Catrice

Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar 2in1 Nail File Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - December 12, 2024

Ah, there had to be some stuff that is obvious filler. Now, look, nail files are, obviously, crucial if you want your nails to look at all decent. However, take a look at this file: it has just 2 sides, and both look very low grit. They could’ve just gone the extra mile and made it shorter and added 2 more sides and, presto, you’d have a nail filing block, which is orders of magnitude more useful. So, what, I should just leave my nails this coarse after filing them with this file??? Whatever, I will try to use this, but, given that my nails are very sensitive to rough filing, I am not so sure this will be of any use to me. But still, let’s see!
 
 
 
 
The outer packaging, while made of cardboard, has quite an elegant design! It’s reminiscent of the one the Eyeshadow Shader Brush had, but this one is more dramatic and darker. I will say, though, that they should have used a black base instead of this dark grayish blue, as the brush had a black base and it just doesn’t look uniform like this. Anyways, the design is the now familiar art deco one, with gold and red details – the text is red, too! 
 
 
 
At least, in the front, the text in the back is champagne coloured. This is a bit flimsy packaging, but the emery board is almost the same size, so it ends up being quite secure inside. No protective sheath or anything, though.
 
 
 
The emery board itself, once you manage to get it out, is... well, an emery board, I’ll just say that. It’s nothing special, really, and it doesn’t seem to be particularly high quality, but that’s emery boards for ya. It is very long, though, so there is plenty of area to be used uniformly. It’s very stiff and rigid, and the long length makes it a bit unwieldy to use. It has two sides – hence the name '2in1 Nail File' – that are to be used to shorten and shape the nails. 
 
 
 
Again, this is half of a normal manicure, so you’ll need to buy separate files for smoothing and polishing. Both of the surfaces are scarce on details, with just the name and purpose of each side printed out in large bold white text, and the Catrice logo on one side. Like I said, very basic. Very filler-like. 
 
 
The first side is the Shortening one, which is Step 1. This side is black, although the filing powder gives it an almost mottled appearance. Indeed, the filing powder is so coarse that you can actually see it on the file. This is a clear indication of how rough and coarse this side will be. It feels extremely scratchy and rough, just when I touch it, let alone when I try to use it on my nails. I don’t know how much grit it has exactly, but it definitely feels like it’s sub-300, probably even sub-200. It’s very, very coarse, so what it’s best for is shortening the nails. I... was a bit afraid of what this side would do to my nails as they are sensitive and prone to splitting, but, you know, it didn’t actually cause any harm. 
 
 
 
Sure, it feels disgustingly rough on my nails, but it doesn’t cause the keratin layers to split. It is very aggressive, though, as it can very quickly shorten nails. So if you aren’t careful, you can quickly end up with way too short nails. I used a very light touch, trying to be very gentle so as to not damage my nails when they have been growing so nicely, and I managed to file off the sides exactly like I wanted to without ending up with excessively filed tips. That said, I hate how this feels, so I don’t know how often I will use this side, but at least it works! And it doesn’t damage nails; that’s pretty good.
 

 
Step 2 is slightly higher grit; I say slightly, because it is still very coarse and rough. It’s maybe 50 grit more than Step 1, so it’s still way below 500 grit, or at least that’s how it feels. It feels scratchy to touch, and it is still quite aggressive on the nails. Though less so than Step 1. This side is used to shape the nails, after shortening them to your desired length. However, this is too coarse for any sort of precise shaping. It shaves off nails frighteningly easily, so you really have to be careful how you use this side. Since it’s so coarse, it can easily damage the surface of the nails when you try to file the sides. Although, I had no issues getting my nails into the shape I wanted, so it does what it was supposed to do. 
 
 
I did file off a bit too much from one nail, though, and I used a very light touch, so you see how aggressive it is on natural nails. Though, I am happy to say that this file also does not cause any damage to nails. No separating of keratin layers, no brittleness or cracking. But, of course, if you were to leave nails after using just this nail file, the edges wouldn’t be properly smoothed out, and would likely catch on fabrics, potentially even breaking. Therefore, you need a separate buffing/polishing block just to finish the job. How useful... but I cannot deduct too many points because it does what it was advertised, shape the nails. I normally don’t have such well-shaped nails after using buffing blocks, so this is nice, I guess.
 

 
Just a note, while the file does feel extremely aggressive and rough on my nails, it is not coarse enough for acrylic or gel nails. You would still need a glass or sapphire file for them. So it’s stuck in this weird limbo of being too aggressive for natural nails, yet too soft for synthetic nails.

 
 
Longevity is... well, it’s an emery board so don’t expect it to last a very long time. Although, since it is so long, it will last longer because you can vary what area you are currently using. But still, it’s nothing that will last a super long time, like glass files. Not a jab at this file specifically; this is what all emery boards are like. 

 
 
Overall, well, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. But it is still way too aggressive on my nails. But, credit where it is due, it manages to do what it was supposed to do, and that is shorten and shape nails. Does it achieve this in a very aggressive way? Absolutely! But I was able to shorten my nails quite quickly with the first side; this does mean that you’ll have to be careful how you use it so that you don’t file off too much of the nail. And don’t go in a saw-like motion, as that will cause the keratin layers to split. I filed in one direction on each side and sooner than I even knew, my nail was shorter. The second side is supposed to be able to shape the nails, and it does, but it’s also very aggressive. One of my nails turned out filed a bit too much, and I wasn’t even filing it for that long! However, I, thankfully, managed to avoid getting splits in my nails, but... here’s the thing, had I left them like this, after filing them with these 2 very coarse sides, my nails would absolutely get caught on all sorts of fabrics and break. That’s what’s the biggest issue here, the lack of any smoothing or polishing sides – which are the most crucial, I might add. It’s half-assed to just leave it with a shortening and shaping side. And that’s why this file isn’t useful to me – not when I have to go back to my nail buffing block anyways. So eh, I guess it does do what it should do, but it’s really not useful at all by itself, without any additional higher grit files. Meh. At least it didn’t ruin my nails.


Rating: 6/10




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