Lightening In A Bottle

Neutral Nancys and Shrinking Violets need not apply for what I've got in store for you today.  It's a bold pop of color for the nails that proved to be quite a handful to say the least.  Yes, this one took some work... and patience, but I made it through the storm and came out on the other side with a review to share.  And if you have a few moments, I'd like to tell you about the lacquer I tried from Sally Hansen called Lightening.

Lightening is a bright canary yellow that hails from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri line of nail polishes - a line that boasts quick drying times as well as wide applicator brushes called (ironically) The Perfectionist Brush.  I say ironically because I had the hardest time controlling the distribution and flow of the color due to the broader brush, which left me with a far from perfect result.  The polish overall is a bit streaky, but then came the persistent pooling around my cuticles during the second and third coats that left my nails looking a gloppy mess!  Cleaning it up left huge smears on my cuticles and fingers.  It looked so bad, y'all - like a three-year-old painted my nails "bad".   So I took it all off and start again.  Again, a hot mess!  I almost gave up.  I mean, I'm used to being able to slap some color on my nails with very little need for clean up and that be that, but this polish was extorting a slower, more deliberate application from me.  Sadly, it took me three attempts to realize this (yes, THREE!) and the third time proved to be the charm (or at least the best I could do before calling it quits for good). 

Now, being true to their word, Insta-Dri polishes do dry quickly and I enjoyed the sweeping benefits of having the broader applicator in their Insta-Dri Clearly Quick top coat.  However, in Lightening, it proved to be a force to be reckoned with as far as application goes.  And while my final result was OK in that the more precise layering left cleaner detailing, I think I'd rather use it in a nail art design instead of an all-over color since I still had visible streakage amidst the fairly opaque four layers of polish on my tips. 

So, while Lightening really was as difficult as catching "lightning in a bottle" for me, it is a charge of yellow that I can work with.  It has a nice gloss to its finish, lasts a good amount of time on the nails (on me, a full week) and is DBP-, toluene- and formaldehyde-free.  And if my initial misfortunes didn't scare you away, you may want to check out a color or two from the line and see for yourself.

Sally Hansen Lightening is available at Target, WalMart and various drugstores, and retails for around $5.