As usual, I used Sally Hansen Miracle Cure as a base coat. I find that it helps heal my nails (they have the occasional habit of peeling) as well as strengthens them and prevents further breakage. Sometimes I use this by itself when I just want a natural look, or if I'm too short on time to do a full manicure, I'll just swipe a coat of this on and I'm good to go. It contains minerals and antioxidants and other good ingredients, and it also makes a good base for nail polish to stick to (as opposed to your nails!). I think it's as good as any other base coat, only with extra benefits!
After the base coat dried, I painted my nails with SH Forever Lilac. Two coats still didn't reach true-to-bottle color opacity, and left the white tips of my nails showing through, but it was still pretty. I think three coats would be sufficient to achieve full opacity.
I'm not the biggest fan of SH brushes--I find them to be more narrow than my liking. I prefer a beefier, wider brush like Revlon Colorstay because, to me, it makes it easier to achieve a smoother coat of polish on the nail since you're doing less swipes of the brush. Though that's a personal preference, it reality. For that reason, I usually refrain from SH polishes and tend to lean toward other brands.
As far as the formulation goes, it's perfectly fine. My nail color didn't really start chipping for five days, which is awesome! I finally took it off after a week, when the chips started becoming noticeable. The fact that it was a lighter color made it less apparent, but I was still really pleased with the chip-resistant qualities of the polish.
I just realized that every polish in this post is a Sally Hansen one, because my top coat is SH, too. I used Sally Hansen Salon Nail Care Speed Shine 10 Day Top Coat on my nails once Forever Lilac dried. Wow. I swear I'm not sponsored by them. I don't even know why I own so many SH products, since I don't even like their brushes. Weird.
I've recently just found out that this product has actually been discontinued (I was wondering why I couldn't find store links to it!), but I'm not too upset about it. It's not like it was the "best top coat ever omg" so I'll have no problem moving on to something else once I finish this bottle up. If you really wanted to, you could find it on Amazon for double the price, if you so chose. I don't recommend it. It's not worth it. Don't do it. It's not that it's bad, I'm just not impressed enough to repurchase it (especially not for $14--I'd rather buy a Deborah Lippmann polish if I had $14 to spend on one bottle!). I'll probably try to famous Seche Vite after this bottle is all used up. Is it really as great as everyone says? Let me know!
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| Sorry these pictures came out so dark! I had been waiting for a sunny day to take these, but it was raining nonstop in NY for days! |
What's on your nails right now? I love finding new products to try!
Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by, nor affiliated with, Sally Hansen. I only own four Sally Hansen polishes total, so it's just fate that they all ended up in one post! It's actually kind of funny that I didn't realize it until now. :)
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