Review: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polishes - Pretty Piggy and Pink Tank
During the busy holidays, the last thing you have time for is a proper manicure. That's why gel nails would be the best solution. They are super long-lasting and stay looking glossy and beautiful for a long time. There are many do-it-yourself gel nail kits nowadays, so you don't even have to leave your home for that. This Fall/Winter season, Sally Hansen introduced the Miracle gel nail polishes with a topcoat that doesn't need a light to harden. There are in total 47 colors, divided in 7 color collections. I got to try out two colors, 210 - Pretty Piggy and 220 - Pink Tank, from the Love Pink collection that consists of 7 different pink shades. Without any prior research, you might think that just getting the nail polishes is enough, but you also need to get the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel top coat that comes in a black, non-transparent bottle.
The Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polishes have a flat and wide brush with rounded corners. The top coat has the same brush, but with transparent hairs. In combination with the consistency that isn't too goopy or watery, the application went really well. It doesn't happen to me often that I don't make any mistakes with a wide brush.
The instructions given are: lightly shake the nail polish bottle, apply two coats, wait for it to dry properly, and then, apply the top coat. You don't need a base coat beforehand.
I started with the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polish 210 - Pretty Piggy, which is a really pretty coral pink. However, this particular nail polish was very streaky and I needed 3-4 coats to make it look presentable on the nails.
Next, I tried the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polish 220 - Pink Tank, which has a very pretty cherry red color. After applying the top coat, it leaned more to red. You can see the color difference in the pictures as the color on the nails has more red in it than in the nail polish bottle. This nail polish wasn't streaky at all and 2 coats were more than sufficient for it to look good.
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polishes (210 - Pretty Piggy and 220 - Pink Tank) and top coat*, 14.7 ml, €11.99
The Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polishes have a flat and wide brush with rounded corners. The top coat has the same brush, but with transparent hairs. In combination with the consistency that isn't too goopy or watery, the application went really well. It doesn't happen to me often that I don't make any mistakes with a wide brush.
The instructions given are: lightly shake the nail polish bottle, apply two coats, wait for it to dry properly, and then, apply the top coat. You don't need a base coat beforehand.
I started with the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polish 210 - Pretty Piggy, which is a really pretty coral pink. However, this particular nail polish was very streaky and I needed 3-4 coats to make it look presentable on the nails.
Next, I tried the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polish 220 - Pink Tank, which has a very pretty cherry red color. After applying the top coat, it leaned more to red. You can see the color difference in the pictures as the color on the nails has more red in it than in the nail polish bottle. This nail polish wasn't streaky at all and 2 coats were more than sufficient for it to look good.
What do I think?
The Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polishes are supposed to give you a gel nail effect. But even though I had never had gel nails done on me before, I don't really think it actually looks like that. It looks more like a very glossy nail polish to me, comparable to the glossy Ciaté nail polishes that I was reviewing around the same time. I do have to say that you get a slightly harder coat that you can check out yourself by ticking on the painted nails with your nail. Normally, nail polishes stay on my nails quite long, so I am not sure if it will last 1.5 week on other people too. Since they look similar to glossy Ciaté nail polishes, I tested them side by side. The Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polish lasted longer with only some small tip wear, while the nails painted with a Ciaté nail polish had larger chunks missing. In terms of staying glossy and beautiful over time, they both performed equally good.
From looking at the slightly thicker coat (that by the way, doesn't feel heavy or uncomfortable), I would have expected it to be a bit hard to remove, but I removed it from my nails with ease. The nail polish bottles are quite large (14.7 ml), so they should last you for quite some time. You do have to pick up some extra bottles of the top coat, as you might run out of it very soon. I think the use ratio is about 2 : 1 (nail polish color : top coat). Some nail polishes like the 210 - Pretty Piggy might need more coats due to it being streaky. So, you need to calculate how much you approximately need. I tried wearing the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polishes without the top coat as it already looked very glossy and pretty on my nails without it, but it started to look dull after a day or so. That's why, you cannot leave out the important second step of applying the top coat.
