Maychiri's Thoughts: September 2025

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure [854 - Powder Room] Review

September 28, 2025

Sigh... here we go again. Another Sally Hansen... why do I keep torturing myself like this? This is the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, shade 854/Powder Room!

Well, Notino had huge discounts and that included Sally Hansen, so I guess this is as good a time as any to finally finish them off. By that, I mean, try out one from each of the ranges available. I don’t know why shade 015/Steel My Heart was separate from this when both are Complete Salon Manicures, but oh well. So I guess this is my second nail polish from that range; diametrically opposite in colour and lightness, though! Whereas the previous one was dark steely blue, this one is very light champagne. Different texture as well! I originally wanted a different shade, but it sold out. Then the second one I wanted sold out... guess I will get this light champagne then. I love the look of champagne as a colour, but it never meshes well with my skintone when it’s a nail polish. Oh well. This range is one of those nail polishes that offer both colour and care, as it is enriched with oils to care for the nails. This would be awesome! Now, let’s see how good this nail polish is, I am not holding my breath though...

Packaging: very chunky bottle, just like 015/Steel My Heart. There is something nice about having such a thicc bottle. It exudes a certain charm. It’s also very heavy. I like the shape; it’s curvy in all the right places – by that, I mean that it has a curved top right near the cap. This makes it stand out from other nail polishes that tend to have rectangular bottles. The cap is very tall and closes very tightly, so you don’t need to worry about the nail polish drying out too soon. I like this black band that it’s got at the bottom of the cap, it’s a cool detail! The bottle itself is sparse on details, having just a name sticker and some information in the back.

The text is white, which helps it stand out from the light champagne colour of the polish. Oh, also, the cap is a fingerprint magnet! It goes from clean to hellishly smudged in no time. Pretty nice design for the bottle, I must say.

Source: www.sallyhansen.com

Ingredients: vitamin E, arginine, panthenol/provitamin B5 (as calcium pantothenate and pure panthenol), lysine, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) seed oil, zinc sulfate, kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) extract, hydrolysed keratin, biotin, caffeine, hydrolysed conchiolin protein for nourishment. Unfortunately, it contains parabens: methylparaben, propylparaben. But it is 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). Another interesting thing is that this nail polish contains Lithothamnion calcareum algae extract and diatomaceous earth. Okay wow! I read that this is a caring nail polish, but I didn’t expect to see quite so many active ingredients! Not just keratin and zinc (and conchiolin) for stronger nails, but also amino acids, B vitamins and even caffeine! I never thought about having caffeine in nail polish, but I guess it could help the nails! Also safflower oil, which also helps. This ingredients list sounds like a powerhouse, we’ll see how good the rest of the nail polish is but, so far, so good! Refreshingly good! Just one note... uh... I found two very different ingredient lists; one on Amazon, and one on Sally Hansen’s website (which I used here). The latter one lacks 90% of all these goodies, so... I don’t know which one is the “correct” one. I don’t think Amazon would have wrong information for Sally Hansen, would they? I am going to assume this one is the “correct” one because I can feel my nails getting stronger with each day that I am wearing this nail polish. The scent is, broadly, like most nail polishes, but it also has an interesting creamy note in the background. It’s still way too intense to keep sniffing to find out (and all the solvents probably aren’t good for the ol’ gray matter), so I’ll stop trying to deduce what this creamy note is. The expiration date is 30 months after opening.

Colour: icy sort of champagne colour. The base is a frosty faint rosy champagne, and the shimmer looks like it’s silvery. In terms of named colours, it is similar to either alabaster or Pantone's “Tofu”, but, obviously, much more metallic and satiny. In most lighting, it looks almost silvery, with some yellow pigments, but in good, bright light, you can start to see the rosy tones present in it. It is also quite similar in colour to pearls... duh! Why didn’t I think of this before? Like a softly greige coloured pearl, because not all pears are blindingly white. Whatever this colour may be, it is extremely elegant. It would fit right in with any sort of formal occasion, especially weddings. Oh yeah, this would be a great colour for the bride!

It is very intense, despite being so light. This may be due to the highly shiny finish, but the colour itself is also very pigmented. Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful I think this colour is, this doesn’t change the fact that it washes me out massively. Like, real bad. My pale skintone just isn’t meant for this colour, sadly. It will likely look much better on a slightly darker skintone than mine. Doesn’t mean I won’t wear it again, I just love this colour way too much!

What a quaint little brush! However, don’t be fooled by its small size; this brush fans out very nicely when you paint nails, so it is able to coat the entire nail plate in polish with just 2-3 swipes. It makes the process of painting nails a child's play, since it applies nail polish ridiculously evenly and richly, so you are done in like, a few seconds! Talk about efficient! The brush is fairly precise although I did end up with a mess around my nails but that’s because I admit I wasn’t even trying to be precise. Also, my nails are still quite short, so that played a huge role in making that mess as well. As for the shape, this is a narrow flat brush, whose base and tips are the same width.

I prefer brushes that are narrower at the base, but this shape is okay as well – evidently! The brush seems to be of fantastic quality; not a single stray hair or any sign of damage. It also picks up so much nail polish, it is crazy! Don’t forget to tap off the excess! I am so happy with this brush, is everything going to be this good with this polish??? Man, I sure hope so! It’s time already that at least one Sally Hansen ends up being good!

Wow, what a silky formula! It is extremely silky, although a little bit on the thin side. Better that than to be goopy from being too thick. I actually really love this formula, and this is shocking to me! Sally Hansens almost always have a bevy of issues, so it feels unusual to feel this good about one – so far, at least. The formula isn’t one bit runny; it stays in place and applies so perfectly that it takes just 2-3 swipes until nails look impeccable. It’s truly swipe and done, which, let me tell you, is not the case with most Sally Hansen nail polishes! The brush helps immensely with this even application, but the formula is just so gorgeous!

It ends up looking – no joke – literally perfect! Not even the tiniest amount of unevenness or streakiness. I cannot believe that this nail polish is this easy to use... and that or ends up looking so good. I am used to the opposite with Sally Hansens... what is going on? Is it opposite day?

One coat is semi-opaque; I can still see my nails underneath, but they are not too visible. Although the nail polish is perfectly even with one coat and the colour seems to be intense like it should be, the fact that it is semi-opaque means that I shall apply another coat. Things can only improve from here, right? Indeed! Two coats makes the nail polish completely opaque and it is still perfectly even. It just looks thicker and richer, without feeling too thick. I don’t even see any brushstrokes, which are a common problem with such pearlescent nail polishes. Wow, it just looks perfect! Literally! Though, I would advise against applying more than 2 coats, as it might become goopy then. 2 is really ideal.

The texture is pearlescent; it’s got a high shine, but it’s also very finely grainy, which gives it so much depth. Though, it does look a bit dated. This colour fits very nicely with this pearlescent kind of texture, it really goes hand in hand. There’s also a fair bit of gloss, which gives it a sort of satin-like appearance. Beautiful! It also has a kind of gelly shine that males it look high-end and luxurious. I can see this texture being more than appropriate for weddings!

What the... what is this longevity? Am I seeing this right??? 4 days and literally no chipping or any sign of damage??? Wait... let me double-check the bottle again... no, yeah, this is a Sally Hansen. Wh—How could this be? A Sally Hansen that actually lasts and is completely life-proof? So, such a thing is possible... well, there we go! I painted this nail polish on Sunday (as I usually do), and didn’t use any base or top coats (as I usually do), and 4 days later, when I went to remove it, it was in almost pristine condition! Almost, because there was a teensy tiny amount of edge chipping on 2 nails, but even that was so small that I had to squint and get really close to my nails just to see it. So really, negligible.

I used my nails to pry open containers, to pop open bags, and I wasn’t careful in general how I used my nails but still, it didn’t get damaged at all. Let me just check one thing... yup, the other Complete Salon Manicure did not have the fortune of having this insane level of durability. That said, this is a pearlescent nail polish, and that type of formula tends to last ages on my nails. Still, nothing can make it chip! Not even a hair wash! Yup, even after washing my hair, it looks like nothing had happened at all. No chipping, no scratches – oh yeah, did I forget to mention that it is almost completely scratch-resistant because the plentiful tiny shimmer conceals it? - and even the cuticle side looks like it was freshly applied! Insane, I’m telling ya! Now, why aren’t the others like this one...?

Wait, wait, wait... not only is it insanely long-lasting, it is also extremely easy to remove??? This nail polish is the gift that keeps on giving! I thought that, with all that shimmer, it would take longer to remove, but it just needs a few quick swipes and it’s completely gone – no leftover shimmer! That’s... that’s incredible! And it didn’t make my nails yellower, if anything, they seem to be slightly whiter now, huzzah!

I am also happy to report that my nails do, in fact, feel stronger after 4 days of wearing this nail polish. They are less bendy, but not brittle, just strong and hard. The longitudinal ridges are also slightly less visible and the nail bed looks more hydrated and smoother. Also, whiter. Wooow... I did not envision this going this well! But man am I glad!

All in all, finally, a Sally Hansen that I actually enjoyed using! And it’s not just good, it’s great! Fantastic, even! This is vastly different compared to the previous Complete Salon Manicure, which had a number of issues – issues that this one does not have! This one is virtually life-proof, able to survive anything you throw at it without chipping or getting scratched up. I was opening bags with my nails, opening containers with my nails, and washing my hair and none of that caused the nail polish to chip or get damaged in any other way. How marvellous is that?! After so many Sally Hansens that you couldn’t even touch because they’d start to chip immediately... now this is the level of durability I like to see! That said, most nail polishes that have this kind of pearlescent texture tend to last a ridiculously long time on me, for some reason. But I am still so impressed! Especially with the hair wash part because that is usually where nail polishes start to really chip, but not this one! You might think that it would be hard to remove, when it is so long-lasting and full of tiny little shimmer but nope! It is actually extremely easy to remove, taking maybe 5-10 seconds until the nails are completely clean. And no leftover shimmer! Nor yellowness! The formula is just so dang awesome; it’s a bit thin but it feels endlessly silky and smooth. Really luxe! It is enriched with a whole slew of good, caring ingredients, including multiple oils, and that is clearly evident in the way my nails feel after 4 days of wearing this nail polish: they are harder and stronger, but still flexible. And they look more hydrated. Oh, and the colour! Not my favourite out of the ones available, but this is the one I got, because the others I liked more were all sold out :( . It’s unexpectedly beautiful! In a sort of ‘bridal elegance’ kind of way; it definitely looks like it would fit right in with a wedding. It’s super elegant and sophisticated, with a gorgeous pearlescent texture, featuring millions of tint shimmer specks that give it some real nice texture. Because it’s pearlescent, it’s also got a high shine finish, in addition to being very glossy. The end result is a stunning texture that I cannot stop looking at! The colour is just as gorgeous, being a silvery champagne colour, similar to alabaster. Very chic! But unfortunately, it washes me out very badly. It just doesn’t mix well with my skintone. It is quite a powdery colour, isn’t it? So, suffice to say, this nail polish blew all my expectations out of the water; it is simply a high-quality, excellent nail polish, which is SO refreshing to see come from Sally Hansen! Hopefully not the last good one – fingers crossed! Oh yeah, I will absolutely give this nail polish my recommendation, it has more than earned it! Oh it feels good to finally be able to say that for a Sally Hansen...

Rating: 9/10

Would buy again? Oh YES (finally, I get to say that for a Sally Hansen!)

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Complete Salon Manicure

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure [015 - Steel My Heart] Review

September 28, 2025

Well... here it is again, a Sally Hansen nail polish. This time, it’s the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, in the shade 015/Steel My Heart!

Okay, so... I must admit, I just thought this colour was too cool. That’s the main reason why I ever bought this nail polish because I already know by now that Sally Hansens... well... they aren’t really good. And every time, after trying out one of them and being very disappointed in the end, I wonder why I keep buying new colours. But check this out:

“7 benefits in 1 bottle, plus a flawless finish brush for easy application and salon-quality results! Featuring a base coat, growth treatment, runway-inspired nail color, top coat, gel-shine finish, chip-resistance, and a strengthener with keratin complex for up to 64% stronger nails, this all-in-one formula delivers up to 10 days of chip-resistant wear.”

Loooots of promises there. I find that, when there are so many promises, products tend to not get all of them right – I mean, it is a lot, isn’t it? From how they describe it, this is a perfect nail polish, and as we all know, perfection is extremely hard to achieve (especially for a Sally Hansen nail polish). 10 days without chips, eh? Well, we shall see. I do like the sound of it both strengthening nails and promoting their growth, though. But will this be a salon-quality nail polish? Well, that’s what I aim to find out. Now, I must steel not my heart – but my mind – for what is about to come... let’s go!

Packaging: quite a shapely bottle! I like how it’s curved! It’s very large, with an equally large cap. With that large size comes weight; this is quite a heavy bottle. In terms of details, it is very scarce, though I do appreciate the use of white text on a dark gray colour. The cap is giant, and, although the silver colour goes swimmingly with the dark gray, it is also a fingerprint magnet; it gets smudged so quickly. I like the black band at the bottom of the cap, it looks fancy. The cap closes extremely tightly, so much that it can be near impossible to open (the slippery silver part of the cap isn’t helping).

There’s an information sticker in the back but it doesn’t have the ingredients lost, for that, you’ll have to search online (it is annoyingly hard to find this info btw). Also, a sticker with the shade name on the top of the cap. Pretty basic, but the shape sets it apart.

Ingredients: Corallina officinalis extract, vitamin E, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) seed oil, kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) extract, hydrolysed conchiolin protein for nourishment. 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene), however, this nail polish has parabens: methylparaben, propylparaben. Why these need to be here I do not know; most other nail polishes function just as well without any parabens. I am anti-paraben still, yes, idc. So, this does have some strengthening ingredients! So it really is like a care & colour kind of nail polish, that’s always nice. That’s if the ingredients list is correct in the first place (I’m sure Walmart has no need to lie about it but still). The scent is like most nail polishes, only dialled up to 20. Like, it is extremely sharp! So sharp that it actually hurts to sniff it. The expiration date is 30 months after opening.

Colour: dark gray with some blue pigments in it, so it isn’t just pure gray. It is kinda like dark slate gray or charcoal, as the bluish pigments are definitely noticeable. Actually, the colour “marengo” is also super similar. I like this colour, although it is darker than in the bottle. In the bottle, it is a lighter and more bluish kind of gray, which I thought was so cool, but then, after I was done applying it, it was incredibly dark. Weird, but it suits my pale skin just fine. It is quite intense, though. And the bluish pigments really stand out on my pale skin. Nice change of pace, after all the beige nail polishes, though I still do wish it was more like it is in the bottle. Still, it is quite a cool colour.

Brush: rectangular flat brush. The ends are supposed to be cut flat, but they are quite uneven. You can see clearly how one half is longer than the other. Not good quality level. But... knowing what the other Sally Hansen nail polishes were like, should I be surprised? The brush is small but quite dense, which is both good and bad. Good, because it is fairly precise, able to apply the nail polish without it getting all over the skin as well as the nail. Bad, because, due to that density, it picks up an outrageous amount of polish. Like, way, way, way more than you need for one nail. So you have to tap off almost all the nail polish just to be able to use it normally. The brush really struggles with this formula; it applies it all streaky no matter how hard you try.

And it is not really precise, I had a huge mess around my nails by the time I was done. Honestly, this is a pretty cheap brush and it shows. Not at all “salon quality”.

Hmm, what a weird formula. I don’t even know how to describe it. Like, it is pretty thick but it is also watery and a tiny bit runny. But there is this gelliness to it, as well. It honestly feels like plastic? This formula is pretty easy to use as it doesn’t run off the nails, despite being a bit runny. However, it really doesn’t apply evenly. No matter how much I tried, the first coat was patchy and had bare spots. Was it the brush or this formula? I am leaning towards both. Yeah... I don’t like this formula. It definitely does not feel like something I would get at a nail salon, not close. It just feels kinda cheap. Oh, also, be careful how much nail polish you apply because man, this is so thick. I had to tap off like 90% of it off the brush just to get a usable amount that wouldn’t make a catastrophic mess.

Why is it so streaky and patchy with one coat? Moreover, why are there like little bare spots? I went over them with the brush but they are still there... ugh. And it isn’t just uneven, it is also semi-opaque, which looks frankly ugly with this colour. It’s the fact that the colour looks washed out that’s the problem. I am hoping that a second coat will fix all these issues. Oh thank god it does! I am really not in the right headspace or mood to be dealing with a completely crap nail polish, like, I feel like I can tolerate up to 47% crap, but not 100%. The second coat seems to have fixed all the issues with it being uneven and pale. Now, it is completely opaque (as this colour should be), and it seems to be completely even.

The colour is actually intense now, though it is much darker than I thought it would be. Just don’t apply more than 2 coats as it is already seriously thick. Adding any more will just turn it into a goopy mess. The texture is glossy, which is extra intense on this dark gray. It doesn’t really look gelly to me, though.

Longevity is not there. It’s not the worst longevity as far as Sally Hansen nail polishes go, but to call it salon-quality would be absurd. It is not at all resistant to scratches, I woke up and found plenty of scratches on a few of my nails. While this did not diminish the shine, it still isn’t something you’d want to see on a nail polish. And as the days went by, the number of scratches increased, to the point of actually diminishing how shiny it was. So... what was that about it being a top coat as well as a coloured nail polish, again? Yeah... and that 10-day-chip-free promise? Well, what if I told you it starts to chip within 3 days, hmm? Does that sound like 10 days to you?

Granted, the chips were initially small, but the point is that they should not have been there in the first place. Not if what they claim is true. The polish kept chipping off little by little until hair wash day, which was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. A hair wash destroyed it; it was all chipped off on all the nails, and it just looked messy and ugly. So it cannot survive a single hair wash? “Salon quality” – I repeat! I don’t go to salons for manicures but I highly doubt any self-respecting salon would use polishes that had this kind of longevity. Just rubbish. Oh, also, another interesting thing is that it seems that the second and first coat seemed to somehow separate at some point.

When I looked at my nails in bright light (and when I looked under my nails), there was a weird line that separated the two coats that wasn’t really visible just at a glance. And indeed, where the colour was darker under the nails, it was also more intense when looked from up-top. How the hell does something like that happen??? Just terrible...

So, removing this nail polish isn’t the biggest issue; it doesn’t take long to break through the top layer and the rest comes off pretty easily. So, what is the biggest issue here? Well, the fact that it stains the nails yellow, that’s what. And it’s not just like a barely visible yellowish tint, my nails are pretty obviously more yellow now than before. Just great. Just flipping great. Just what I needed. Ugh.

In conclusion, “salon-quality” my foot! I do have to admit that the well had been poisoned even before I started with this nail polish because literally every single previous Sally Hansen had at least some number of problems, most often a huge number. So I went in expecting it to be bad. I wanted to give it a chance to prove me wrong – maybe this one will finally be the one that is good? Yeah... no. Not at all. The problems start from the top and they don’t stop until the very end. The brush is small and dense, which leads to it applying the nail polish so very unevenly and it is impossible to avoid making a mess all around the nails. Yeah, this is not the kind of brush nail salons would use, pretty sure. The formula is similarly very bad; it is extremely thick but also runny and a bit gelly. It feels a bit plasticy. And it just flat-out refuses to apply evenly, no natter how hard you try. It is so frustrating to paint nails with this nail polish, even when you are trying to be careful it still applies like a right mess. Professional, eh? As for the nail polish being both a top and base coat... eh, what do I know. But probably, this is another lie because not only does the polish end up being very scratched up, it also makes the nails very yellow... which is something a base coat should prevent, no? And the scratches, a top coat should prevent that. The biggest lie out of all the grandiose claims they use to market this crap nail polish is that it is “up to 10 days chip-free”... huh??? And remember, since it is both a top coat and a base coat and everything else possible, they recommend not using any top coats and just applying 2 coats and that’s it. So why then, does it start to chip within 3 days, hmm?! And why does a hair wash destroy it?! Like, if this is their version of a “salon quality” polish then no thanks. If I went to a salon and paid good money just to end up with this quality... I would be fuming! I would go to the salon and ask for either a refund or a free repair session because something “salon quality” should last for a long time and not be a freaking lesson in frustration to use. Ugh. Nah, this nail polish just feels and performs cheap. And my nails don’t seem to be particularly stronger than before, but that’s hard to judge from one use, I’ll give them that. Really, the only thing this nail polish has going for it is the colour and even that isn’t what it should be. See, it is much darker on the nails than in the bottle. I was expecting to have steely gray nails but what I got was a deep, dark gray. It’s fortunate that I actually liked that colour and how dramatic and cool it looked on my skin, otherwise the final rating would be even lower. It’s absurd, really. Like, how can they keep messing up with nail polish range after nail polish range... is there any Sally Hansen ever that will be good??? The way this is going, it seems nope is the answer. Bah, what a mess. No, I will not recommend this nail polish, I literally have zero reason to do so. If you need an affordable dark gray nail polish, idk, check Catrice’s Gel Affair range or the ICONAILS, if you manage to find them still.

Rating: 3/10

Would buy again? NO

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Color Therapy

Sally Hansen Color Therapy [165 - Tea Time] Review

September 28, 2025

Sally Hansen... again. Well, maybe this one will be similar to the Complete Salon Manicure, which was awesome? Who am I kidding... anyways, this is the Sally Hansen Color Therapy, in the shade 165/Tea Time!

Here we go again... well, I can take solace in the fact that there aren’t many ranges I have to try out anymore, I guess. So, in my quest to try out one of each Sally Hansen nail polish, I have come to this one, which seems to be a conditioning nail polish in addition to a colour one. I would be excited, were the last couple of Sally Hansens not a disaster. I am mostly doing this so that I can see which ones are good and which aren’t (spoiler alert: the latter is far more common)... I didn’t even want this colour originally. I wanted a lighter cool-toned brown, but all the variants that were that kind of colour were sold out. So I guess I will take this warm-toned clay brown? It might even look good, who knows? Eh, how bad can it get, really? Well, let’s see I guess...

Packaging: ah, this is the same kind of bottle the Complete Salon Manicure used! It’s voluptuous, isn’t it? Plump, you might even say! I love how curvy it is, this helps it stand our from the rest of the nail polishes. It feels surprisingly lightweight given the size! The text is copper coloured in the front, which really pops against the clay-brown of the nail polish! The cap is similarly curvy, but, since it is made from a reflective metal material, it is a flipping fingerprint magnet. It takes no time for it to become all smudgy. The cap closes quite securely, so you don’t have to worry that the nail polish will dry out any time soon. I like this bottle, it’s a fun design!

Ingredients: argan (Argania spinosa) kernel oil, evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) oil, açaí (Euterpe oleracea) fruit oil, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) seed oil, kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) extract, vitamin E for nourishment. 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene); it contains parabens, though, specifically, methylparaben. Unfortunate. But I like how it has hydrolysed conchiolin! That should help the nails become at least a little bit stronger. Also, so many oils! Wonder if this will make a difference? The scent is, at first, similar to most nail polishes, but it soon becomes very sweet and aromatic. Weird. But it’s okay. The expiration date is 30 months after opening.

Brush: very short, flat brush. It’s got rounded ends to help with how it applies nail polish. The brush might seem small, but it is wide enough once you spread it wide. And because it is smaller than average, it is more precise, able to apply nail polish relatively cleanly to the sides of the nails. It applies the polish evenly and pretty richly, so it looks opaque with just one coat. However, it picks up an insanely large amount of nail polish, so be sure to tap off the excess! Not the best brush, but it is quite far from being the worst. It’s decent.

Colour: okay, I admit, I like this colour! I was on the fence at first, but it actually looks so elegant on the nails! It's a rosy brown with a decent amount of warm tones in it, without being too reddish. It actually looks a bit cool-toned on me, somehow! It’s close to Pantone's colour “Ash rose”, being a very clay-like kind of brown. And you know, there’s something so nice about a clay-coloured nail polish! It looks awesome on pale skin, it really pops without being too aggressive. And it’s such a great basic, neutral colour as well! To me, it really looks like either some sort of red dirt mud or clay – mostly clay. Not exactly terracotta as it’s less red, but like raw/unbaked clay. Gorgeous!

And perfect for late summer and autumn – especially autumn! Tho I have no idea what it had got to do with tea? Tea shouldn’t be this muddy/clay-ish brown? The name doesn’t make sense... whatever, it still doesn’t change the fact that this colour is really stunning!

This is such a weird formula. Like, it is pretty thick but it is also watery. In some ways, it feels oily, which, I guess makes sense because it does contain plenty of oils. It’s also a bit runny, but not to the point of being hard to use. It’s not the easiest to apply because it does like to spill over the sides of the nails, but it applies perfectly evenly, so you don’t need to keep messing with it just to get it right. Also, while it feels quite thick when I am applying it, it dries down into a weirdly thin finish. Like, it feels cheap. Idk, I don’t like this formula.

One coat is already opaque and 100% even. I could leave it at this, but they said that you need to apply two coats so I will. What will change? Probably just the colour a little bit. We’ll see. Okay, so, applying two coats did not really do much. It is still opaque and looks thick, but it also feels thin. Like, why does it feel so flimsy when I applied two pretty decently thick coats? The colour is a bit more intense, but that’s the only change. Definitely don’t apply more than two coats, there is no point in doing that. The texture is pretty glossy; it should have that copper shimmer, but it isn’t really that visible.

Longevity is completely rubbish, just like I knew it would be. I knew, as soon as I saw how thin the formula is, that it would not last even a day, and it doesn’t. It doesn’t chip much in the traditional sense, it just had two tiny chips before a hair wash. But it’s edge wear that’s one major issue, but not the only one. It took the nail polish less than 24 hours for the edge wear to become really noticeable, and by the end of the third day, all of my nails had an ugly white line right at the very end. Not cool! Not one bit! So, obviously, it doesn’t adhere to the nail plate properly. But this isn’t the only huge issue. See, it gets absolutely destroyed with scratches in no time. Like, I woke up and all of my nails were already ruined.

This is because the formula still felt goopy when I went to bed, 2 hours after painting my nails and drying them with nail drying drops that do cure nail polish. So, great... freshly applied and already ruined. Bah. And it’s not just some tiny scratches, I am talking about huge indentations in the nail polish that make the otherwise pretty gloss into a muted mess.

I am just grateful that this nail polish is this easy to remove. It doesn’t take a lot of rubbing to completely wipe it off and it doesn’t make the nails yellow. Awesome, because I was really worried that my nails had become yellow!

All in all, what a misery this nail polish is. Look, the colour is gorgeous but that’s about it as far as good things are concerned. This is a clay-ish brown kind of colour that is really beautiful, especially on pale skin. It is so elegant and chic and so neutral, so it goes with pretty much anything. I love how it has just enough red pigments to look classy, these clay kind of colours can quickly veer into dated territory. But this one is a timeless clay classic! The shimmer isn’t visible, really, which is for the best. The brush is decent, it doesn’t have any trouble applying the nail polish properly and it picks up more than enough polish. So that was the good. Barely anything, right? Well, you’ll see why in a second. See, the formula is pure hot garbage. It feels oily and thick but so watery that it’s awful. It’s not really runny, but it feels so cheap. Like, it actually feels like a cheap, rubbish formula. This is because it quickly dries down into a paper-thin finish that feels like it’s going to chip at any moment. This, luckily, doesn’t happen, not until a few days in, or until you wash your hair. But the biggest problem – that is even worse than the formula – is the scratching issue. This nail polish has precisely zero resistance to being scratched up. This ruins the lovely glossy texture it has. Just great. But it gets worse: it suffers terribly from the polish just disappearing on the free edges of the nails. Edge wear is really bad here. By the end of the first 24 hours, there was already noticeable edge wear. Horrible... just terrible. And a hair wash destroys it. So you really need a protective base and top coat for this nail polish if you want it to last more than a day. The only reason it is not getting a lower grade is because I really like the colour. Everything else is just bad, man. But I am used to this with Sally Hansens at this point... even though I naïvely thought that it would be good like the Complete Salon Manicure, which has the same bottle – but obviously, not the same formula. I just want to move on from this, I really, really dislike it. No, no recommendation. How could I?

Rating: 3/10

Would buy again? Absolutely NO

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Insta Dry Nail Color

Sally Hansen Insta Dry Nail Color [193 - Slick Slate] Review

September 28, 2025

Oh lord, another Sally Hansen. Welp... this is the Sally Hansen Insta Dry Nail Color, shade 193/Slick Slate.

In my quest to try out one of each range of Sally Hansen nail polishes, I have arrived at the quick-drying range. Slowly, but surely, I am making my way through them and, well, things could have been better so far. I have had a bad time with most of the Sally Hansens that I tried, but still I persevere. Some may call that stupidity, I call it my Taurean bullheadedness/determination. Anyways, this is definitely not the colour I was hoping to get. Originally, I was angling for either Grape Shifter or Sprinkle Sprinkle... I don’t know, I was in a sort of glitter mood, I guess. Perhaps it is better I ordered a plain glossy shade, after all, glitter can be a nightmare to remove! Out of all the colours Notino had available, this one stood out as being the most delectable. Delectable, because it looks like dark chocolate, so of course I would order it! It somehow slipped past me, probably because it is very dark and I try to avoid using very dark nail polishes because they are known to stain nails. And I hate that. So I guess we will have to see what this Sally Hansen is like, huh? Perhaps it will actually be better than the previous ones? Foolish one stop checking your mailbox...

Packaging: woah, this bottle is triangular! You don’t see that every day! This helps this nail polish stand out from most others, and it does make it easier to store since you can fit three of these bottles very tightly next to each other. Very cool! The bottle itself is giant, but it is fairly lightweight. The cap matches the colour of the nail polish, which is a cool touch. Usually, caps are a different colour, so this is a nice change of pace. The text is white, which is a smart choice with such a dark colour. However, the name of the shade (which is on the top of the cap) is black... they were this close! Not all information is on the bottle; if you are looking for the ingredients list, for example, you’ll have to search online for it.

The overall design is simple but decidedly modern, as is evident by the triangular shape of the bottle and the angled bold text. The cap closes extremely tightly, and it becomes even harder to open once you actually start using the nail polish, because it takes all of 5 minutes for there to be a layer of dried polish on the neck, but I’ll come to the formula in a little bit.

Source: www.sallyhansen.com

Ingredients: vitamin E for at least a tiny bit of nourishment. 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). The scent is in general similar to most other nail polishes, though it is extremely sharp and stings the inside of my nose. The expiration date is 30 months after opening.

Colour: Ooh, what a beautiful colour! I had mixed feelings about it before I applied the polish but it seems I had no reason to feel that way because man, this is sooo gorgeous! Although, the name has nothing to do with the actual colour, let’s be real. This has almost no blue pigments in it, so how could it ever be slate? No, to me, this is a dark chocolate or even milk chocolate kind of colour, which is perfect for a chocoholic like me, haha! As soon as I applied it, I fell in love – it is so perfectly choccy! And it is so dark and dramatic and just looks gorgeous on pale skin!

However, after doing some research, I found what colour this one is most similar to, which is Pantone’s Plum Truffle, although this one seems to be slightly more brown and a bit less vibrant. Still, a gorgeous dark cool-toned brown/dark taupe kind of colour, perfect for autumn! There is something a tiny bit plummy about it, isn’t there? Very interesting, very stunning colour, I adore it!

What a tiny little brush! It is so cute! It is short, not too wide and has rounded ends, so that it applies nail polish as evenly as possible. And it does just that, which is a welcome change from all the other rubbish Sally Hansen brushes. This brush is actually really enjoyable to use! It applies the polish super evenly and it has no issues coating the entire nail with 2-3 swipes, so you can be done with your nails very quickly. I cannot describe how big of a relief this is; to go from struggling to apply nail polishes to actually having fun while applying polish. That said, this brush can be pretty messy; I tried to be precise, but I still ended up having some nail polish outside my nails, on the cuticles. This is all due to the fact that this brush picks up so much nail polish that it is actually insane.

And it’s not that there’s that much on the brush itself, the polish being on the body of the brush is the problem. I tapped off the excess but there were still huge globs of nail polish on the body of the brush; there was so much polish there that I had multiple close calls with dripping. And then it actually dripped, but, luckily, it dripped on my desk and not on my clothes. This is a huge issue that is hard to fix by tapping off and can lead to accidents. But since the brush itself is so good, I can overlook this. Because man, compared to the previous Sally Hansen nail polish brushes, this one is top tier. Messy top tier, but top tier nonetheless.

Ooh, I cannot believe I will say this, but I really like this formula! It is thick, but it feels ever so slightly dry, so instead of being all goopy and runny, it is creamy and honestly? Feels kinda luxurious, which is a weird feeling to have with Sally Hansen nail polishes. This is by far my favourite formula so far, it spreads so evenly and so easily, it really makes painting nails a breeze! Also, it is not runny, so it is easy to avoid making a mess on the skin around the nails. I don’t know, it is just such a good formula. And I tested it – it really does seem to dry within 60 seconds! I touched one of my nails before applying a second coat and I did not leave a fingerprint on the polish. Amazing! Though I would still suggest using nail polish drying drops just in case.

It says on the back of the bottle to just apply one coat and let it dry. Well, you know, you could actually do that! It is opaque with one coat, though the colour isn’t quite as intense as it should be. And it is ever so slightly uneven in some places, but honestly? It looks good! And this is a shock to me, because the previous Sally Hansens were all various shades of rubbish. I contemplated leaving just this one coat, which had, by the way, already dried by the time I was done looking at it in detail, but I decided to add a second coat because that’s what I always do. It’s only fair to judge it using the same application as all the rest, no? And well, the second didn’t do much, but it certainly helped. It made the colour much more intense and it fixed those tiny uneven spots.

Aha, now it looks right! Now it is intense and dramatic and dark and so, so good! Not a trace of any uneven spots and it is completely opaque. Just don’t apply a third coat; while it doesn’t feel too thick with two coats, there is really no point in applying a third one, it won’t do anything and just might cause the polish to start chipping sooner. Two is perfect, in my opinion. The texture is highly glossy, in a glassy kind of way, not gelly. Very pretty!

Longevity is another positive surprise! Wow... is this Sally Hansen the first actually good one? It is fairly chip resistant, able to survive 4 days before showing signs of chipping. This is orders of magnitude better than most other Sally Hansen nail polishes. And I am so happy that this chocolatey colour lasts so long! That means I can enjoy it for longer! But it is not immune to chipping; I noticed some smaller chips on day 4, but even by the end of day 4, they had gotten larger. Not significant, not really, but they were larger than before. It’s day 5 when it really started to chip in large amounts.

Even before a hair wash, I had large chopped off parts on a few of my nails, so you can imagine that, after a hair wash, it was much, much worse. Some nails were half-chipped off, while others stayed in remarkably good condition. While this isn’t excellent objectively speaking, it is still much better than most other Sally Hansens, but the bar is set very low there. So yeah, I am pretty happy with the longevity, all things considered! But chipping isn’t the only form of damage, what about scratches? Ah yes, this is a bigger issue, as I found a couple of larger scratches the morning after painting my nails and it continued to collect more and more scratches over the next few days.

These scratches were never bad enough to make the shine muted, but, I mean, they shouldn’t really be there. Still, they are fairly hard to notice so it isn’t that bad. I would highly suggest applying a top coat to prevent this kind of damage.

Another good thing: this nail polish is very easy to remove! It barely needs any rubbing before it is completely removed, which is good for the health of the nails. But there is something bad as well: this nail polish stains nails yellow. I cannot say I did not see this coming, but it’s always a disappointment when this happens. Ah well, there had to be some serious issue after so much good, right? For balance.

In conclusion, well, colour me surprised, this is actually a competent Sally Hansen! Who would’ve thought, eh? I am so happy that it was specifically this chocolate brown nail polish that was finally the one good one. That said, it is not perfect, it still has some flaws. Like, say, the fact that it gets scratched up easily. Or the fact that it isn’t really too chip-resistant. So, obviously, longevity has some issues, but for the most part, this one hell of a good nail polish – and I cannot believe I am saying this. The brush is incredible; it applies the nail polish evenly and is quite precise, allowing you to apply a good, even coat without any fussing about. Seeing as how Sally Hansens tend to have issues with being uneven, this is a marked improvement! However, although they suggest applying only a single coat, that one coat isn’t perfectly even. There is a little bit of patchiness here and there. But if you apply two coats, everything is fixed. The colour is intense and dark, it is completely opaque (to be fair, it was already opaque with one coat), and it is evenly applied. The formula is... weird? Weird. It is hella thick but it feels luxurious, all creamy and just, it just feels good to use. And it is so easy to use! It is odd how thick it is without being all goopy. But, because it is so thick, it is borderline impossible to not have it drip everywhere – which is why I have a neat new dark brown stain on my desk. Speaking of dark brown, this is not slate by any definition I know of. So the name makes no sense. What this is, is a dark cool-toned brown with some purplish pigments in it. It is awesome on pale skin! It just pops so nicely, and it looks so, so dramatic. I love it! It reminds me of both milk and dark chocolate, which, if you didn’t know, I cannot live without. It’s just a shame that this nail polish starts to chip massively after a few days, it looked so promising and then it started chipping off in huge patches. And it made my nails more yellow which is a bummer. But overall, it is a pretty great nail polish – and the quick-drying effect actually works! It was actually almost dry after just a minute; that said, I would still suggest using some kind of nail polish drying drops to really make sure it is dry – oh, and a top coat, to prevent excess scratching. So, yeah, I am quite happy with this nail polish, despite it having some issues. Lord knows it is leagues above any other Sally Hansen, so I’ll take this small win. And lastly, yup, I will recommend this nail polish – what a surprise to hear myself say that, wow...

Rating: 7/10

Would buy again? YES

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Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure [854 - Powder Room] Review

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Sally Hansen Color Therapy [165 - Tea Time] Review

Sally Hansen Insta Dry Nail Color [193 - Slick Slate] Review

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