Tag Archives: Sally Hansen

As mentioned in my previous post on Sally Hansen Salon Effects Wishnets, I resisted trying Salon Effects for a long time. Considering the high price of the one time wear polish product I was skeptical. Mostly I was skeptical of the application process and wear time. Turns out, I have become a big fan!

Application was super simple. Since I have shortish nails I was able to cut all of the strips in half so I’ll be able to get at least one more application out of a single box, if not two. All you do is match the polish strip that best fits the shape and width of your nail. Once you pick the nail polish strip, remove the plastic backing and line up the strip to the cuticle and slap it on!

A few tips that I found helpful.

• File and buff your nails a bit shorter than you would usually wear them before application.
• Push your cuticles back.
• Apply a base coat and let dry completely.
• When applying the nail polish strip put it as close to the cuticle as possible then to adhere it to the nail push the strip down in the  middle from the cuticle to the tip, then work on the sides.
• When removing the excess polish, wrap the tip of the nail.
• Apply a topcoat, also wrapping the tips.

The wear I got from these polish strips quite frankly shocked me. I wore Wishnets for 9 days. 9 ENTIRE DAYS of not doing my nails. I almost lost my mind! The packaging says these strips can last up to 10 days but my nails were in desperate need of a fresh manicure after 9. I started to notice tip wear after about 6 days, and had some significant chipping after 9. There are pictures from all 9 days of wear below the jump.

Sally Hansen claims that these polish strips can be removed with regular nail polish remover. I tried that first and it ended up removing the red but not the fishnet pattern. These strips were removed easily using 100% acetone polish remover and a little effort.

Overall, I have been won over. I am a believer in Sally Hansen Salon Effects. In fact, I’ve already picked up several more designs to try. These would be particularly good to wear on vacation instead of dragging 7 polishes, a topcoat and a base coat with you to Malibu (not like I ever did that!).

Photos below the jump of all 9 days of wear

Continue reading →

I spotted the new Asian inspired Prabal Gurung Limited Edition Fall 2011 Complete Salon Manicure Designer Collection display at CVS and to be honest at first look nothing really stood out. I passed the display during several visits to CVS and didn’t pick anything up, but slowly Madame X started to draw me in.

Madame X is a gorgeous pinkish red creme with an orange undertone. The formula is absolute perfection; opaque and even in just 2 coats.

This is a lovely year around red, but that being said it doesn’t seem all that unique. Madame X is quite similar to alot of the polishes in my Warm Weather Reds comparison post.

This polish was my Mac Blue India lemming killer. Turns out it didn’t really work….I spotted Mac Blue India at a CCO and just HAD to have it. But! Gray by Gray is a lovely polish for Fall. It’s unexpected but still subtle, which is what I love about it.

Gray by Gray is a dusty slate blue creme. It applies wonderfully in two to three coats.

Generally speaking I am not a huge fan of the Complete Salon Manicure line. It’s a bit pricey for a drugstore polish line, in my opinion. But this is a fairly unique color so I don’t feel so bad! Lol

I think half my posts start with “I was at Ulta….” but….I was at Ulta and spotted butter LONDON Toff. It looked like a gorgeous color but not particularly unique so I took Toff over to the OPI and Essie displays to see if I could find a match. Essie Island Hopping looked to be a dead on dupe. While all of this was happening I was on the phone with Katie. She suggested that there was probably a similar color in one of the Sally Hansen lines. Turns out she was right!

Gorgeous Grape is a slightly red leaning purple creme. The base color reminds me quite alot of OPI Catherine the Grape. It’s a gorgeous color!

This is the first polish from Sally Hansen’s Nailgrowth line I have used so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Katie didn’t help my uncertainty when she flat out said “what if the formula sucks!”. Yeah, thanks alot. But, turns out, the formula was lovely. I used three coats and had no problems with streakyness or bald spots.

I obviously bought this polish for the color, but Sally Hansen claims this is quite the miracle worker. The polish is formulated with “Peptides, Keratin, Biotin and Multi-Vitamins, reinforces nails to resist splitting, cracking and breaking.” Sally Hansen also claims that nails grow 30% longer in 5 days using this polish. I can’t really speak to these claims. I am lucky in that I don’t have any of these nail issues. But, it is good to know that this polish is formulated to do good things for your nails

I am thrilled that I rediscovered this beauty! This polish has been in my collection for years though I can’t remember the last time I wore it. I’m pretty sure this was the first Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polish I ever bought.

Flirt is a blacked red with red microglitter. In most light this polish looks black, but in the sun it really comes alive! Application was good; I used 3 thin coats and topped in with my favorite top coat.

While this color is gorgeous and alone is impressive, the most impressive thing about this polish is the wear time. I rarely wear dark polishes for more than a day or two (at the most) because the tip wear is very noticeable. I wore this polish for 3 and a half days and the manicure still looked great. I could hardly believe it!

Check out the day 3 picture below the jump

Continue reading →