Complete Salon Manicure

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

By Maychiri's Thoughts - 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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