Sally Hansen Rose Copper

The gem out of OPI's recent Gwen Stefani collection was the mirror-bright silver chrome.  Apparently remembering they used to do that pretty well, Sally Hansen has put out a 10-polish Color Foil collection (that are all chromes, not flakie foils).  I only felt the need for two of them, Sterling Silver and Rose Copper.

outdoor, direct sunlight

Rose Copper reads in all of these pics as somewhat lighter and more silvery than it was IRL - it's exactly the color of rose gold, so if you're into that trend, start hunting for this in the stores right now.

Unlike their OPI counterpart, these SH chromes don't need any special base coat.  In fact, the instructions on the bottle say to specifically not use any base coat at all.  Having learned several key and important tips from ye old internets, here's how to best use these guys:

1. Shake them up like crazy just prior to painting.  The components tend to separate out over time, and must be thoroughly re-mixed, or these will go on streaky as anything.
2. Attempting to use a standard base coat results in streaking and balding.  No bueno at all.
3. Like any mirror-finish, these will show every ridge and imperfection on your nails.  
4. When you combine item 2 and 3 - major problem for those of us that fix any imperfections with a ridge filler.  The answer is to use these over old manis: anything that has 100% dried and cured onto the nail will be a fine surface to lay these on top of.  Paint your regular base & top coats the night before if you want to start fresh, then add 2 coats of this the next day.
5. Don't top coat.  That will strip this stuff off in chunks.  Also No bueno.
6. Finally, don't worry too much about perfection - slap these on quickly, don't brush back over the same area twice, let each coat totally dry before the next, and thickness of the coats is totally unimportant.  These are perfectly self-leveling and dry very quickly.

you have to get to a macro pic to see any suggestion of brush strokes.  IRL, this was nearly perfect mirror shiny.

The edgewear you can see in some of the pics is all due to the slightly worn tips from my previous Orly Fantasea manicure.  Rose Copper wore great on me, with no chipping or major flaws after 2 days despite the lack of adhesive base coat or protective top coat.

I loved having android hands from the future.

To give you an idea of how not actually silver Rose Copper was, here's my middle finger done in Sterling Silver, a true neutral silver color.

indoor CFLs

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  Just gorgeous, well worth the little tricks to make it look its best.

Where to buy:  SH is carried by most drug stores (Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc), but if the concept of robot nails strikes your fancy, go look for them now - these are supposedly LE.

~Michelle