Cover Band Sticks and Stones Comparison to Candeo Colors Sprouse and Lush Lacquer Salt N Peppa

On Saturday I put a coat of Cover Band's Sticks 'n Stones as an accent on each ring finger nail on top of the Revlon Top Speed Chili that I had been wearing for a week.  On Sunday, before removing the polish, I added Candeo Colors' Sprouse to two different fingernails and Lush Lacquer's Salt N Peppa to another fingernail to compare them to Sticks and Stones.

Sticks 'n Stones is a copy (of sorts) of Lynnderella's Connect the Dots.  Sticks 'n Stones comes in a clear base, which I like.  It doesn't affect the underlying color, and the pattern comes across as very crisp.  The matte glitter is larger in Sticks 'n Stones than in the other two polishes.  Lush Lacquer's Salt N Peppa has a lot of colorful holo glitter large enough to show through and obscure the base color.  Sprouse has very tiny holo glitter that shimmers a little, and it has larger blue glitter.

I didn't have a problem with application, and the glitters dried relatively flat and were even smoother after a coat of Seche Vite.  I didn't have to fish for glitters.

My husband's favorite was the Salt N Peppa because it didn't "have all those 80's" bars and hexes.  My favorites were the other two, of course, *because* they have all those 80s-look bars and hexes.  In terms of getting the look of paint splatters that I like, I think the Sticks 'n Stones does it best with a little more white to it.  I do like the little blue hexes in Sprouse, though.

In each of the pictures below, I have base coat, three coats of Chili, a coat of Seche Vite, about four coats of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, a coat of each of the glitter top coats, and a coat of Seche Vite, and I had been wearing Chili for a week with no chips and just a little tip wear and shrinkage (from the original Seche Vite but not so much shrinkage from the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat).

Outdoors in the sunlight (holding my husband's phone)

Top to bottom:  Sprouse, Salt N Peppa, Sticks and Stones, Sprouse.
I asked my husband if he could tell which two were the same, and he figured it out!

Top to bottom:  Sticks and Stones, Salt N Peppa, Sprouse.

Sprouse, Sticks 'N Stones, Salt N Peppa

Sprouse, Sticks 'N Stones, Salt N Peppa

In these last few pictures, you can see that the glitter lies flat.  There's a little piece of black bar glitter on one nail that was outside the polish area (near my cuticle, ring finger, last finger on the right in the photos), and I clipped it off easily later on.

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Revlon TopSpeed Chili

I painted my nails with Revlon TopSpeed Chili, a red polish with a little orange to it.  The shade is similar to Hits Hula that I love so much (but without flakies and a smidgen more opaque), and it reminds me of Revlon's Dragon Lady Red from 20 years ago (or 25 years ago) that I loved so much (but less opaque than DLR).  I like the color so much that I think I'll need a backup bottle.

The formula is O.K. to good.  It's the color that really gets me.  The polish applied well and while it dried quickly, I did have a chance to go over some strokes quickly if I wanted.

I had visible nail line with two coats, but when I swatched the color on my nail wheel, it looked darker than the bottle color at three coats, so I hesitated to do a third coat on my nails.  I called my husband in for an opinion.  He said my nail polish on my nail bed was the color of the bottle, but the color on the tips of my nails was lighter.  I went ahead and did a third coat, and I still have visible nail line in most lighting.  I don't care.  I love the color that much.

It's a regular Revlon thin brush, and the polish is the perfect consistency, not too thin or too thick.  It doesn't flood my cuticles, but it does take a little extra cleanup effort because the red bleeds all over when it comes in contact with acetone.

My little girl doggie punctured the polish on one nail with one of her own nails as I was going to sleep after doing my manicure.  I got up and fixed the one nail, patching the little hole with a little extra polish and then smoothing things out with Orly's Smudge Fixer and then adding another coat of Seche Vite and trying to fall asleep with my hand out of the way just in case.  ;-)

Seche Vite caused minor shrinkage.  I also used the polish for my toes.  That's the first time in I don't remember how long that I've used the same polish for my toenails and fingernails *and* not had any special effect in or over the polish.

Today is day three, and so far no chipping, and the manicure looks gorgeous.

Here are some pictures:

Direct morning sunlight.  Camera freaks out when bright light hits the polish!  Love that orange flash, though.

Indirect morning sunlight.  Fairly accurate as to color.

The sunlight x-raying my nails.  ;-)

Indoors.  Office lighting.  Fairly accurate as to color.

You can see the orange-like tinge of color starting when bright sunlight hits the polish.  Also, on my pinkie, you can almost see how curved my nails are; they're like tubing cut in half lengthwise.

Indirect afternoon sunlight.  When I put my nails up against my suit pants, I finally got a color-accurate picture.  Once the camera focused on the color of the suit pants, it got in proper focus to capture the color of the polish accurately.

You can see the beginning of the orange flash effect (near my cuticles) when bright sunlight hits the polish.

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