Hey lovelies,
Today I have the Sally Hansen 18K Gold nail care system to share with you! It’s made of a cuticle care pen and a nail strengthener.
The base coat claims to fortify nails with a combination of 18K gold, peptides, and amino acids – pretty bold claims, if you ask me! In my opinion, peptides and amino acids are wasted in hair and nail products – both are dead and gain no benefit from ‘actives’ like this. I did a little Google-fu and it turns out that the gold-coloured flakies in the product aren’t the 18K gold – instead, it’s present in the formula as colloidal gold.
As a base coat, it was probably a good thing that the flakies themselves aren’t gold – they lay close to the nail and don’t create any bumps or ridges when nail polish is applied over the top. By itself, the strengthener is very subtle – you can hardly see the flakes. The cap also pops off to reveal a much more ergonomic lid to hold when applying the product.
I found that this works really well as a base coat – I experienced hardly any chips until I took my polish off (which would be 3-5 days later, depending on my mood!). Unfortunately, I can’t comment on its strengthening abilities. My nails are already quite strong from a combination of Duri Rejuvacote and frequent cuticle oil use.
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| With one coat of 18K Strengthener. |
I found the cuticle eraser to be slightly gimmicky. It comes in a small tube with a twist off cap, which has a small scrubber at the end with which you can rub the product into your cuticles. The product itself is very florally scented, and full of small, sparkly scrubbing particles to exfoliate your cuticles away with.
I found the applicator a little difficult to work with, and think it would have been better as a brush tip to apply to such a small area. I also realised that it was pretty easy to go overboard with the scrubber, so I definitely recommend that you use it carefully!
Something important to note is that this does need to be washed from your hands before you apply nail polish, or else it will turn into a dry white residue on your fingers.
Have you tried the Sally Hansen 18K system? What did you think?
Lexie xx
Products in this post were provided to me for review. All opinions are my own.
