Before the summer officially leaves us, I figured I should take a break from tiny house building to bust out my favorite sandals & play with some gel polish. There’s something about blue-green polish that makes me into a total beauty zombie, so I slapped on this minty green Sally Hansen Miracle Gel & dug around in my shoes for these Sam Edelman wedges.
Storytime! Several months ago, a small-time beauty website sent me ORLY EPIX gel polish for review. It stayed on my nails for literally two weeks without chipping or peeling, and I was totally in love. Going to the salon to get my nails done is not my style, not to mention out of my budget. That’s why finding a polish that was cute and didn’t degrade was a total windfall.
So, having fallen in love with this polish, I knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to get more colors. I love that coral-pink they sent, but am not a pink-all-the-time girl. Also it my boyfriend absolutely hated it… but that still didn’t make me like it enough to wear it all the time. Turquoise, on the other hand, is my everything, including casket color preference.
Luckily, while strolling through Sally Beauty one day, I noticed the perfect light blue gel polish on sale – 50% off! Obviously, I picked it up, and raced home only to realize after grabbing my ORLY EPIX gel topcoat that… I’d purchased a Sally Hansen Miracle Gel polish.
!@%#.
I didn’t know the rules about gel topcoats and mixing brands, so I did what ever other internet resident would do: I asked Reddit. Specifically, /r/RedditLaqueristas – the all-knowing gods and goddesses of nails. The consensus between the three responses was that it didn’t matter… But I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Just as I was finally giving in to using my ORLY gel topcoat over the Sally Hansen polish, I just so happened to get an email from Sally Hansen’s rep asking if I wanted to try out their summer colors… including the topcoat. OMG I AM SAVED! They sent me a polish from the Royal Splendor collection called Prince Char-Mint (which I’m wearing in these photos) and Plush Blush, which is a lavender-tinted pink that I tried to wear once and will probably never wear again. Pink just isn’t my thing!
Minty-turquoise Prince Char-Mint, on the other hand… Yes, please. There’s something about light blues and light greens mixed with chrome that I really, really like. The polish against the mirror-like toe of the Sam Edelman wedges is pretty much the dreamiest. I went out of my way to photograph against these red-orange bricks because damn that polish is pretty!
The saddest part of this story is my inability to get off my ass and buy a Sally Hansen topcoat combined with my superstitious reluctance to use a different brand’s gel topcoat. Come on, Lindsay. It would have been so totally fine, I’m sure.
The happiest part of this story is that I got to see how the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel performs with its proper topcoat! I really enjoy using products from the same brand together, what can I say? They were formulated together, so they belong together.
Also, this Prince Char-Mint color belongs with me. It’s a pretty turquoise with a green tint. On my nails it gets even mintier. I would compare it to the color of fresh, beautiful mint chip ice cream, but the polish still hangs on to its baby blue-ness. It’s very similar to the green nail color I wore in this post, except it lasts for actual weeks without chipping. Also, Prince Char-Mint is definitely lighter, and has more cool blue tones in it.
For the record, I painted my toes one week before taking these photos. Other than one of my big toes that I stubbed on a concrete floor (omg don’t make me relive it), everything is as fresh as they day I painted! Also, these nails survived a head-on collision with concrete!
The other happiest part of this story is that I got to wear my Sam Edelman Serena Wedges, which are like three years old, but I only wear them five times per year so they still look amazing. Why don’t I wear these more!? If you love these, you can find them around the web sometimes in one of their various colors on Poshmark!
I feel like it’s worth noting that this gel polish really does stand up to a lot of wear. As I said earlier, I have been building a house for months, and trying out nail products while you’re constantly covered in various paints, dust, and sealants can be a challenge. This Sally Hansen Miracle Gel survived a full day of sanding and caulking. So basically, extreme filing and gluing.
This caulk and paint peeled right off of these nails – no chipping whatsoever. I was very impressed.
Where to Find Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Polish
Drugstore.com: $9.99 (+$5.99 shipping)
Target: $7.59 (+$4 shipping)
WalMart: $7.46 ($5.97 shipping)
Walgreens: $9.99 (+ $5.99 shipping)*
Ulta: $9.99 (+$5.99 shipping)
*Walgreens has a special online coupon right now that will take an extra dollar off!
Have you tried gel polish? Do you have a favorite brand?
The nail polish in this post was received free from Sally Hansen PR, but there was no sponsorship involved.