Sally Hansen Ghostly Glow

Getting this year's Sally Hansen Insta Dri Glow in the Dark swatches in under the wire while it's still Halloween. I chose to get these five: Purple Potion, Squad Ghouls, Gourd-geous, Ghosted, and Witch Please. (The other two limited edition colors were re-releases from last year, the pink Creep It Real and the pale yellow green Fa-boo-lous. I got and swatched those last year even though they were basically re-releases then too, just with the names changed from 2020.)

 

Due to my continued impatience, I quickly skittled four of these, doing two coats each. Top to bottom: Ghosted (sheer pale yellow green with matching hex and bar glitter), Squad Ghouls (sheer pale sea green with holo micro glitter), Purple Potion (sheer pale purple with pink/purple/blue shimmer), Witch Please (sheer pink with pink/purple/blue shimmer). You can see that the glitter in Ghosted needs care that I did not give it in order to distribute evenly across the nail.

 

The glitter in Squad Ghouls showed up better at some angles than others. On the nail, Purple Potion and Witch Please were pretty much indistinguishable from each other since the base colors are so sheer and the shimmer appears to be identical.

 

After charging, these all glowed about the same once the lights went out. My camera (at least as used by me) wasn't able to capture the way the glitter in Ghosted showed up against the glowing background; it made it more interesting to look at in the dark that the other three.

 

Gourd-geous (orange and black matte glitter in mixed sizes in a sheer orange base) hadn't gotten its time yet, so I did two coats of it on my index finger for my next hand of skittles swatched. I put a black creme base on my other digits and topped that with Ghosted on my middle finger, Squad Ghouls on my ring, and Witch Please on my pinky.

 

I had to fish for the bigger glitter pieces in Gourd-geous. I did a better job distributing the glitter in Ghosted this time around. Squad Ghouls shines over black, looking like a night sky, with the speckles from the glow in the dark base making a sort of Milky Way effect behind the glitter. Witch Please (and I assume Purple Potion, too) shows up as a blue shimmer over the black.

 

In the dark, Gourd-geous glowed brighter than the others, as it was two coats to their one. So much glow that it lit up the skin on the finger next to it. (The blue glow on the right side is my knuckles catching the dim black light I failed to turn off in the room ... I took some other shots after I did but I liked the ghostly hand effect here.)

 

I applaud Sally Hansen for giving us a Halloween collection when so many brands have given up on that. I don't even mind the two re-releases because new folks come into the nail polish world all the time and they should have a chance to get classic shades they missed.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Halloween 2021

There was no question that I was going to buy the new Insta-Dri Sour Patch Kids shades that Sally Hansen released for Halloween this year. That was more challenging than it might have been, since I had to get them from three different sources. Left to right: Full Moon (never saw this in a store, got from the Target website), Slime All Yours (Walgreens exclusive), Oh My Gourd, and Hallo-Queen (these last two were more widely available; I think I got mine at Bed Bath & Beyond but might be remembering that wrong).

 

Full Moon, a blue base filled with tiny white glitter, looked to me like a combination of two shades from last year's Halloween collection, so I had to pull those out to compare. One my index finger (top): Boo-lue (from 2020) topped with First Sour Then Sweet (2020, rereleased this year). On my other digits, three coats of Full Moon. So obviously Full Moon isn't quite the same blue at Boo-lue, being a touch more turquoise. Full Moon is also more sheer to let the glitter show through. It also lets some visible nail line show; I think I might try Boo-lue (or another blue) as a base under two coats of Full Moon next time I wear it.

 

 

Slime All Yours is a green microflakie shimmer with pops of blue and lime as well as a scattering of tiny white hex glitter.

 

I wasn't sure how sheer Slime All Yours would be, so I hedged my bets by doing another layering experiment on my index finger. So on my index (top) I have Hallo-green (green creme from 2020) topped with one coat of Slime All Yours, then on my other fingers I have three coats of Slime All Yours.

 

 

 

 

Oh My Gourd is a glitter topper with hex glitter in pale yellow satin and white matter plus tiny pale yellow satin glitter in a clear base. Just looking at it in the bottle, it didn't say Halloween to me, more like Easter, so when I tried it, I first did orange creme tips with Pump-kid (from 2020, rereleased in 2021), then put on two coats of Oh My Gourd. The look has a sort of candy corn vibe.

 

 

Hallo-Queen is a another glitter topper. This one has large and medium satin hex glitter in pale orange, medium hex glitter in black, and square glitter in silver holo.

 

I put two coats of Hallo-Queen over R.I.P.-urple (from 2020, rereleased in 2021).

 

 

There were also two glow in the dark shades in this year's Halloween display that fooled me into thinking they were new, because their names weren't on my spreadsheet, but when I got them home, they looked suspiciously like two shades from last year. Left to right: Glowing Night (2020), Creep It Real (2021), Fa-BOO-lous (2021), Happy Hollow-een (2020).

 

On the nails, top to bottom (all three coats): Glowing Night, Creep It Real, Fa-BOO-lous, Happy Hollow-een. The 2021 version of the pink seems a bit more pigmented than the 2020 one but not dramatically so. The two margarita colored ones are indistinguishable from each other.

 

In the dark, all four glow evenly.

 

Slime All Yours is the standout for me in this group. I do like the two glitter toppers, too.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Fall 2019

I'm wrapping up my Halloween in July theme for this week with the Sally Hansen Insta Dri fall 2019 releases, including the four glow in the dark shades. Left to right below: Glowing Night, Happy Hollow-een, Boooo-tiful, Hallo-Green, Get the Gold, Leaf Lined Trail.



I started my swatching with Leaf Lined Trail, a soft orange with gold shimmer. I bought this because I want to support brands coming out with new colors at a time when many drugstore lines have backed away from polish and because I couldn't think of another shade like this in my stash (I mean, there might very well be one, given the size of my collection, but I couldn't think of it). This was plenty opaque in two coats. Sadly, the shimmer was way more shy on the nail than in the bottle, though it did show on the nail in my lightbox, I just had to look very closely.







I found it curious that the shimmer maintained its demure character even in the glare of direct light ... usually that helps subtle shimmer pop at least a bit. But Leaf Lined Trail kept itself to itself.



I passed on Get the Gold at first, since I know for sure I have other gold metallics and rarely wear those. Still, I grabbed it when I saw it on clearance because by that point, I'd bought the rest of the new colors and you know how I love to have complete sets. I was pleasantly surprised to find this particular gold is a one-coater; I know the Insta Dri line generally has good coverage (that's why they work well for stamping), but I almost always use two coats because I think it looks better. This time I did one and called it good.





Then it was time to get into the glow in the dark ones. I charged up the bottles under bright light for a few minutes then closeted myself in the dark bathroom for a group shot. Left to right: Glowing Night, Happy Hollow-een, Boooo-tiful, and Hallo-Green. Happy Hollow-een sure has the best glow, which makes sense since it's the one that has only the yellowish glow in the dark pigment in it, with no other tint or tone.



I expected Happy Hollow-een to be on the sheer side based on my experience with similar polishes, so used it over Get the Gold on most of my digits. Top to bottom below: 3 coats of Happy Hollow-een on its own, then 2 coats of it over Get the Gold on the remaining three fingers. It barely changes the gold, just makes it a little softer.



In the dark, the best glow came from the finger with only Happy Hollow-een on it, though the other three weren't too far behind (and those three definitely looked better in the light, which is how they'd be seen most often if I wore this as a full mani).



I took the same accent nail approach with Boooo-tiful (I keep wanted to make that only have three o's but it has four according to the bottle), though it wasn't as sheer as Happy Hollow-een owing to the orange pigment in it. Top to bottom: three coats of Boooo-tiful, then three fingers with two coats of Boooo-tiful over Leaf Lined Trail.



In the dark, this glowed quite nicely, more than I expected based on the bottle shot.



Glowing Night was up next, and it has a surprise: shimmer! That's unusual for a glow in the dark polish, at least in my collection.



I paired Glowing Night with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Flamin-go, a medium pink you can see on its own in my comparison post from last year. Top to bottom: three coats of Glowing Night alone, then two coats of it over Flamin-go. Unlike the first two glow in the dark shades, I would wear this one alone; something about the pink and the sparkle makes the sheerness work for me.



In the dark, the glow was again better than I expected based on the bottle shot; I thought I'd charged them all up equally for that, but perhaps they don't charge/discharge at the same rate so that accounts for the differences. When doing the swatches, I probably charged longer than I had for the bottles alone as I wanted to make sure they would last while I was snapping multiple photos.



Here's a better look at Glowing Night on the nail without the distraction of the bottle; you can definitely see where I didn't get all the pink creme covered in some places!



Hallo-green is the most pigmented of the glow in the dark ones, yet I still paired it with a complementary Insta Dri shade, Granny Smith Apple, which was on a recent nail wheel I posted. Index finger is three coats of Hallo-green and the other digits have one coat of Granny Smith Apple topped with one coat of Hallo-green.



And here's the dark shot, very glowy:



I'd wear the pink and green glow in the dark shades by themselves; the other two I'd rather use as toppers, though at only one or two coats, they give a sort of speckled look in the dark (I'm guessing because the glow in the dark pigment doesn't disperse fully so more coats are needed to fill in the gaps?).

Wheel D11: Black Light Polishes

Since I had the LA Colors Glows bottles out to swatch, and fifteen is almost enough for a full wheel, I went ahead and found some more black light polishes and painted one. Except I could only find four more, so filled it out with a glow in the dark one that was in the vicinity. That was not my best decision ever but I can give that polish another shot on a different wheel someday, surrounded by other glow in the dark shades.



Under black light:




1. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Energy (3 coats)
2. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Vapor (3)
3. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Gleaming (3)
4. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Luminous (3)
5. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Ionize (3)
6. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Radiation (3)
7. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Fluorescent (3)
8. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Lucent (2)
9. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Nuclear (2)
10. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Wave Length (2)
11. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Ultra Violet (3)
12. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Electric (3)
13. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Radio Active (2)
14. LA Colors Color Craze Glows Spectrum (2)
15. LA Colors Color Craze Glows X-Ray (2)
16. Salon Perfect Glow All Out (3) [yeah, I don't know what I was thinking putting this on here, but I guess I now know that black light does nothing for glow in the dark polishes]
17. NYC New York Color Demon Glow Top Coat (2 coats over white and black bases)
18. Ulta Color Enhancing Top Coat (2, over white and black bases)
19. Cabaret Black Light Magic (2, over white and black bases)
20. Claire's Black Light unlabled purple glitter (3) [should have put topcoat on this one as it's a bit bumpy without it; seems to have lost any black light glow it once had]


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:


11 through 15:



16 through 20:




















I didn't take detail pics under black light ... my last post has all the LA Colors shades that way, and I think the black light wheel shot shows the others well enough (especially if you click to see it full size).