New Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Shades for Fall 2012: Freeze!, In A Flurry and Purple Haste Swatches and Review

These new Sally Hansen fall Insta-Dri shades are gorgeous. I normally tend to avoid the Insta-Dri line because I can't stand the brush (or the elongated bottle neck, or the gooey formula...), but there have been some exceptions, like these. I had to get them, giant frayed spatula brush be damned. The rest of the collection seemed pretty decent, but these are definitely the most interesting of the bunch.


Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Dry Nail Color in Freeze!. This is a medium blue with heavy glass fleck. I was a little bit disappointed when I put this on because in the bottle, it looked like glitter. When I started to put it on my nails, it turned out to be more of a glass fleck, but that's okay, because I love glass flecks. This one is very densely packed with glass fleck particles, so it's quite strong and sparkly looking. One thing to be aware of, though: It stains. Badly. Instantly. Be prepared for Smurf fingers.


Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Dry Nail Color in In A Flurry. This is the coolest Insta-Dri color I've ever seen. It's a black or blackened-teal base with all kinds of chunky, flaky duochrome shimmer. Plus, hidden in the base beneath all those big flakes of duochrome sparkle is a deep purple shimmer that only comes out when the light hits it just right. When I wear this I can see flashes of yellow, gold, green, dark blue and light blue, teal, silver, purple, and on top of all of that is a green/gold/blue duochrome sheen. Amazing color. Good job, Sally Hansen.


Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Dry Nail Color in Purple Haste. This is just your average medium/dark purple shimmer, but what sets it apart from others is the bright blue microglitter that's in it. It's very small and smooth but there's a good amount of it in there. My pictures don't do this polish justice, but I think you should be able to see some of the blue glitter. It's really nice.

The formula on these was.... eh. Freeze! had the best texture, mostly normal and not too thick. In A Flurry was slightly thicker but a little runny at the same time. Purple Haste was thick, sorta foamy-stringy-globby and just not nice at all to apply. The brush doesn't help things, either. I have an extremely difficult time getting a clean manicure with this brush. It's too big, too unevenly cut, too stiff. It wipes off the polish at the center of your nail and globs it on at the edges. I have really curved nails so this effect is even more pronounced on me. Drying time is about average. I don't find these to dry faster than any other polish, and even slower than some.

These colors are all pretty cool, but my favorite by far is In A Flurry. I can put up with the brush and the funny formula for a color like that. It's amazing.