Fellow nail nerds! Lookit! It’s my review of the new Sally Hansen Color Therapy nail polish! 

I swatched (in alphabetical order with no base or top coat) the entire launch collection just for you because I’m crazy like that. Grab a cuppa and settle in – it’s a long one! And don’t forget, if you only want the swatches, you can head over to mah Pinterest for easy viewing.

sally hansen color therapy swatches & review

Sally Hansen Auran’t You Relaxed? (above) OCW!!!

Sally Hansen Berry Smooth (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Blushed Petal (above) Three thin coats.

Sally Hansen Chai On Life (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Cool Cucumber (above) Two coats.

So what is this stuff? It’s regular nail polish that has a bunch of oils jammed into the formula. 

When I say it’s regular polish, that means it goes on and comes off the same way conventional polish does. The only differences here are that it doesn’t require a basecoat, and the idea behind it means it might possibly healthify your nails while you sport it.

I’m going to give you the information I’d want, but if I forget something, just holler at me in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I possibly can. You know I will!

what is sally hansen color therapy?

Okay. First, the name Color Therapy. It’s a whole new line from Sally Hansen and it’s three bottles designed to be used as a system: nail & cuticle oil (vanilla scented), nail polish, and top coat. 

All three components are 3-free and have a bunch of natural oils listed in the ingredients. I know this because I checked. You can have a look at the list too – it’s here and it includes natural argan, acai, and evening primrose oils. 

Sally Hansen Couple’s Massage (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Exotic Acai (above) Three coats and you’ll want to cap the free edge because she pulls. She also dries waaay darker than she shows in the bottle.

Sally Hansen Glow With the Flow (above). OCW!!

Do you need to use them as a system? Nope. You can use one or two or three – totally up to you. If you use the cuticle oil though, be sure you clean your nails off properly before applying the polish, yes? And use after your mani is finished drying too.

Sally Hansen Good As Blue (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Haute Springs (above) OCW!!!

Sally Hansen Indiglow (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Indiglow over Soothing Sapphire (above). One coat over two coats just so I could get crazy depth of colour.

Sally Hansen Ja-cozy (above) Two coats and it’s got that blue pigment that smells like weeeeed. She looks like a crelly on the first coat but with the second, she’s really not.

Can the oils in the cuticle oil really help you care for your nails? I’m going to say yes. Moisturizing hands and cuticles really does help nails maintain flexibility; that in turn helps prevent chipping, breaking, and peeling. 

Sally Hansen Color Therapy Nail & Cuticle Oil (above). Surprise! I’m nekkid! Yep, totally!

Do you need to use the top coat? Nope. You can use whatever top coat you like. But I will say that when products are developed to go together, the amount of science there means they really do perform better together simply because they all contain exact ingredients that play together perfectly. 

With mix & match things, results may be very similar but not exactly the same. Even a negligible difference is still a difference.

Sally Hansen Make My Clay (above) Three thin coats.

Sally Hansen Mauve Mantra (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Ohm My Magenta (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Pampered In Pink (above) Two beauty coats.

Sally Hansen Powder Room (above) Two frosty coats.

sally hansen color therapy oil nail polish

And now you’re thinking about oil in nail polish, right? Like how can that even be possible? 

With chemistry, research and development. Sally Hansen has figured out a way to get these happy oils into little tiny tubes that are suspended in the regular polish. With normal hand movement, your nails flex along with your fingers. From what I understand (and I could be wrong here), that flexing apparently breaks the tubes and releases the oils into the nail plate. Cool, right?

Sally Hansen Primrose & Proper (above) Three thin coats.

Sally Hansen Re-Nude (above) Three thin coats.

Sally Hansen Red-iance (above) Three coats – use a base coat with this one, ya dig?

Sally Hansen Red-y to Glow (above) Two coats of red-saturated crelly.

Sally Hansen Reflection Pool (above) Three coats.

Sally Hansen Robes and Rosé (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Rosy Glow over Pampered in Pink (above). I used Pampered in Pink as undies because it was faster to get to the bottle shade that way. 

Also, don’t use Rosy Glow without a base coat. She stains.

My question? Once you’ve polished, how does the oil know which way to go once it’s released? Well, it can only go in one direction because the top level of polish has dried and created a fairly impermeable sealed layer. Your nail plate is porous, though, so that's where the oil goes.

What does the oil do once it’s released? Hopefully it works its way into the little channels and spaces in your nail plate and sits there conditioning your nails until you take the polish off.

Sally Hansen Rosy Quartz (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Sheer Nirvana (above) Two coats.

Sally Hansen Slicks and Stones (above) Two coats. My notes also say it’s staintastical.

Can the oils in the polish really help you care for your nails? I don’t really know so I’m going to say maybe. I will tell you that my Sally Hansen Color Therapy press release says “9 our of 10 women experienced a noticeable improvement in their natural nails after wearing Color Therapy nail polish.” 

I leave it up to you to read between those lines and ask the important questions. 

Did I notice improvement? Nope. But I’m not you and I have my fingers in acetone multiple times a day so the oils have zero chance to have an effect. Also, my nails (and hands) are in awfully good shape already; I feed them moisture and cuticle oil like crazy.

sally hansen color therapy application

As is recommended, I used these shades on clean, bare, natural nails. That’s right friends! Bare, as in zero base coat. They all went on fairly splendidly and exactly the same way you expect regular polish to apply.

Interestingly, I seem to get whiffs of what's kind of like Granny Smith Apple air freshener while I'm working with the wet polish. Once it's dry, there is no scent.

Sally Hansen Soak at Sunset (above) Two coats.

The brush in the bottle is familiar too. It’s the same as the Sally Hansen CSM (Complete Salon Manicure) brush. They’re not all perfect brushes, but they’re all perfectly workable and produce a nice clean line at the cuticle if you work ‘em just right.

Sally Hansen Soothing Sapphire (above) Three coats for best saturation.

Sally Hansen Steely Serene (above) Two coats.

The top coat is a nice thin one that pops a decent shine. Dry time for everything (with or without top coat) is average and yes, you can speed dry-time by using your favourite QDTC (quick dry top coat). 

Wanna use your SHMG top? Sure! Go ahead! Wanna use the Color Therapy Top Coat? Sure! Go ahead! Wanna use something else? Sure! Do it! If it fails or your results don’t wear well, switch it out for something else in your top coat drawer and try again.

Wear time? That depends on you and how hard you use your hands.

Removal is a simple matter of using whatever your normal removal process is. 

Sally Hansen Therapewter (above) Three coats to opaque.

Sally Hansen Unwine’d (above) Three coats.

Sally Hansen Well, Well, Well (above) Two coats.

These spa-inspired shades are all new for Sally Hansen; you won’t find them in any other Sally Hansen line and they were all created in partnership with Sally’s Global Color Ambassador, Madeline Poole (@mpnails on Instagram). Her words? “Color Therapy is a great multitasking product to moisturize while also wearing color… It gives you up to 10 days of wear with no compromise and no sacrifice.” Sounds good, right?

sally hansen color therapy availability

As of today (July 18th, 2016), I've spotted displays at several Shoppers Drug Mart stores. It should be rolling out across Canada and into mass market retailers right now. In the US, I hear you're on tap for a winter 2016 release, with the UK and Australia sometime after that. For more information, head on over to SallyHansen.ca. 

Manicures & photographs by Karen Falcon (she's gonna make a pasta salad tonight!).
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