Sally Hansen Miracle Gel

Like many of you I'm sure, I absolutely adore having my nails professionally done. I also love the finish and hassle-free longevity of gel manicures, but realistically I rarely have the time to take a few hours out of my day to treat myself to getting them done, it can also be a seriously expensive habit and let's face it, if you need to take them off in a hurry, it's a total nightmare!

Being a blogger, I'm also constantly trying out new formulas and colours, and a lot of the time having gel on my nails just isn't practical for work either. If I need to try out a new shade, or change my nail colour for a shoot, gels just end up being a bit of a nuisance. Therefore, with the exception of holidays, I tend to reach for gel-effect nail polish most of the time and over the past few years I've tried and tested most on the market. Sally Hansen has always been my go-to brand for nail-strengthening treatments top coats so when they asked me to test out their range of Miracle Gel polishes, I naturally had very high hopes for them...
They have a patented natural light curing system that claims to give comparable colour, volume and quality to gel nails whilst also lasting much longer on your nails than normal polish. I've been testing out the range over the past few weeks and I've been really impressed.

The shade range is massive, with over 45 colours, so it wasn't hard to find shades I loved. I was especially happy to see they do a beautiful cornflower blue (called Sugar Fix), one of my absolute favourite colours for spring and summer (and one that seems to be everywhere in the shops at the moment too!) I think it's just a really clean, flattering shade which is sometimes hard to find with blues. They also do a brilliant shade of red that has just a slight hint of pinkness to it that I love (called Red Eye) This is the shade I'm wearing in the pictures.

The polish works as a two step system: you apply two layers of your colour, followed by a thick layer of the top coat to seal it in and add volume. The first thing that struck me when I first used these were the brushes. Both the colour and the topcoat have those wide, rounded brushes that make applying the polish exceptionally quick and it makes it easier to get a neat line at the base of the nails too. The colour formulas are rich and opaque, two coats being more than enough to give you an even finish. The top coat then adds the volume to the nail that really makes it look like a gel manicure. It actually doubles the volume of the polish, and leaves it with a shiny, plump finish that looks almost identical to real gel, but is as easy to remove as normal nail polish.

When it comes to the all-important staying power, the polishes definitely don't last quite as long as traditional gel on my nails (which usually last 2-3 weeks depending on how well it's been applied) but they do last significantly longer than normal nail polish, easily lasting a week on my nails chip-free. They do claim to last up to 14 days and I think if I was more careful with my nails (I'm terrible at chipping them!) then this would be realistic.

You can purchase the colours and top coat separately and they retail for £9.99 each, although they are currently on offer in Boots (online here) for £7.99 each. They also have a duo pack with the pink shown above and the topcoat on offer for £12.99 at the moment.

Have any of you tried this range before? Do you prefer polish or gel, I'd love to know!

*This post is sponsored by Sally Hansen. All thoughts and opinions remain my own. I never work with brands I don't genuinely use and products that I love.