Collection: Sally Hansen 2016 Summer, Color Therapy [Launch]

I know this isn’t very Halloween-y at all, but I decided that my nail polish backlog is too great, especially since I also just picked up a number of Sally Hansen, L’Oréal, and Trust Fund Beauty polishes.

I haven’t reviewed many Sally Hansen polishes in a very long time (my last one was a Throwback Thursday review of Mandarin Mantra), but I recently became more interested in the brand after their recent summer launch of Color Therapy, a nail color infused with argan oil. The bottles look like the existing Complete Salon Manicure line, except with rose gold caps. Yup. I’m sold. (Ridiculous of me, I am aware!)

Shoppers Drug Mart ran a sale a couple of weeks ago, so I picked up Powder Room (200), Slicks and Stones (390), and Therapewter (130). I must mention that one reason I tend not to buy Sally Hansen polishes is that their top-shelf lines like Complete Salon Manicure and MiracleGel are actually priced higher than, say Essie. And I will almost always pick an Essie (one of my favorite brands of polish) over a Sally Hansen. The Color Therapy polishes tend to retail for about CA$12, and I got them on sale for $9.99. By comparison, I can often get Essies on sale for around $7–8.

So, my hope for these new Color Therapy polishes is that they make a case for being chosen over a less expensive Essie. Their marketing gimmick of containing argan oil doesn’t move me—polish needs to harden up, and I doubt there can be any benefit to the presence of said oil, let alone provide “instant moisture”.

Introducing new Color Therapy™, gorgeous color that cares while you wear! The patented argan oil formula fuses intensive nourishment and instant moisture for healthy looking nails.

Powder Room (200) is a soft beige-pink opaque frost that has a touch of taupe. The finish gives it a satin ribbon look.

Right off the bat, I spotted a problem. The brush is wide and flat, with slightly tapered edges, but the brush in my bottle had very uneven tapering:

This made it trickier to apply, of course. I didn’t actually like the “good” side, either, as the brush was a bit too thick and the tapered edge not smooth enough, so polish didn’t round against my cuticles nicely. The thickness of the brush coupled with the blunt cut of the bristles also caused polish to get on my skin along the sides of the nails.

I remember disliking the brushes on Complete Salon Manicure and Insta-Dri polishes, too. For the money, I think these Color Therapy bottles definitely require improved brushes. I expect no less on a polish that costs over CA$10 at retail price.

The polish itself applies very smoothly, though, so at least the formula seems nice. Powder Room is a frost, but the shimmer is very fine and the streaking is not terrible. I mean, yes, the streaks are visible, but they look all right and quite even, for a frost finish. It also dries smooth, hard, and with a glossy shine.

I used two coats in my swatch. One coat actually covers well, but I preferred the look of two.

The color is my favorite thing about this polish. I think it’s a very flattering, fairly neutral shade that would work well on many skintones.

I just wish I could say better things about the brush!

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Sally Hansen Color Therapy contains 0.5 US fl oz / 14.7 mL and retails for CA$11.95 (I’m having a hard time finding the US price; is this even in the US?). The formula is free from toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). It contains a number of oils (castor, argan, evening primrose and safflower).

Sally Hansen’s website states that Sally Hansen and her husband developed a Hard as Nails nail treatment in the late 1950s. (This begs to differ! How odd. There isn’t even a Wikipedia page on the woman or the brand!) Anyway, Sally Hansen, the company, was purchased by Coty Inc. in 1997 when the cosmetics giant acquired Del Laboratories, which owned brands like Sally Hansen, La Cross, and NYC (New York Color). Coty itself was founded in Paris, France in 1904, and is owned by a German holding company and headquartered in New York, NY, USA.