Bargain Shopping: Sally Hansen Crushed Metal Kit

Since this is THE weekend for bargain shopping in the US, I think it's appropriate to share these Sally Hansen Crushed Metal swatches today (yes, in a rare weekend post—the holiday has even my relaxed retirement schedule all messed up), as I bought this kit only after I saw it on clearance. I passed on it when new because I wasn't sure I'd like the finish and heaven knows my stash is a monster already. But at a bargain price? Well sure, that was worth taking a chance. I chose the rose gold though as I recall, Ulta also had the silver and gold in their clearance bins.



The kit comes with three bottles: Dual Base & Top Coat, Crushed Effect Coat, and Chrome Lacquer. They're applied in that order, circling back around to the first bottle at the end.



I thought it was interesting that the instructions on back recommended the foil method for removal ... only years after it was popularized in the nail polish community online.

The Crushed Effect Coat in step 2 goes on smooth and pretty; just after application it looks like any other slightly milky base.



As it dries, the texture appears, but since it's got no color to contrast with anything, it's a bit hard to see the crackling.



When the chrome color goes on, the pattern really shows up. I liked this way more than I expected to; it's interesting and different but in a way that's subtle.





I wanted to compare them to some other "odd" finishes. I pulled out Finger Paints Sea Temptress from 2014's Enchanted Mermaid collection, which was billed as having a "mermaid tail" texture. I also grabbed one of the China Glaze Crinkled Chrome shades, I'm a Chromantic, as well as NYC Crackling Effect Top Coat in City Treasure and Sally Hansen Chrome Nail Makeup in Pure Chrome to see if I could achieve a similar effect to the Crushed Metal by layering polishes.



Top to bottom below: Crinkled Chrome (I remain unconvinced that glitter belongs in chrome, especially bar glitter), Crushed Metal (still liking it), Enchanted Mermaid (age has not improved its lumpiness), and the regular chrome layered over crack (which sort of worked, but it seems the Crushed Metal crackle coat is also a chrome smoothing base coat so provides better results).



Another view:



Now I'm wishing I'd grabbed the other shades of Crushed Metal, too ... maybe I'll see them again in a bargain bin and can scoop them up.