Sally Hanson complete salon manicure nail polish - swatches

I picked up some Sally Hanson complete salon manicure nail polishes from my local Priceline yesterday. They retail $14.95 for a 14.7ml bottle but it was on sale for $10 and they had a buy 3 pay for 2 special so any excuse to buy for research purposes. Sally knows your busy so there are 5 steps in 1 bottle: base coat, strengthener, growth treatment, colour and topcoat available in 21 salon inspired shades.

I love it when I turn up to a wedding and everyone's fingers are nicely manicured and why not, there's shots of everyone holding their bouquets, helping dress the bride, putting on earrings and even exchanging rings so it makes sense that nails should be nicely presented. Acrylics or even stick on nails are a great option if you have less then perfect nail beds. If you have nice nails I personally prefer gel polishes which can be done beforehand, lasts up to 2 weeks and you walk out dry so no need to worry bout smudges and accidents.

However I guess not everyone has time as I notice that a few weddings I've attended too bridesmaids and on the odd occasion even a bride painting their nails in between hair and makeup so these polishes got me thinking, since they only ever have time for 2 coats of colour anyways wouldn't it be cool if you got the added bonus of the base, strengthener, growth treatment and topcoat as well!

From memory it said 9 days wear which doesn't bother me because my nails grow 1 ml in a week and the growth line is really noticeable so I can only wear nail polish for 7 days anyways but what sold me was the thicker curved brush and the fact that I didn't have to apply so many coats on myself. Rather than 4 coats I could do it all in 2 and wouldn't have to worry about air bubbles forming under my top coat due to being too heavy handed and apply my colour too thick with not enough drying time in between coats. On clients I always use a base coat for the colour to anchor on to and to stop nails from discolouring. I also use a topcoat to seal the ends of the nail to help with extended wear and for shine but since they are all in one I do wonder if the base coat will still do its function.

I bought 3 bridesmaid-y colours that were nice and neutral and something I could also wear myself; #220 Café Au Lait, #250 Mudslide and #500 Pink At Him. Once you get used to the brush and the amount of polished need it was quite quick and east to apply, just 2 coats of colour on clean dry nails. It also dried quickly to a nice shine, not high gloss but just enough. I didn't rate the brush as much as I thought I would, found it to be quite coarse compared to the Rimmel lycra pro maxi brush nail polish, which led to a streaky application so I found myself using more nail polish than usual to get an opaque application without streaks.

I'm notorious for painting my nails in the car on the way to an event so now I won't have to feel guilty about not using a base and topcoat. I should really get a red while its on sale but do I seriously need to double up on more nail polishes? It couldn't hurt to right…