the company and found out some more info. Lily and Fox was started in 2018. There are parts from around the world that go into making their nail wraps but everything ends up in Australia for final processing. They have an office and warehouse in Perth, Western Australia and another warehouse in Elk Grove, Illinois.

Lily and Fox nails are 100% vegan, non-toxic and cruelty free! They are 10 free which means they don’t include the ten most toxic ingredients that are found in nail polish. You won’t find dibutyl phthalate, TPHP, toluene, xylene, ethyl tosylamide, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, parabens, and tert-butyl hydroperoxide in Lily and Fox nails which I think is pretty amazing.


Color Street

Color Street was created by Fa Park when he saw a woman struggling to polish her nails in a NYC taxi in 1984. He started working on finding the right formula for a real nail polish strip and eventually came out with Color Street, Incoco, and Coconut.

Incoco headquarters is in Clifton, New Jersey and it’s where Color Street and its sister companies are manufactured. All products are made in the USA which means a lot to Park because this is where he made his “American dream a reality”. You can read all about the company on their website.


Lily and Fox Pricing is Way Better

Let’s start with a pricing comparison. This is where Lily and Fox really shines. As of right now nail strips are only $2.99 for a set of 16. For reals!

It’s written as a sales price. The actual price is listed at $9.99 which is still better than Color Street prices. Plus, they have free shipping.

The thing is though, Lily and Fox nail wraps have been at that sale price of $2.99 for ever. They’ve never not used that sales price. Will they eventually stop using the promotional price? I can’t say. But for now, take advantage of that price because it’s amazing!

Check out the photo below to see what comes with your order. How cute is everything?! You don’t get alcohol wipes like you do with Color Street, but you do get a cuticle pusher which is really helpful when applying the nail wraps.

Lily and Fox comes in the cutest packaging. They really go the extra mile in customer care.

They also gave me an old Christmas set to practice with which is super awesome. I’m not sure if they do this for all first time buyers but it was a nice surprise for me.

The nails themselves come in a foil packaging. It’s not possible to seal them up again but because of the nail ingredients, you can use any extras again without them drying out. That’s a nice bonus. Color Street nail strips will dry out if you don’t do a whole song and dance to reseal them and even then it’s not guaranteed.

Color Street nail strips range in price from $11 – 14 for 16 nail strips and shipping is a flat rate of $3. They do have some deals that drop the prices.

Buy three get one free for colors, glitters, and nail art designs makes prices closer to $8.25 – 9.75. Buy one get one free for French manicures makes them $7 plus the $3 for shipping so if you plan ahead and buy more then you do get a better price. But it doesn’t compare to $2.99.


How to Purchase

Both Lily and Fox and Color Street have websites you can order from and get your nail wraps shipped to your home. You can’t buy either one in stores all though you can get Incoco and Coconut, Color Street’s sister companies, in some stores. Read more about them HERE!

Color Street does have the option of purchasing nails from a stylist. There are some benefits that come from this.

  • Support for a friend that is trying to earn some extra money for herself/family.
  • Stylist can have a good stock of nails at home which means you can sometimes avoid shipping cost when you buy from them. They can also have retired designs in their stash which means you can nab them when people ordering straight from the site can’t.
  • Stylist love to get the word out through parties. In home parties are always fun but not super safe right now but most stylist are great at hosting online parties and making it fun. Hosting an online Color Street party could be a great way to have fun with friends and family while social distancing. Plus, you can earn yourself some free nails.
  • If people keep complimenting you on your Color Street nails then you might make a good stylist which gets you discounts on nail strips and could turn into a good little side hustle for you.

None of this is possible with Lily and Fox. They only have purchasing through their website available.


Nail Strip Designs

Both Lily and Fox and Color Street have some great designs. Personally, I think Color Streets designs look a bit nicer and higher quality. Some of Lily and Fox designs look a little off to me. They just aren’t as crisp. It’s like there’s a slight blur to them.

This doesn’t happen on all their designs but I definitely see it in some, especially the holiday designs. I do think Lily and Fox nail designs are getting better though. When I first checked them out a couple of months ago, I only found a handful of designs I liked. Now, they have a lot more cute ones.

Both have holiday designs. Lily and Fox, however, has already sold out of their Halloween designs. Where as, Color Street, hasn’t even stocked theirs yet. I’m not sure if Lily and Fox will restock theirs. It seems like once they’re out of a design, that’s it. They’re done.

Color Street keeps the same nail designs for seasons. They let you know when they will retire a design so you have a chance to stock up on your favorites before they go away.

Lily and Fox, on the other hand, seems to rotate through designs on a regular basis. I loved the light grey set I got but by the time I got back on the site to think about reordering, they were gone. That’s a total bummer in my book. I want to know my favorite designs will be there so I can reorder them anytime I want.


Nail Strip Application Process

The application process between the two nail strips was very similar but Color Street is easier to apply.

Lily and Fox nail wraps go on really well and you can take them off and reposition them if you need to which is pretty helpful. But, the wraps are thicker and more plastic-y which makes them much harder to rip/pull away the excess polish strip you don’t need. You really need to file the extra away which is a bit harder to do. It does get easier with practice.

Lily and Fox nail polish strips are a bit stretchier which makes them go on the nail well but I think this contributes to a bubble problem I’ll talk about in the next section. This is also why most people have said they can only get one manicure out of each Lily and Fox set.

However, I did find a way to get a full manicure and pedicure from one set of Lily and Fox nail strips and still have some nail strips left over. Enough to get another pedicure or manicure for a younger daughter out of them.

$2.99 for a full mani/pedi plus another pedi is a crazy good deal.

Get a mani and pedi from one set of Lily and Fox nail strips for only $2.99.

Look and Feel

Again, I think the look and feel of both Color Street and Lily and Fox is similar. They both look great when first applied. Color Street nails do have a smoother feel though.

The Lily and Fox nail strips never feel completely dry. They have a sticky feeling to them that I don’t love.

Color Street nail strips last up to 2 weeks. I find the glitter polish has the best staying power. There is no wait time once your nails are on. You can immediately wash dishes or jump in the shower with no negative consequences.

Lily and Fox wants you to wait at least 6 hours before submerging your hands in hot water. I put my nail wraps on before bed so I don’t have to play a waiting game.

Lily and Fox also suggests using a base coat to help their nail strips adhere better to your nails and a top coat to make them last longer. Sally Hansen’s Mega Shine top coat is one they recommend.

This is a total negative in my opinion. I don’t like the idea of extra work but for $2.99 it could be worth the extra effort.

The first set of Lily and Fox nails I put on my bare nails and did not do a top coat. I don’t have to do that for Color Street nails and I wanted a real comparison.

Within a couple of days my nail polish wraps had started to bubble up and pull away from the edges. I think this is partially because of that stretch that happens when you first apply the nail strips.

It feels like they shrink back down which creates those bubbles and exposed tips.

Not only will you get my honest review of Lily and Fox Nail Polish Wraps, I will also compare them to Color Street to see who comes out on top. Is Lily and Fox a great Color Street Alternative? Keep reading to find out! | We Three Shanes

I had to remove the Lily and Fox nail wraps by the end of the week because they looked awful. If you stick to an application with no bottom or top coat then these nails will only last about 3 days.

(Update) From my interactions with the company, they seem like a helpful group who wants you to have the best experience when using their product. After seeing how my grey nail wraps bubbled up they got in touch with me to let me know that it wasn’t normal and I must have gotten a bad set. They no longer have that design so they had me pick two other ones to try out. They have sent me them free of charge.

They do offer a 100% guarantee so if you experience a similar problem or are unhappy with your nail polish strips in any way you should reach out to them. I plan on trying the new sets they send to see if I have a similar bubbling problem and will update this post again with my results.

Lily & Fox Glitter Set

The next set I tried from Lily and Fox was a glitter set because I wanted to see how they compared to Color Street’s glitter designs. For this set, I left my right hand top coat free but I applied a layer of fast dry top coat to the left hand to see if it helped.

The right hand bubbled up just like the first Lily and Fox set I tried, but it bubbled way less than the solid set. I think the glitter holds up better just like Color Street glitter does.

The side with the top coat never bubbled up. It lasted the two full weeks with the only noticeable wear being growth at the nail bed and a tiny bit of nail showing on the tips.

You can see there is a lot of nail showing on the set that didn’t have a top coat on. The bubbles are not as noticeable on the glitter nails but you can really see it on that thumb nail.

I’m still wearing the Lily and Fox glitters on my toes and it’s been over a month. Just like Color Street the pedicure last much longer than the manicure.

Nail Strip Removal

Even though Color Street is made from real nail polish, there are a couple of layers in there. Therefore, cheap, 99 cent nail polish remover doesn’t really cut it. I use the coconut scented ONYX professional nail polish remover and it works great and still comes in at a good price.

Lily and Fox nails has a protective layer built into their nails to prevent nail damage. Because of this layer, the nail wraps simply pull off of the nail with out the need of polish remover.

I was able to peel the nails right off. It does leave a bit of residue on the nails but that washes off with soap and warm water.

If you use a base coat or top coat then you will need to use a nail polish remover. I tried to see if Lily and Fox nail wraps would peel of with the top coat and it did but it damaged my nail so that’s not good. A good nail polish remover was easily able to remove the top coat and strip.


Do They Damage Nails?

There is some debate on whether or not Color Street ruins your nails. Some people’s nails crack and split after too much Color Street use. Other people don’t have a problem with them at all.

Like I said above, Lily and Fox nail polish strips are made with real nail polish but they have a backing on them that prevents nail damage. If your nails have been damaged by other nail strips you should definitely give Lily and Fox a try.


Want to save some money but still rock the perfect mani/pedi? Check out my review to see if Lily and Fox are a great Color Street alternative. | We Three Shanes

So Which Nail Strip is the Winner?

So, now that I’ve gone over all the pros and cons of Lily and Fox and compared them to Color Street, which one do I recommend?

With a price of $2.99, the winner for me is Lily and Fox. 🦊 While they do have some problems with their nail wraps, the price more than makes up for them.

I would much rather spend 3 bucks on a mani and pedi that I have to paint a top coat on. It’s a very small, extra effort and if you use a fast dry, top coat it’s dry in less than a minute.

The application is slightly more annoying than Color Street’s process but again the price makes up for that.

If Lily and Fox ever stops the $2.99 sale price and starts selling their nail wraps at the listed $9.99 then I would switch back to Color Street. The’ve got more designs that will stick around.

Their nail strips last longer on their own, no top coat needed. Plus, the application process is easier, even if only by a little bit.

Have you tried Lily and Fox nail wraps? We’d love to hear about your experience with them in the comments!


You Might Also Like:

Color Street Nails, an Honest Review From a Non-Seller

How to Get a Mani & Pedi From One Nail Strip Set

Nails Mailed Review: Are They Better Than Other Nail Strip Brands?

Color Street vs Incoco and Coconut: What’s the Difference?

DIY Cuticle Oil for Healthy, Strong Nails


174 Comments

  1. As someone who has glued and/or painted my nails for over 50 years, I did NOT like the wraps at all! Hard to put on, took 2 hours and did not stick for a day! They did stick to my clothes and the carpet. I have used wraps before and I was pleased. Very disappointed in the 3 times I attempted them, finally just painted them and I was done very quickly.

    1. Lily and Fox nails are definitely trickier to put on but you get the hang of it after a try or two. A top coat of clear polish is necessarily which is a bummer compared to other brands so I totally get your frustration with them. Thanks for letting us know about your experience with them Cheryl!

  2. I just started my journey with Color Street and love, love, LOVE them. Also, being thrifty and making use of online research, I decided to try a set of Lily & Fox. Great price and free shipping is a great plus. Still wearing the Lily & Fox after 3 days with no sign of failure. I trimmed to extra off the tips with a nail clipper (easy to get a perfect edge) and then top coated the tips to seal. Because they are a little thicker, the file seems to chew them up a bit. So far so good! I think they key is 1) clean hands and nails, alcohol wipe before applying, press really well to apply. If they last a week and look good, I’m sold, especially for fun sets. Still lover my Color Streets, too.

    1. I agree that both Lily and Fox and Color Street are great products. It’s nice to have options. Thanks for sharing, Lynne!

  3. Thanks for sharing your quicker nail polish remover. I would try it next week when removing mine as sometimes I see a little damage to my nail. This should help. Thank you again.

  4. I have been using lilly and fox nail wraps for about 2 months now. I absolutely love them. I love to see there new designs that they offer. What is also really neat, is every purchase I have ordered, I would receive a free set and a self hand written thank you letter. I would highly reccomand lilly and fox. My mama is in love with them to now, and shes 74.

    1. I have gotten an extra set with my purchases too but haven’t ordered enough to know if that was a normal thing that Lilly and Fox does. I guess it is! Thanks for sharing.

  5. I started off using color street when I first tried wraps. They came out nice and did last me and easy to apply. When I found lily & fox I gave them a try. I like them both but for the price lily & fox is a go for me. Yes it takes a bit longer to do your nails but for $2.99, it’s fine by me. I don’t use a base coat on my nails only on the top of the wraps I do. They last me a week to two depending on whether I’m at work or not. I use my hands a lot so I don’t get as much time out of them compared to if I’m not working. I’ve never had the wraps bubble up on me. Although, they do sometimes pull away a little from the tips. Overall my experience has been good and the price makes it that much better.

    1. Thanks for sharing your experience with both Color Street and Lily and Fox, Michelle. I’m glad your nail wraps didn’t bubble up. Lily and Fox reached out to me and said that was not supposed to happen and shipped me two new sets to try. I’ll be trying a set out soon and then will update the post. Thanks for stopping by!

  6. I just put my lily and fox nail wraps on. I couldn’t even keep them on until i finished. I already replaced 3 of them. I figured I’m doing something wrong but idk. I always got color street and i love them but no matter what i do they always wear off starting at the top within 2 days. Its to expensive for me 3 or 3xs a month so i wanted to try these. They are thicker so i thought they’d workout better. They have to have setting time and even then its iffy.

    1. That’s really interesting, Lulu. I do think properly prepping your nails helps a ton which is why it’s a bummer that Lily and Fox doesn’t come with an alcohol wipe. I made sure to wash and dry my hands really well and then used rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball to remove any thing extra on my nails. Lily and Fox nails also stretch more than Color Street. If you stretch them too much then they seem to kind of shrink back which I find to be a problem. As far as the tips wearing off for Color Street, I definitely have that same problem but I just file my nails down when that happens and the manicure looks good again.

  7. I am a solid Lily & Fox user. When I started using nail strips, I used Incoco exclusively, I hate nail strips that aren’t made of real nail polish, so I was really happy to discover them. Then they basically shut down Incoco for Color Street & the MLM, & I wasn’t happy. I discovered Coconut Nails (Lemon Drop is one of my all time favorite nail strips) & used them exclusively for a while, but then I finally found Lily & Fox. As you’ve said, the price can’t be beat, they also have a great selection in my opinion, & they add new designs & solids all the time. I don’t have a problem with how long they last because I never wear any strip or polish more than a week. After a week I’m tired of it & want something new.

    1. You can find Incoco at Ulta but they only have 12 designs. I love how many designs Lily and Fox has but I hate that they don’t keep the same design in stock consistently. I’m the type of person who finds a set I like and I want to use it again and again. They do have cute sets though.

  8. I love, love, love Lilly and Fox. I work with my hands a lot and my nails show it. Finding a way to keep my nails beautiful without breaking the bank makes me so very happy. $2.99 and free shipping…seriously!! I did a full day of gardening, mowing, trimming, weeding rock gardens and knew my nails would suffer for it. ( I don’t wear gloves) They did not. After I cleaned up there was not a nail that didn’t look fantastic. I knew then I would be a Lilly and Fox customer for life. I do use a top coat and love changing the designs often. (because at that price I can🙂)

    1. The Lily and Fox price point is exactly why I buy them. If the price ever goes up then I’ll go with Color Street or it’s sister companies.

  9. On a whim I decided to give nail wraps a shot. I am very low maintenance and to be honest, I didn’t even know that nail wraps existed until like three weeks ago.
    Anyways, Lily and Fox are the first and only wraps I’ve tried, and actually I am still on the first application!
    I LOVE THEM!!
    The day I received the wraps I read the How To Apply directions on their website, and watched a video tutorial I found on YouTube. Then I went to town. It’s been 11 days and my wraps are still fully adhered, no chips, cracks, bubbles, lifting, etc.
    I think the secret to a good application is to wash and dry your hands thoroughly, and then when applying, push those suckers down…firmly. First I used my fingers to push them down, firmly rubbing them from cuticle down the middle, to outer edge, and down to the tip of my nail. Then I used the cuticle stick to give a little extra pressure around the exterior edges. I trimmed the excess length (with sharp nail clippers) before using the file to remove and shape the extra material. Lastly, I applied a top coat.
    This all sounds like a lot of work, but in total it took maybe thirty minutes from start to finish and will likely go quicker on the next round now that I have some experience. Like I said, I am very low maintenance (like one haircut a year that I usually perform myself kinda low maintenance), so am not one to want to put a lot of work into things like this – but the minimal work to end up with such awesome nails was/is totally worth it!
    I’m actually growing anxious for this set to start failing so I can apply a new design – besides my initial order of two designs (plus the free bonus set they sent) I purchased, I have ordered another 15 sets (four of which are for my daughter)!! And I keep going back and seeing new designs that I want to order. I mean, I will pretty much have enough Lily and Fox wraps to last six or seven months, I’m hoping they have a long shelf life!

  10. I’ve tried both brands and like them both. I agree the top coat is a must for Lily and Fox but for the price I have no problem adding a top coat. My only concern is that Lily and Fox is a bit evasive regarding where their product is actually made. They don’t clarify if final processing is just packaging or if the nail wraps are made in Australia. Wish they would clear that up.

    1. Lily and Fox is definitely a bit evasive about where everything is made. I did ask them about it and here’s what they said, “There are lots of parts from around the world that go into making our products, and ultimately, everything comes to Australia for our final processing.” Not exactly a straight forward answer.

      1. I contacted them too and received that exact, word for word answer. They’ve never responded to my follow up email.

        1. Wow! Good to know. I’m sure they don’t want to discuss their whole process but that’s one more thing to like about Color Street over Lily and Fox. You know their nail strips are made in their factory in Clifton, NJ. If it weren’t for Lily and Fox’s price, I’d stick with Color Street.

  11. I like both. My first time Lily and Fox, is doing well. It has been a week, I did a top coat without knowing it was suggested. So far so good!

    1. I really like both Color Street and Lily and Fox. You just can’t beat Lily and Fox prices. The top coat is a must in my opinion.

  12. Thanks for your insightful review. I use both, but Color Street is by far the winner for me, albeit more expensive. Their choices and options are beautiful and application is a breeze. Lily and Fox has some really great designs, nd of course the price can’t be beat. However, application is much more difficult because of the thickness. They don’t file away easily or break away easily after bending over the end of the nail. They don’t last as long as Color Street, but with the price low, that’s okay. As for removal, both are a super easy with a method I found on YouTube…you just put warm water in a bowl. Take a sandwich size ziplock bag and put about an inch and a half of polish remover in the bottom corner of it. Put your hand in it while putting the bag with your hand in the bowl of water with warm water. Rub your fingers together, no cotton balls or pads needed! Within a minute, voila! All polish is gone! Even the glitter ones. Repeat with the other hand, and you don’t even have to change out the remover. SO fast, SO easy! No more soaking for half an hour in a salon or scrubbing with pads, foils or clips! Wish I’d known this trick forty years ago! It makes it so easy to change out color strips whenever a mood changes, or you need a new one for a special outfit.

    1. I definitely think Color Street wins the nail war but you really can’t beat the price of Lily and Fox nail strips. Thanks for sharing your nail polish remover trick! I’ve never heard that one before. I’ll definitely try it next time I’m removing my polish.

  13. Thanks so much for this review. I just found Lily and Fox. I love color street but holy cow – they really destroy my nails. They become brittle, dry and flaky. I wish I knew why or if I can prevent it. I’m so disappointed in that. I’m going to try Lily and Fox I guess. For the price, I might as well. Thanks again.

    1. Hey Jen! Thanks for your comment. If you try Lily and Fox please come back and let us know what you think of them. It’s always helpful to get another perspective.

  14. I’ve tried 3 different designs of Lily and Fox, and they all came off my nail within 24 hours. Color Street lasts almost 2 weeks. There’s a reason why Lily and Fox is so cheap

    1. I consider a clear top coat a must for Lily and Fox nails but I totally get why people wouldn’t want to to it. Color Street is a great product so we do recommend it too. Thanks for sharing your Lily and Fox experience with us.

  15. Hi!
    I appreciate your honest review of the Lily & Fox vs. Color Street nail strips. I tried both brands, Lily & Fox first. I did not at all like the smell (like car tires) or the thickness of the strip/wrap, but the design was very cute. The price can’t be beat. Then I tried Color Street, fell in love, and it’s a done deal for me. Even though Color Street is pricier, I did some digging around on a stylists website and noticed they seem to be a company with heart because of their giving back foundation and I love that. I figured their nail strips cost more because of this. I could be wrong, but because I am a person with several of the issues to which their foundation helps, I prefer Color Street. Plus I like that their nail strips really do smell like real nail polish. While I love the designs I saw on Lily & Fox’s website, I see that I can (in a limited way) create my own designs if I must with Color Street, like I did tonight as I did my mani.
    Thanks for your article! Take care!

    1. Thanks for sharing your experience with both Lily and Fox and Color Street nail strips DiDi! I really like both companies and I plan on buying nail strips from both on occasion. You just can’t beat that Lily Fox pricing which is why I’ll use them more often.

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