Sally Hansen Takes On Minx and Prabal Gurung And We Test Them Out

Sally Hansen, the drugstore nail polish brand, is seriously upping its style cred this spring with two new products. First off, Prabal Gurung designed six Sally Hansen nail colors to complement the designs from his S/S 2011 show. Do you remember the turquoise and orange that came down the runway in his first few looks? Those colors are represented in three of the six colors: an orangey red, sky turquoise, and strawberry mango (called respectively Runway Red-y, Model Behavior, and Casting Call). The other three are neutrals--a metallic, a shimmer, and a pearl. On the runway, stylists used the nude shimmer, Without a Stitch, on models’ nails then painted a thin line of Casting Call across the tips. The limited edition colors will be available this spring and will retail for $6.99 a bottle. If regular old nail polish is too boring for you, Sally Hansen is also launching Salon Effects nail polish strips this March. They’re obviously supposed to be an at-home competitor to Minx, the $50 salon procedure beloved by Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. The strips come in 24 different patterns, ranging from plain neon colors to glitter metallics, to leopard and lace. They’ll be available this March and will retail for $9.99 each. I tried them out and gave them to a few women from different demographics to try, too. Here’s the report:
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Sally Hansen, the drugstore nail polish brand, is seriously upping its style cred this spring with two new products.

First off,

The tricky part was sizing. Some were way too big for my nails, but I used the enclosed wooden cuticle stick to cut around my nail bed and they came out with clean edges. Elizabeth, a 21-year-old Parsons student, did hers on the train and was raving about how easy they were and how great that there was no dry-time. Another friend, however, who changes her own nail polish every single day, had a hard time and thought it might be a two person job. So there may be a learning curve here.

Cool factor: While some of the designs are cheesy (like the pink camo and butterflies) some I really loved. I chose the gold metallic with fishnet stocking print overlay. Subtle, right? This pattern garnered rave reviews from two Sephora salesgirls, a heterosexual male trainer at the gym, a seven-year-old girl, and a doctor. So I guess you can safely say they have universal appeal.

Durability: The box claims that they last up to ten days. I’m on day four of mine and they’re still perfect, without any peeling. The friend above who does her own nails everyday also happens to be a nurse. Hers survived at least one day of scrubbing her hands and using Purell 10,000 times while at work. (When you’re ready to take them off, you just use nail polish remover, no peeling required.)

The bottom line? I was ready to hate these and dismiss them as gimmicky, but I really loved them. If you're sick of your umpteenth Ballet Slippers mani, head to a drugstore and pick up some denim or houndstooth nails instead.

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