Sally Hansen Denim

Not too long ago, Suzy was wearing a truly amazing blue in a pic she sent, and I immediately jumped on ebay to grab a bottle or two.

indoor, CF lighting

Sally Hansen released Denim along with a dozen or so other Insta-dri colors in a tie-in with Crayola.  It's a deeply saturated, true cobalt blue that's fully opaque in one easy coat.

outdoor, shady & overcast light

There's a whole rabid fan base around a different Sally Hansen blue crème, Pacific Blue, supposed to be a smooth one-coater with a drop-dead perfect formula, much mourned when SH felt the need to change to a totally different polish with the same name a handful of years ago.  As far as I can tell, Denim is just a tiny touch darker than Pacific Blue, so this may scratch that itch if you don't want to pay crazy HTF prices for the original.  The other blue in the Crayola collection, Cerulean, appears to be a touch lighter than Pacific Blue, and I'm trying to convince myself I don't need both. 

outdoor, bright sunlight

SH is currently packaging the Insta-dri line with wide, flat brushes of the sort I loathe - I have to turn the brush on its side after wiping it down in attempt to paint my pinky nail without painting my whole pinky - but the formula works great with that brush.  Wipe off the wand very well and watch for drips running down to the brush, but you really are good to go in one coat.  Despite the name telling you this will dry instantly, it gave me no grief when I worked over the same patch with a couple of swipes to ensure good coverage. 

outdoor, bright afternoon sunlight

In some of the macro pics, I can see a little bit of texture imperfection that was absolutely not there IRL.  This is smooth, vibrant, and ideal as a base for nail art.

indoor, CF lighting

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  Denim does just what it says - dries quickly, coats creamily, is BLUE AF.  As with many one-coater formulas, this wears a little more quickly than I'd like, but the trade off is that this beauty stamps pretty great, too.  The small-ish bottle size (this cute little triangle bottle is a mere 9ml, and I do have a little fill line after this mani) means I snagged a back-up while I was buying.

Where to buy:  the Crayola polishes were LE, but sold at most drugstores.  Keep an eye out for one tucked in the back of a shelf, or grab what you like on Amazon or ebay.

~Michelle