Saturday, February 6, 2010

Random new Sally Hansen swatches

I really like CVS for their cosmetics return policy. It's pretty much, "If you have a receipt, we'll take it back and give you a full refund..." Great, especially since I'm usually pretty disappointed by drugstore polishes.

First up, what happens when I indiscriminately buy greens: I ended up with a Sally Hansen Complete Salon Grass Slipper and a Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety-Split Lime. They are fairly similar but there are some differences that helped me to keep one and return the other.

Sally Hansen Grass Slipper

I found this bright apple green a tad thick and relatively hard to apply. Yes, I got it BOGO-50% off but still, $6 felt like a bit too much. This is three coats to get rid of VNL. I don't mind doing three coats but not when the polishes are difficult to control. This was a formula thing, not a brush thing: the Insta-Dri brush actually works very well for me, as long as I keep a steady hand.

Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime


This is a slightly more neon version of Grass Slipper (it's not actually THIS neon IRL). And it applied beautifully: two coats that slid on smoothly. Though... aren't these supposed to be one-coaters? Did I hear that somewhere? Because so far, none of these have turned out to be one coaters for me...

Sally Hansen Commander in Chic

This is two coats, it REALLY needed three: bald spots all over the place. I really love the taupe-y, shroomy color thing though. I think it's lighter than OPI YDKJ/Avon Nocturnal. I hear it's pretty dupe-y to $OPI Metro Chic? It's about the same price as a $OPI. (Oh, for the record, I do not think this polish is worth its pricetag. But then, I generally find drugstore polishes to be overpriced... unless it's 99¢.)

Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet

I love the color: a bright, almost neon, peach with light silver shimmer. The application was a nightmare: the formula was thick and assumes that coverage should be done after one coat (because it seemed to want to reject my efforts at putting on a second coat). This is the first time my application with the Insta-Dri brush went completely haywire. Usually, it leaves me a nice, relatively neat gap. This one was just a disaster. Returned this one almost immediately.