I love that Sally Hansen collaborates with fore-running designers.  Here are two polishes from the Fall 2012 Prabal Gurung collection, which was based on his most recent show 'Uncursed.'

There are two other polishes- a white and a black, but of course I chose the more interesting ones to show you:





Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure- Blue Rose is a very dusty medium blue creme polish, definitely in the 'slate' family.  It's as if China Glaze- First Mate (a navy, one of my favorites) spent twenty years in a basement and emerged faded and dusty.  This kind of color is right up my alley, so I was sort of obliged to get it, especially since it's limited edition.

Artificial light, 2 coats:






A dusty blue creme might seem kind of boring, but I find these types of colors sort of surprisingly chic, and I think they look good on my skin.  They also go with just about anything you could be wearing.

Window-filtered, daylight:


Outside, shade:




Outside, sun:


Formula:  A typical Complete Salon Manicure creme formula: very thick, covering in two coats, and not at all difficult to work with.

Now is probably time to mention the CSM brushes, which are very polarizing.  They're wider than OPI brushes, so some people hate them and some people love them.  I'm in the latter camp; I think they make gliding on the polish in minimal strokes very easy. They are tapered, too, so they fit the curve of your nail quite well.  They are almost too wide for my pinkie nail, and I have to be careful, but I love them for all the other nails.  

So now, some negative stuff:

I wore this for about 12 hours (and 7 of them I was asleep!), and had miniscule chips on almost all my nails before I could even take swatch pictures. Lame!

Also, I don't know if you can tell, but this is not a very shiny polish.  It is very dull in fact.  That's not necessarily a drawback, but for a polish that claims to be a basecoat, color coat, and topcoat-in-one, you would think it would at least be glossy.  Nope.


Comparison Time:





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Next up-



Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure- Gilded Lily is a clear base packed with very dense gold fleck particles.  The overall effect makes the finish look somewhere in between a glassfleck and foil finish.

Artificial light, 3 coats:


This particular color was not designed with cool skin tones in mind, but I don't care- it's lovely! It's definitely got a yellow/ coppery tone to it, and it's really quite flashy.  It'd be great for a Holiday party.



Coverage, for reference:


Window-filtered daylight:




I can see myself using this one a lot for nail art, especially sponging on gradients. In fact, I already have!

Outside, shade:






Formula: I have no complaints about a shimmer/glitter that covers perfectly in three coats.  If you use thicker coats, you can easily get opacity in two- just make sure to allow drying time in between coats.

Comparison Time-

I don't have a ton of golds with similar finishes to compare Gilded Lily to, but here it is with Orly- Glitz (not to be confused with Orly- Glitz And Glamour), to get an idea of the tone of gold we're talking about here:







You can see that Gilded Lily has a chunkier finish (doesn't feel chunky on the nail), while Orly-Glitz is your basic foil finish.  I think Gilded Lily has a slightly greener tone, while Orly- Glitz is brighter and more orangey.


Have you ever loved a color that you know doesn't look great on you?  That's how I feel about Gilded Lily!