A couple weeks ago I broke down and bought one of the new Sally Hansen Salon Insta Gel Strips Starter Kits ($26). I bought my set at Target where they had two shades available, Shell We Dance and Red My Lips. I chose to test out the Shell We Dance because the sealed box showed it as a light pink shade which I preferred over the red.
Unfortunately Shell We Dance is not an opaque light pink shade like I thought it would be. And I couldn’t tell that until I peeled my first strip off the paper backing so I was kinda stuck with them. Once applied to my nails they are a very sheer, milky pink and you can clearly see the white tips of my natural nails peeking through.
Application of the salon insta gel strips is fairly easy. If you’ve ever used the regular Sally Hansen nail strips before, these apply exactly like those. The only difference is that you apply a coat of the included gel top coat over top of the strips and then cure it in the mini LED lamp, also included in the starter kit.
I followed every step in the included instructions and found these to be a breeze to use. What I was left with was basically a milky pink french manicure look that was really shiny. The box claims “up to 2 weeks of wear, chip resistant and mirror shine” so I tested them for the entire two weeks before writing my review.
I was very impressed with the shine on my nails. Usually I have to reapply a clear top coat after a few days with regular nail polish as it dulls over time. These gel nail strips stayed nice and shiny and I did not need to reapply a top coat in the full 2 weeks time.
Unfortunately the strips themselves did not do so well after the 1 week mark. At about the 8th day, the gel strips started to lift off of my nails around the sides and tips. They started to catch on everything and peel even further. Needless to say my manicure did not look so hot when the 2 weeks was up.
Overall my experience was so, so with these. I liked the ease of application and shiny appearance but wear time wasn’t that great for me. I always get 1 week of wear with regular nail polish so this didn’t extend the time between nail polish changes for me personally so I can’t see the benefit to frequently using them.
Since I do have the LED lamp now and some gel top coat leftover, I’ll probably occasionally buy these strips maybe for special occasions. I’ve seen that they have many more colors and designs to choose from when buying just the gel strips themselves. Have you tried the Sally Hansen Salon Insta Gel Strips yet?
Available online at Ulta, Target, and Walmart.
Thank you for your review. I had the same problems you did. I was wondering – can the min LED Light be used with gel nail polish instead of the strips?
I’ve been wondering the same thing! I don’t see why you can’t use it for just the polish. The only thing I’ve seen is that most gel polishes call for longer time under the light which may be a pain to do one finger at a time. But once I find a gel polish I like, I’m going to give it a try.