Sally Hansen Sugar Coat: Royal Icing

Just a quick post today- we have sunshine again (hurrah!) so I took some pictures of my sparkly mani to share!

Last night I put on one of my Sally Hansen Sugar Coats I recently bought, Royal Icing.  I also grabbed Pink Sprinkles (first, the name, second, it has flakes and is pink- so naturally it was calling to me).  I think I’m on the fence about the textured nail polish trend- some I love, some I hate.  I usually am not a big fan of the more ‘matte’ finishes- the Milani ones, China Glaze, original Sally Hansen Sugar Coats.  I adore the Julie G Gumdrops and Zoya Pixie Dusts, and really like the look of the Nails Inc Leather/Demin Effects.

So yeah, rambling aside- when I saw pictures of the newest Sugar Coats, I knew I’d have to grab the sparkly ones.  Royal Icing is like Sinful Colors Cinderella with texture- a pretty baby blue with a strong pink/gold shimmer.

This is SUCH a pretty polish.  I really tried to get good pictures of the shimmer, but failed.  The shine you see inside the bottle  is what I see on the nail even inside my house.  Strong gold-pink shimmer, pretty blue base.  I had heard that this was a sheer polish, so  I used 1 coat of Cult Nails Tempest and layered over that.

And now for the bad.  For as pretty as this polish is, it was a huge pain the butt.  I ended up using 4 coats over the white base- 4!  I know people needed 3-4 without a base, so my advice would be to use a base coat that’s very similar to the blue in Royal Icing.  I had issues with white peeking through and uneven spots, which is why I needed so many layers.  After it’s dried there’s been some shrinkage, so now I have white nail tips (which aren’t really visible in the pictures, but it’s there).

The dry time on this polish is RIDICULOUS.  I know textured polishes tend to take a long time to dry- I expect that.  I’m guessing it’s because of how many layers are needed, but getting dressed for bed last night put multiple dents in my polish- 3.5 hours after I painted them.  Right now, 16 hours after painting, I can still stick another nail into the polish and leave an indentation, though they are pretty dry otherwise.

So overall- I’m still glad I bought this polish, because it’s very stunning in person.  I just need to figure out a better way to wear it, because I don’t plan on repeating this process!  Maybe 1-2 coats over 365 Days  of Color’s Bora Bora or Girly Bits Arctic Sunrise?  🙂

I found the new Sally Hansen Sugar Coat polishes recently at Walgreens, but they’ve been popping up at most places you find Sally Hansen.   I just saw via Nouveau Cheap that all the Sally Hansen Sugar Coats are on clearance at Target- which is great, because I paid around $6 each!  At my Target, they did not have Royal Icing on their display, and didn’t have a spot for it- but all stores are different.

What are your thoughts on the texture polishes, and which are your favorites?