More drugstore awesomeness: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

This time I have something from the drugstore that isn't discontinued or limited edition or hard to find... In fact, it's brand new and I've seen it at every store I've been to in the last month.

Sally Hansen has a new line of "Insta-Dri" (why did they spell it like that? Weird.) shades that come in ugly bottles and are supposed to be super-quick-dry. There are a bunch of shades- a blue or two, a red/orange, a plum - but only two of them really caught my eye.




Lightening. Their spelling, not mine! This is a creamy yellow. Not neon and not too muted. Not as bright as a lot of other yellows. It's streaky like all yellow polishes are, but doing three coats eliminates the streaks and unevenness.




Jumpin' Jade. A shimmery blue-tinged green. Really pretty! It's not as green as I would like it to be, but it's still beautiful.

The colors are great. There are, however, a couple of weird things about these polishes!

For one, the bottles are a really weird shape. They're long and almost triangular, and I think they're pretty ugly.

What's weirder than the shape of the bottle is the shape of the brush. It's a huge, wide, flat and slightly curved monster of a brush. It's really... unique? It's gigantic! One of the strangest looking brushes I've seen. I have heard a lot of complaints about the brush in these, but I actually like it. The size and shape of the brush is intended to give you one-stroke coverage on all of your nails, resulting in a very fast manicure. This is the case for me- while the brush is a little too wide for a couple of my nails, it gives me perfect coverage with one brushstroke. Similar to OPI's Pro-Wide brush, but, uh, wider. And flatter.

The formula is a little three-freeish for me. It's thick but runny. The polish really does dry super fast, so that's a bonus. I did three coats of the yellow, no topcoat and it was dry in ten minutes. Two coats of Jumpin' Jade was dry in around five. That's without my usual coat of Seche Vite! Pretty cool.

I think these are on the pricier end of drugstore polishes. These are around $5, though they seem to go on sale often. Usually when I buy drugstore polishes, I expect them to be under $3, so sometimes it's a shock to see them cost upwards of $5 each. To put it in perspective, you can get OPIs, Essies, China Glaze, Orly, et cetera online for $2.60-$4.75 each. It also seems that the prices on drugstore polishes are steadily rising.

Overall, I love the gigantic brush and the quick-dry nature of these polishes. I like that I was able to go to a grocery store and get green and yellow polishes. I don't like the bottle shape, but that hardly matters...