Sally Hansen Barely Blue Bell

Today I've got Barely Blue Bell from limited edition collection of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure that's in stores now. Apparently this is one of three colors from that collection that were done in partnership with designer Prabal Gurung (per the New York magazine website; the other two are Loves Me Not and Purple Posy). Barely Blue is right; I see more green than blue in this creme. I used two coats, no topcoat, for these swatches.





I would not have been at all surprised to find an exact dupe for this in my stash, since it's been well documented that minty green cremes of all tints and tones are a real weakness of mine. Holding my tips up to various nail wheels, the closest I could find was Essie Turquoise & Caicos, which you may remember from the recent Choc Mint comparison. From even earlier entries, you may also recall that I haven't figured out how to hold two bottles at once&msdash;but I'm still working on it.



On the nail, the Essie was just a touch more green than the Sally Hansen (so I guess the blue in the name of Barely Blue Bell does has some merit). The Essie was three coats to Sally's two. Left to right below, SH, Essie, SH, Essie.



Look closer; you can see the difference, right? Essie on the left, SH on the right:



At a bit of a distance, it is hard to see the difference; unless you're a serious collector, you probably don't need both. Barely Blue Bell would be my choice if I only could keep one, since it was only two coats (and I'm long since used to the fat flat Complete Salon brush) and the touch of blue makes it more flattering to my skintone.



Just for fun, I added some glitter on top of my comparison swatches. This is Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Let's Dance, also from a limited edition collection in stores now. It's silver and turquoise hex glitter in a clear base; I used one coat of it on top of the cremes.







I bought some other colors from this Complete Salon collection, even though none really looked that unique. What can I say? Sally Hansen and I go way back. If Cutex brand were still in stores here, I'd probably be powerless to resist those, too.