Sally Hansen Miracle gel swatches!

*These items were sent to me free of charge for my honest opinion***

Hi y'all! today I have three shades of the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel line to share with you all which were sent to me by Sally Hansen to try out and review here for everyone. I really want to grab some more of these colors to be totally honest! 

These were new for me to work with, I've never tried anything like them. The closest I've tried to gel is the Sinful Shine line of polishes which is not at all gel but just a gel shine effect. (Which aren't any shinier than other polishes if you ask me, but I don't get the craze of OMG IT'S SO SHINEYZ I NEED THE SHINY THINGS. So I don't see the shine as well as some of you do unless it's so shiny that it's really really obviously more shiny than another polish, lol) 

This line of polishes though, while they're not true gel polishes, they do not require a UV/LED lamp for curing. The top coat DOES have UV properties and as such, it's not recommended to use these polishes in direct sun or other uv light. The way they work, is the base or 'color' coat has one ingredient, and the top coat has another and when used together, it makes the color coat 'set' and dry. I did seem to have trouble with them drying on their own but pretty instant with the top coat. 

By the way, the top coat? While it's not a quick dry, it IS dry within a matter of minutes. And I've heard others mention that if you happen to have a lamp already, or want to sit out in the sun (if at all possible, winters coming, there might not be much sun!) for a minute or two, that it helps to set things and dry it even faster, though is totally optional. 

One thing I found a little odd about these polishes is even hours later, they don't feel fully dry. they're dry to the touch but they still feel slightly sticky and like they could dent. And in some cases, they can be dented but... they smooth themselves right back out!! Totally crazy right? I love how it was like this and that I could bump my nails against something and not worry about denting. So even if you use these and they still feel wet hours later, they're not! Totally dry, just squishy and dentable but fix themselves. And anyways, lets get on to the colors I got to show you all! 

Greyfitti

 First up I have Greyfitti which is a light gray colors, which I just loved so much. The way these work is it's recommended not to use a base coat, and use two coats of your choice in color, and one coat of top coat. I've showed you two color coats + 1 coat of top coat over one coat of base coat in the swatches because I don't trust polishes to not stain my nails. But anyways, I think this might have been my favorite in the bunch! It's just a plain light gray creme but I don't have one like it in my collection so I was excited to get it! 

Greyfitti

 Second we have Tea Party which was my least favorite of the ones I tried. It's a pale baby blue with a hint of frosty shimmer. I really like the color of it, but the formula wasn't the best. It was light and kinda thin and streakier than the others. Might have had something to do with it not being a plain creme like the others though. This is again, one coat of my base coat, two coats of color, and one coat of the top coat. 

Tea Party

 This is the last one I have to show you all, but definitely not least. twiggy is a nude beige/tan color. Which actually came out darker and with more of a green tint in the pictures than it actually is in person. This looks like a light army green/khaki, but this color is NOTHING like that. Do any of you have LA COLORS Whipped? because it's basically the same shade as that, just a smidge darker. I loved it so much! My Whipped is almost out so this will be a nice replacement because it's the perfect nude for my skin tone and I love a good nude sometimes. This one also has the easiest application and formula! Nearly a one coat creme, but I did two as that's what instructions called for and to cover up any color pulling. This is the same as the other base coat + two color coats + one coat of the top coat. 

Twiggy

To finish things off, I'll be posting on the facebook page as I test wear on these! Sally Hansen claims up to 14 days of wear with these guys, and I want to see if I can make it at least a week without too much wear on them. I'm also testing with and without base coat. On my left hand I've use base coat (mostly I don't want staining on my swatch hand but I also want to see if there's a difference with or without) and on the right hand, I've gone without base coat, just the two coats of color and one coat of top coat. 

Another thing, the top coat for these so work over regular polishes, but I wouldn't recommend them for nail art done with polish, I may use it myself because I might as well since I have it, but I use acrylic paint with my art so won't have any problems I don't think. But this top coat no matter what does pull the color around, I tried using the brush with more pressure, less pressure, the lightest touch possible, larger beads of top coat on the brush, smaller beads of top coat on the brush, all of it, it still pulled. It didn't make a difference though because the color evened out and didn't leave any streaky bald spots once it tried but I haven't tested if the same is true with regular polish.. but for sure if it smeared your nail art it would be noticeable and ruin your hard work so not recommended! 

Over all though for just a quick Mani with a simple solid color, I would recommend these, I can't say just yet how long they'll last though! 

Hope you enjoyed these swatches as much as I did doing them! Let me know what you thought in the comments below!