Polish Review ~ Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale

I first saw this polish featured on a nail polish board from a fellow polish diva and friend of mine who used this glitter alone over bare nails but in several coats so it was a solid sheen of mermaid scales. It snagged my attention, and I liked it so much when I found it at Walmart, I bought two extra to give as gifts.

Photo courtesy of superdrug.com

Appearance

This is a gorgeous hex glitter suspended in a clear jelly. The glitter pieces are dark blue (the color of the Pacific Ocean) and dark green (the color of a lagoon). The colors used and the size of the glitter pieces give the clear appearance of vivid blue and green "scales". Originally when I bought it, I intended on layering it over black polish, but ended up layering it over butter London Royal Navy instead. The blue was a better choice than the black (although black always seems to be a great base for glitter), and I can't wait to try this next time over dark green to see if it accented the "scales" as well as the blue did. The glitter is the most stunning in the sunlight, but due to the size of the glitter, it really catches any light source wherever you are and whatever the time of day.

Application

The end result is well-worth it, because it is on the difficult side of the spectrum of glitters as far as ease of application. The formula is very goopy to work with, it did not dry smooth and even, and in order to achieve an even uniform spread of glitter, two coats was needed. The brush is very wide and curved at the bottom "for the perfect manicure". This is good as I hardly got any polish on my skin, but not good because I have narrow nails. With the difficult formula, it was a little hard to manage. The next time I use this, I may try using an nail art brush to spread it or my Julep Plie wand and see if that helps.

Durability

I am not sure if it was the glitter or the navy panties, but after two days of having the glitter on, my nails started showing significant tip wear, polish shrinkage at my cuticle line, and lots of the glitter pieces started peeling up even though I applied a hearty layer of HK Girl to smooth down the uneven application of the glitter suspension.

Removal

If you read my review on butter London Royal Navy, you already know that by the time I got to the removal stage on this manicure I was dealing with a large number of coats on my nails...ten to be exact. I started with a base of Quimica Alemana, applied two coats of Royal Navy, one coat of HK Girl, two coats of Orly Matte Top, another coat of Royal Navy, two coats of glitter, and one final coat of HK Girl. I fully expected a fight and pulled out the big guns, which is my Dip-It tub of our acetone with an internal plastic scrub brush. After soaking and working on them, I realized a few things...first, the glitter wasn't coming off without a fight. Second, when poked and prodded at with my finger nail edge, the glitter pieces dissolved into a teal green paste that ran all over my fingernails, fingers, and into my cuticle crevice, dripped onto my Dip-It container, and turned the acetone in my Dip-It a murky teal green and won't remove anything on my nails now without turning my nails green. To finish removing the ten-layer mermaid cake, I scrubbed my hands with dish soap, used cotton balls and acetone remover to take off the rest of the teal stain, and then thoroughly smoothed, buffed, and filed my nails with a cuticle trim to get my nails mani-ready. Ay carumba. However, the beauty of this glitter is such that it is worth it. I own two others in this line, and one is a glitter. It'll be interesting to see if the others give me the same difficulty.

This polish is part of the Complete Salon Manicure line by Sally Hansen, so pretty much anywhere Sally Hansen is sold, you will find this...Walmart, ULTA, Target, CVS, etc. It retails for $7.99 at ULTA, and that is the same price I bought it at Walmart for, but you can also buy it at Walmart for $6.48 online.

Everything mentioned on this page is featured on our Pinterest board, which includes the Julep Plie Wand, the Quimica Alemana, the HK Girl top coat, butter London Royal Navy, the Dip-It nail polish remover from Target, cotton balls, acetone remover, the four-way buffer block, and Orly Matte Top Coat.