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.

Thank you for reading my blog!

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.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Revlon Whimsical

I finally wore Revlon Whimsical!  I won this polish in the first giveaway I ever won, on Jamie's Nails Adored blog, in February of this year.  I remember it had to have been February because I had a really bad cold that kept me home from work almost a week, but while I was coming down with the cold, I went all over town looking for the polishes from the giveaway, including Whimsical, because I was sure that I wouldn't win the giveaway.  I couldn't find Whimsical and was getting very sick, so I just ordered it online from the Ulta website.  Then I found out that I won the giveaway!  The first and only giveaway I've won so far.

Whimsical has a pale blue base with rose gold and blue hex glitter and smaller blue glitter.

I looked in my nail polish stash for a polish to wear under Whimsical.  You can wear Whimsical by itself, but it's sheer, and to build up the base color to the grayish blue in the bottle would take so many coats that the glitter would be really packed on my nails.  I prefer a little less glitter.  So, I used Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth (discontinued) as my base coat, and then I added two coats of an Icing polish that didn't have a name when I bought it.  I bought it early this year during a clearance sale after the holidays.  It was in a four-pack of blue shimmer polishes in different shades.  This one that I used was the second lightest in the package.

Here is a picture of the Icing shimmer polish, without clean-up because I took the picture as I was doing my manicure, and I wasn't going to wear the Icing polish as a manicure but as a base for Whimsical.

without flash

with flash

The blue shimmer in this Icing polish is like glitter crushed to a powder, and it flashes in the same color as the blue glitter in Whimsical.  I watermarked the two pictures above using an iPhone app, so after editing it was saved at less than half the original file size, so the resolution is lower, and it's not as sharp.  You can still click on it to make it larger and see more detail, though.  The rest of the pictures in this post were edited on my desktop computer using Paint.NET (a free program), and they were not made blurry by editing.

Below is a picture showing the bottle of Icing polish, and there are two coats of the polish on my fingernails (no cleanup, manicure in progress).

Here is a picture with the two coats of the Icing polish but holding the bottle of Revlon Whimsical so you can compare the two shades of blue.  They're very close!

The Revlon Whimsical polish had a very good formula.  It was very easy to apply, and cleanup was minimal and easy.  I didn't have any staining.  The polish dries shiny.  The Revlon brush is thin and long, which I like. The wear time was good.  I am still wearing the polish today, so I have had it on for 8 days.  I'm taking it off tonight to do a new manicure.  There was very little shrinkage from the Seche Vite I used on top of Whimsical, but there was significant shrinkage from the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat that I add every morning.  The manicure did not chip, though.  It's a very pretty and delicate manicure.  I really liked looking at it throughout the week and did not get tired of wearing it.  It would be a very nice color for a manicure to wear to a baby shower.

In the picture below, I have the Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth (discontinued), two coats of the Icing polish, and a coat of Whimsical (no clean-up yet, manicure in progress):

In the picture below, I have a second coat of Whimsical (still no cleanup, no top coat yet, manicure in progress):

The pictures below were taken a day later:

Under office lighting.

Indoors, with flash.

Indirect sunlight.

Sunlight.  I promise I don't take pictures while driving!  I take pictures while parked or at red lights.

Sunlight.

And, in the picture below, you can see swatches of Revlon Whimsical and of Nostalgic Lacquer Duckie:

#12 on the left is Nostalgic Lacquer Duckie, and #16 on the right is Revlon Whimsical.
#17 on the right is Sinful Colors Cinderella.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Big Lots Nail Polish Purchases

Sorry that I've been absent for a few days.  I had a stomach bug this week, and I missed some time at work, and I wasn't up to blogging.  I'm even behind on reading blogs.  I need about two hours of solid reading to catch up with the over 200 blog posts waiting to be read on my blog reader.

But, back to nail polish.  I went to Big Lots last weekend because I learned they had two-packs of Revlon polish for $2, so $1 per bottle.  Also, the blog post I read where I learned about the Big Lots sale showed a polish, Orange Fizz, that I just *had* to get.  I love orange polish, and Orange Fizz is a dark orange polish filled with shimmer.  The shimmer actually does make it look a little like "fizzy pop" (what I call soda).

Here is a photo of the rainbow created by the four two-packs that I bought:

From top to bottom:  Electric Pink, Tangerine, Orange Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit, and Coconut Crush.

From top to bottom:  Electric Pink, Tangerine, Orange Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit, and Coconut Crush.

From top to bottom:  Electric Pink, Tangerine, Orange Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit, and Coconut Crush.

You can see the pretty golden shimmer in Tangerine (second from the top) here.
From top to bottom:  Electric Pink, Tangerine, Orange Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit, and Coconut Crush.

Here's a closer look at the first four polishes:

From left to right:  Electric Pink, Tangerine, Orange Fizz, and Pineapple Fizz.

And here's a closer look at the last four polishes:

From left to right:  Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit, and Coconut Crush.

I ended up with two bottles of Pineapple Fizz because I wanted the orange fizz, and it didn't come packaged with any other polish, and I wanted the blue polish, Colada Fizz, which also didn't come with any other polish.  I realized one of the benefits of my being a blogger now is that I don't have to feel bad about buying two of one polish.  I can add it to a giveaway or I can swap it!  My husband didn't agree with my reasoning, but at least he didn't stop me from buying the duplicate.  :-)

Once I saw Tangerine in the store, I had to have that one, too.  It has the prettiest golden shimmer in it.  My husband didn't understand why I "needed" another orange polish, especially as I was getting an orange already at the store, but he didn't stop me.  He did try to have me pull out my nail polish wheels to make sure I didn't already have these orange shades at home, but I was pretty sure I did not.  The Tangerine came with Electric Pink which is a dark pink shade.  I would have skipped it if it had been sold on its own.

I saw Colada Fizz at the store, and because my favorite polish colors are orange and blue, I had to have Colada Fizz, too.  Colada Fizz came with an extra bottle of Pineapple Fizz, which I mentioned above.

Finally, I saw Passion Fruit, a purple cream, and I had to have it.  That was the biggest surprise to me.  All this time I thought I didn't like purple polish, and it seems lately I am buying purple polish.  When I gave it some thought, I realized that one of my favorite colors for clothing is purple, especially a reddish purple or pinkish reddish purple.  Passion Fruit came bundled with a pearly white frost, Coconut Crush, and again, I would not have bought Coconut Crush had it been sold on its own, but now I own it, too.

Below are some pictures of the polishes swatched on my nail wheel with two coats of all the colors except the "fizz" colors which needed three coats except for Coconut Fizz that needed SIX (6) coats, and it was still very light and not yet at the bottle color . . . but I called it a day at that point.

From #1 on the Nail Wheel to #7 on the Nail Wheel:  Electric Pink (not color accurate), Tangerine, Orange Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit (not color accurate here--see bottle shot above which is accurate as to color), and Coconut Crush.

From #1 on the Nail Wheel to #7 on the Nail Wheel:  Electric Pink (not color accurate), Tangerine, Orange Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit (not color accurate here--see bottle shot above which is accurate as to color), and Coconut Crush.

From #1 on the Nail Wheel to #7 on the Nail Wheel:  Electric Pink (not color accurate), Tangerine, Orange Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, Colada Fizz, Passion Fruit (not color accurate here--see bottle shot above which is accurate as to color), and Coconut Crush.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Revlon Colorstay Polish Going on 9 Days Now + Nabi Polish Display at Walgreens

I put on the Revlon Colorstay nail polish on Sunday, April 1st, and now it's Monday, April 9th.  The polish was actually in perfect shape until Friday night when I hand-washed one of the dog's kennel towels in the hotel sink.  After that the polish started to lift off the nail on a couple of fingers.  Tonight, if I can get over the migraine I have now, I will finally remove this polish and put on some Sally Hansen nail polish strips.

I took the picture below last night, in the hotel room, so the polish is a week old in that picture.  I last touched up the tips a few days ago and since then have only been putting on a coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat every morning.  Sorry about the lack of cleanup on the top coat; I didn't bring polish remover with me on our trip (so I'd have an excuse to go to local drugstores).

So, I went to a Walgreens in northeast Florida on our way north to Savannah, Georgia, with my excuse reason being needing some polish remover.  I saw a huge Nabi polish display (picture below), and I got very excited thinking it might be a display of the Nabi magnetic polishes that Scrangie found at her Walgreens (see her post here), but it was all crackle nail polish.  I never got into the crackle trend.  My sister-in-law likes crackle polish, though, which I only remembered after I had already left the store, or I would have bought her some bottles.  Anyway, for those of you who love crackle polish, this is an amazing assortment of colors, and the colors are vibrant and beautiful, and you can buy three bottles for $10!  We do not have any Nabi polishes at all in my local South Florida Walgreens stores.  Here's a picture of the display.

Below is a picture of my manicure today, in our hotel room in Savannah, Georgia.  I took the picture in the sunlight from the picture window in our hotel.  Day 9 of the Revlon Colorstay manicure!  Can you believe it?

Base coat, two coats of Revlon Colorstay Indigo Blue, 1 coat SV, 1 coat Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, 2 coats Finger Paints Motley (blue-green flakies), 1 coat Seche Vite, and another coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat each day for 7 more days.  That's 15 coats of polish, if my math is correct.

I will update the Colorstay polish posts if I get any staining when I try to remove the polish.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Blue Nails, Day 5

I took these pictures yesterday afternoon, Day 5 of my blue nails.  I do patch up the tip wear every morning and add another coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.  Didn't have time to do a full clean-up before heading out the door.  These are all in the afternoon sun in my car.  Most are in direct sunlight and the last picture is in indirect sunlight.

Thank you for reading my blog!