Review: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Nail Polish

As I mentioned yesterday, as part of the Influenster Vow VoxBox, I received a complimentary bottle of the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure nail polish in the color Barracuda, which is a light blue that goes along with the bridal theme of the VoxBox. And since you already know that I am semi-obsessed with nail polish (I counted the other day and I have more than 40 colors...yikes), I tried this one the day that it arrived in the mail.

I loved the color immediately and got a ton of compliments from my co-workers, but wanted to test it out a second time and document the experience for you guys so you could get a really thorough review. Let's start with what the Web site claims this product is supposed to be -- 7 products in one -- a base coat, strengthener, growth treatment, color, top coat, chip-resistant and gel shine. It claims that the "unique precision brush" and "VitaCare technology" leads to a flawless finish and 10-day wear. It also provides swatches for the 60 colors available (wow), although I'll say right off the bat that the color they have listed for my shade, Barracuda, really isn't a great match (their swatch is much more gray and muted than the actual polish).

Generally speaking, I really love the color and I think the application is standard. The pic stitch really shows the progression of my nails -- the top right is after the first coat (pretty thin and streaky), the middle picture is after the second coat (getting there although not 100% opaque) and then the bottom picture is after 3 coats. The big picture is three coats plus a top coat, because even though they say this has a built in top-coat, I'm not sure I trust it. :)

I'm not sure how I feel about the "unique precision brush" because I actually found it to be too big to really be precise on my small fingernails. It does have a tapered edge, which is hard to see in the picture, but I found that the brush nearly covered my entire nailbed in one stroke, which made it a little hard to get in the corners. However, for some this could be ideal, because it means you can paint your nails faster.

I'm not sure that this polish really lives up to the 10-day, chip-resistant claim, but I will say that the two times I've worn the polish it has lasted longer than I expected, and that's 4-5 days. Typically nail polish tends to chip on me pretty quickly (within a day or 2) so this definitely exceeded my expectations! And although I think you'd really need to wear this polish consistently over a period of time to notice the effects of the growth treatment and strengthener, I did feel like my nails were stronger and longer after wearing this polish (whereas with other polishes I wear my nails always feel more brittle and breakable afterwards).

I've had some poor experiences with Sally polishes in the past, but this one gets an A in my book. Have you tried any Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure nail polishes before? If so, let me know what you thought and what your favorite color was!