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Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Jun 23, 2015
Category: Beauty/Vanity

Summer.

A season of rituals.

For some, cookouts at the lake, cocktails on the pontoon boat, spirited games of beach volleyball.

In our neighborhood, women hauling lawn chairs onto the sidewalk and chatting in the relative cool of the evening, men playing dominoes on boxes, spray tops on fire hydrants.

In our apartment: the appearance of Sally Hansen products.

In our old neighborhood, where almost everyone was white, Sally Hansen was like Advil — a necessity. In this neighborhood, the checkout person at Rite Aid puts a tube of Pink Shortcuts Gel’N (“Style It! Shine It! Wave It”) for Sassy Styles in my wife’s bag, unconcerned that my wife is a paleface of Finnish descent and the woman on the tube looks like Aretha Franklin’s younger sister. In South Harlem, why not? Diversity R Us.

In our apartment, diversity has a special meaning — which Sally Hansen product to color the legs is right for the day.

For women who don’t flee to beach resorts and like to shed pantyhose in the summer, let me sing the praises — okay, my wife’s praises — of this product. A woman applies Sally to her legs and is rewarded with instant color. Broken veins and imperfections? Covered. Banished, really, for the work day and beyond. And the color suggests vigorous weekend tennis — not chemicals.

There’s the classic: Sally Hansen Airbrush Leg Spray. There’s one negative: Every once in a while, it seems, the nozzles of the spray cans clog — permanently.

There’s the less messy update that tans without spray. No muss, no fuss: Sally Hansen Leg Cream.

Sally Hansen makes several shades of cream:

Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Light Glow.

Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Airbrush Legs, Deep Glow for Tan to Deep Skin Tones.

And shimmer lotion, which you add at the end, to give legs a higher profile.

These lotions are water-resistant. They contain Vitamin K, which is said to help reduce spider veins and other imperfections while the lotion is working as a cover-up — honk if you believe that. Still, it’s nice to know that Sally cares about beauty that’s more than skin deep.