SoFlaJo Blue Martini over Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Teal with It

I didn't want to take off my Teal with It nail polish strips (reviewed here), even though I had messed them up by using Orly Smudge Fixer on them.  They still looked pretty from far away.  So, I topped the strips with SoFlaJo's Blue Martini, a glitter top coat that I reviewed here.  Definitely click through to see how pretty it looks over a black creme.  I love the shimmer in it, and I love the holo and the blue glitter and the diamond glitter!  There is short bar glitter in Blue Martini, and although I usually don't like large bar glitter, I did like the short bar glitter in Blue Martini.

The Teal with It strips had quite a bit of wear before I topped them with Blue Martini, so you'll see lots of wear in the pictures, especially where I may have tried to clean up around my cuticles only to remove the polish from Teal with It which then seemed to reveal sticker backing.  In the pictures below, I added a coat of Gelous and then a coat of Seche Vite, and the mani was very smooth, and you couldn't feel the glitter.  The strips lasted the full week that I usually take to redo my manis.

Sunlight.
You can see the shimmer from Teal with It combined with the very similar colored shimmer from Blue Martini.

Sunlight.

Sunlight, blurry, but you can see the holo effect from the glitter.

Indirect sunlight.

Indoors, office lighting.

Thank you for reading my blog!

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!

SoFlaJo Blue Martini from the Happy Hour Collection

This post is very meaningful to me because the nail polish I'm blogging about is from a fellow blogger here in Florida, Jody of SoFlaJo.com, who also has her own indie line of polish.  She sent me a mini bottle of Blue Martini from her newest Happy Hour Collection for me to try.  Blue Martini is a blue jelly filled with multiple sizes of diamond glitter, short tinsel, and round holo glitters.  All of Jody's polish is made from natural pigments and glitters with bases free of Toluene, Formaldehyde, and DiButyl Pthalate.  Mini bottles are $5 on her site, and full sized bottles are $10.  Her shipping charge is low, too, and she has promotions at times where shipping is free!

Getting this polish just means so much to me in so many ways.  This is the first time I have received a sample of polish to review!  I can't believe she gave me a bottle to review when my blog is so new, and I don't have anywhere near as many followers as a lot of other blogs. And, I had been waiting until pay day to place an order for some SoFlaJo polishes, and Blue Martini was my #1 choice!  How does Jody know me so well???  Blue is my favorite color, followed closely by orange/coral.

You can see the Happy Hour Collection here.  She has done an amazing job with pictures of swatches on a nail wheel of the polishes by themselves and also layered over other polishes.  Go look!!!  Her macro shots of the polish colors are so sharp and amazing!

I wrote a post earlier about receiving this polish in the mail.  There are many pictures there of my swatches of the polish on a nail wheel and comparisons to other polishes I own.

We have had so many days of rain here in South Florida that the sun has not been out enough for good pictures in bright sunlight since before I put this polish on two days ago.  I had hoped that I would be able to take pictures in the sun to show the dazzling sparkle of the holo glitters, but I have consoled myself with the knowledge that there is just no way to take a bad picture of this polish because it's gorgeous in any light.

Let me start by saying that this polish is like the evening dress of nail polish.  It is gorgeous, sparkly, and is just so fancy!  It reminds me of a very sparkly midnight blue cocktail dress I had in my 20s.  To me this is the most gorgeous blue polish ever.

I tried swatching the polish over different colors on a nail wheel, but it looked prettiest to me over black creme.

The polish dried quickly, and it dried smooth with no sharp edges.  That's very important to me because a sharp edge can rip my pantyhose, and with all the trips to the bathroom I take during the day, any sharp edge on my nails would be sure to doom my pantyhose to an untimely end.

The base of the polish has a blue shimmer that glows.  Swatched by itself, the polish has aqua glitters and has an aqua tint. In indoor lighting the polish has diamond holo glitter that flashes aqua blue and sometimes teal green, short holo bar glitter (very small, so those who hate regular-size bar glitter should give this a chance), and holo glitter that all flash blue and sometimes teal green because of the base and its colored shimmer. This blue shimmer base turned my coat of black polish into a midnight blue-looking polish.

I didn't have to fish out any glitter. With just one coat of Blue Martini, I got two to five diamond glitters on each nail and plenty of short bar glitter, regular glitter, and pretty blue shimmer that glows.

This was my first time using black polish. It was also therefore my first time cleaning up black polish, but it was not hard, although I wasn't able to get all the black out from the edges, even after I showered and tried to pick off as much stray black as I could in the shower.

The glitter top coat was easy to apply, so there was hardly any glitter outside my nails, but what little there was cleaned up instantly and much more easily than the black underwear polish.

Even though I am only 1/5 of the way through my mini bottle after swatching and my manicure, I feel a strong urge to buy a backup bottle!


In the photos below, I have one coat of Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth (discontinued), one coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme, one coat of SoFlaJo Blue Martini, and a coat of Seche Vite.  In some pictures there is an additional coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat that I put on this morning.  The Wet N Wild Black Creme dries to a very cool rubber-looking finish. The Blue Martini polish plays very nicely with Seche Vite.  I didn't notice any shrinkage, just some eventual minimal tip wear.

Indoors, with flash.  You can see the shimmer on the nail a little in this picture.

In my car, indirect daylight (but on a cloudy day).

In my office, under office lighting, with flash.  Here you can almost see what I am going to call the Hyperspace Drive effect where the holo bar glitters almost seem to be moving or passing by very quickly.

You can see a little of the shimmer here.

This is my pointer finger on my right hand.  My prior pictures are of my left hand.  I am right-handed, so I take pictures with my right hand of my left hand, and that's usually what I post.  But, on this picture of my right index finger, you can see what I call the midnight blue color and shimmer of Blue Martini over a black polish.

Same finger, just love the holo, and I'm crazy about the diamond holo glitters!

Thank you for reading my blog!