These polishes are part of the Tracy Reese for Sally Hansen collection, and are inspired by Tracy Reese’s runway shows.  I picked mine up at a random WalGreen’s I don’t usually visit because they sold out so quickly at the WalGreen’s close to me-especially the bright coral, Coral Fever.

I’ve never tried the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure polishes before these three–there are so many polishes to try, and I tried a couple of polishes from the Xtreme or whatever Sally Hansen collection in the taller, skinny bottles that I really kind of hated.  They were sheer and disappointing and I decided to just steer clear.  But these colors were so pretty that I broke my mental rule.

This Sally Hansen line has bulbous bottles with really wide brushes like the Dior polishes.  I’m not certain, but after using them my feeling is that the brush seems even wider vis a vis the bottle opening than the Dior-it felt like I had to be really careful not to whack it into the side of the bottle’s neck when I tried to get it back in.  I’m finding out from this experiment that I have become very accustomed to the Essie brush, and I really prefer it-with the wide brushes I feel like I can’t get the polish lower on my fingernails and I end up with unpainted stripes at the edge where my nail meets my finger.  Sometimes I can’t even get the wider brush back into the bottle without a mishap.

But anyway, I’m starting out with Coral Fever, which is gorgeous!  It’s a bright, orange-coral color with a bit of pink.  I love how vibrant it is, and how thick and pigmented-it took only two coats to be fully opaque.  It dried with a glossy shine and was controllable and easy to use, discounting brush preferences.  It’s beautiful and easy, with a nice balance between orange and pink, perfect for summer.

 

Next is Malt.  This polish seems somehow rubber-toned, or industrial, to me, in a good way.  It’s a fleshy color with a lot of yellow and also some orange.  It’s very pigmented and also took only two coats to be opaque, with a formula that reminded me of CND’s Perfectly Bare.  I prefer it to that polish since it’s not too peachy or pink.  It’s a little dirty feeling.  Really liked this color too.

 

Finally, Summer Plum.  I hesitated but bought this anyway, and I’m glad I did.  It’s a dark, reddish-purple that I thought might be too close to Essie’s Angora Cardi, or even Dior’s Purple Mix.  In person this one is very red (much more than Purple Mix) but not brickish and has a ton of dark purple, too.  It’s pretty and dark but still vibrant in a way that does kind of say summer to me.  Maybe because of the name, I’m easily swayed.  But I think it’s different from other similar polishes, and it’s also heavily pigmented and only took two coats.

In the shade you can see the pretty darkness and a bit of brown in the color.

 

Overall I was impressed by the formula of these polishes, and I only needed two coats of each to be satisfied.  They’re totally different from the other, non-“Salon Manicure” polishes I’ve tried from Sally Hansen in the past.  They should be still available in some drugstore displays.