We’re just a couple weeks away from the official start of fall and as much as I love summer weather I feel like we’ve been gypped with all the rain and cool temps. At this point, I’m over it and ready for boots, sweaters and jewel-toned nails. Enter, the Sally Hansen Fall 2013 Insta-Dri nail polish shades.

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At first glance I wasn’t sure what to expect from these colors. Some of them appear rather frosty in the bottle but, as evidenced below, their looks are quite deceptive. I’m pleasantly surprised by the nail juice inside and I think you will be too.



Formula & Application: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail polish is 5-Free (Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor). It comes in a tall, tapered, triangular-shaped bottle topped with a plastic, slightly curved cap. Due to the height of the bottle, the flat brush stem is very long and can collect a LOT of polish so make sure to wipe it well.

The flat, curved brush is similar to the one found in the Complete Salon Manicure line. It’s wide but firm so it doesn’t spread out much which is good for more narrow nails. Though it can still be too wide for petite hands and tends to have a lot of inconsistency in cut so you don’t always get a perfect curve along the cuticle. This is a very polarizing brush. When it’s cut well, I love it. When it’s misshapen, it gives me agita.

All of these polishes have a nice, smooth flow and great pigmentation. Though they’re not quite one coat coverage. I used two coats with all of the shades, except Chop Chop Copper. It needed three coats. Also, the point of Insta-Dri is that you can apply it, with no base or top coat, and run out the door BUT a couple of the shades dried a bit flat and benefited from a layer of top coat. I swatched all the shades with top coat.

Sally Hansen Chop Chop Copper is a bronze-y copper foil sprinkled with pink micro-glitter. This one is a bit sheer and doesn’t quite deliver on the color punch and depth the bottle promises.

Sally Hansen Jet Set Jade is a stunning blue-green smooth shimmer. It even has a bit of duo-chrome to it so from certain angles a flash of indigo appears. If you remember the old Insta-Dri shade Jumpin Jade, this is a bit more muted and blue in tone.

Sally Hansen No S-pear Time is an olive green foil-esque shimmer. The bottle color really doesn’t do this color justice. The silvery foil flecks mask the richness of the shade.

Sally Hansen Pink Fast is a hot fuchsia smooth foil glitter. Like No S-pear Time it has a lot of silvery foil in it that add to its metallic appearance yet they don’t subdue the overall hue.

Sally Hansen Quick Jeanius is an explosion of indigo gorgeousness on the nail. It delicately walks the line between blue and purple and the silvery shimmer you see in the bottle melts into the background, amping up the sparkle factor.

Sally Hansen Red-io Active is a lit-from-within cherry red shimmer. When it first goes on the nail it looks like it’s going to be brush stroke madness but, once dry, it’s just a vivid, pearly shimmer.

Bottom Line: In spite of the issues the long stem on the Insta-Dri brush poses, these colors are too beautiful to be overlooked. Jet Set Jade and Quick Jeanius are obviously my faves but No S-pear Time isn’t far behind. And even though I’m not normally into reds, seeing the boyfriend’s eyes light up over Red-io Active makes it hard for me to pass it off. Chop Chop Copper’s lack of opacity and pigment payoff earn it a thumbs down from me and as pretty as Pink Fast is, it’s not flattering on me.

The new Sally Hansen Insta-Dri shades for Fall 2013 are available now, in limited release, at drugstores and mass retailers nationwide. There are two additional shades I didn’t receive, Style Steel (rose gold) and Current Trend (purple shimmer). They retail for $4.99/ea for a .31oz bottle.

These colors are featured in a display as part of a collaboration between Sally Hansen & Rent The Runway, including a giveaway for a year’s supply of Sally Hansen nail polish and $1000 RTR gift card. Visit Facebook.com/SallyHansen to enter.

What do you think of these new Insta-Dri colors? Which ones do you plan to pick up? Are you an Insta-Dri fan? Will these new shades change your opinion of the line?

Disclosure: Product samples were provided by reps for Sally Hansen. Affiliate links appear via skimlinks. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.