Sally Hansen haul & First impression

So I went to Walmart today to do some grocery shopping and went to the beauty section to pick up another Nicole by OPI clear top coat, as I was out. Then I figured I would pick up another polish as well (back to my red tones) and ended up buying three. I usually stick to my Essie polishes when I go out and buy new colours, but the Walmart closest to my apartment is a smaller one and its nail section is mediocre at best, so the only Essie polishes they carry are the newest ones and a small selection of the usual collection. They did, however have a huge selection of the Sally Hansen complete salon manicure and miracle gel nail polishes so these are the ones I picked up!

I have tried many Sally Hansen polishes before, but they've got such a vast variety of collections and types, and I just don't buy nail polish enough, so I never ended up trying these out!

I picked up the colours (from left to right):

#270 Raisin the Bar (salon manicure collection)

#500 Mad Women (miracle gel collection)

#480 Wine Not (salon manicure collection)

Now, normally with the gel polishes you need to first buy that special gel manicure kit with the light and such (no thanks) but this miracle gel collection claims to give your nails the gel-nail effect with only two steps of polish application, and no light or kit needed. They have a decent selection of polishes to choose from, and then they offer a special top coat for them that comes in a black bottle.

I'm gonna be real here, I didn't bother picking up the top coat they recommend. I bought my usual OPI top coat polish and didn't want to spend another $10 or so on a top coat I could only use with one nail polish, so I thought I would instead see how the polish works on its own, or with my plain-Jane top coat, and if it suffers, I would pick up the top coat that's meant to work with it knowing it would be a worthwhile purchase.

Today, though, I thought I would talk a little bit about these polishes and my first impressions of them because I'm a fan of Sally Hansen products, and I wanted to see how these measure up to what I already know of the brand.

#480 Wine Not
This is actually the polish I was most excited about because it looked very similar in the bottle to my all-time favourite polish, 'Skirting the Issue' from Essie. It's a very red-wine, oxblood shade and although Sally Hansen's polish looked a lot more glittery (which I usually stay away from for nail polish), I wanted to try it anyway.

I have it on now, and posted a photo on Instagram immediately after putting it on because I fell in lust with it. I wasn't sure how I would feel about the metallic look of the shade, if it would be too much, if it would hit the light and just look too glittery, or what, but after putting it on I just fell in love. After one coat, it looked flawless. I put two on to intensify the colour, and I just find it lasts longer that way, but one coat would be just fine for anyone.

Now, what I love about this colour is how it looks in different lighting. I mentioned earlier it was like an oxblood, red-wine shade, and that's a good way to describe it. In fluorescent lighting, it looks as though you took the thickest and purest blood you could find, mixed it with red witch sparkles, and dripped it onto your nails. In other more of a low-yellow light though, it comes off almost as like a dark brick red. Just luscious.

If I had one complaint to make about this polish, it would be the way it dries without a glossy top coat. You should always top your nail polish with a top coat anyway, but some polishes look great without it and some just need a little extra boost. As glossy and luxurious as this polish looks when you first apply it, it dulls down a little when it dries. All it takes is a top coat to glam it back up, though.

#270 Raisin the Bar
This colour is actually a very unusual pick for me, because I tend to lean towards darker reds (clearly...) but I picked this up because a few months ago when I was visiting my home town, my best friend had her nails painted a colour that I could swear looked exactly like this, and it was gorgeous. With my recent H&M haul, I ended up buying a lot of creams and whites, and I'm just thinking about how absolutely beautiful this taupey mauve colour would look against those pale shades in the summer time. 

I only swatched this colour briefly, I haven't worn it all over my fingernails just yet but it comes out very pigmented, true to the colour in the bottle, and not at all sheer, in my opinion. It's not as metallic as Wine Not, it's actually got a very nice pearl finish, and that's the best way I can describe its finish.

I haven't yet tried the gel polish, and I'm excited to, I'm just waiting for more of a summer time weather, because it's such a bright pink that I just have to wait until it's swimming weather here in southern Canada. When I try it out, if it's worth a review, I will write one up!


Thanks for reading today guys, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I hope that your upcoming week is even better.

What polishes have you been loving lately? Are there any you've been dying to try?

Until next time, sunshine!