Ok – I wrote a killer article on crackle nail polish called “Color Crazy Crackle Nail Polish” which mysteriously stopped showing up in google, so in an attempt to continue sharing my love and passion for beautiful nails using crackle polish, I’m going to expand on what I covered in those nail design tips with crackle polish.
OPI Katy Perry Black Shatter Nail Polish
The OPI Shatter Crackle Nail Polish in the Katy Perry line is one of the most researched, talked about, and popular nail polishes when you want that shattered look. If you are new to the effect of crackle polish on your nails, you can read the article just referenced where I explain the basics – not worth repeating here…plus I want you to roam through my site and get more ideas on all aspects of nail designs – beautiful nails can be yours at with less effort than you think.
Amazon is a favorite place to buy Katy Perry Black Shatter Polish – along with ebay they seem to always have the best selection whether buying this crackle polish by itself or as part of a set. I like ebay when looking for something hard to find also like the OPI Fall 2011 Polish Collection called “Touring America”.
OPI Shatter continues to be a highly rated crackle polish on most review sites – and for good reason. It goes on smooth, isn’t too runny, dries relatively quickly, and provides in my opinion a superior crackle finish, with each nail looking unique in style of the cracks – this shattered window effect is, of course, where the polish get’s its name [at least in OPI nail polish style].
The black shatter is a signature line associated with the Katy Perry collection of polishes. Often you see it used over a variety of colors, with pale blue polish being a more subtle effect, while many women prefer a quality red polish as the base coat and black crackle polish on top.
Some nail polish reviews indicate that the resulting nail design is sloppy – however, my belief is that the author did not let the base coat of nail polish dry completely – it must be COMPLETELY dry or else the crackle polish layer will interact with the still wet base coat and create something that isn’t a clean shatter effect.
Some women note that the polish can dry out quickly, and after a few uses get clumpy in the bottle…well DUH. Do you want polish that takes super long to dry on your nails, and stays fresh in the bottle for a lifetime, or polish that is easily applied and dries quick? Obviously OPI erred on the side of a better application experience…if someone can’t get the lids back on quick enough that is there problem IMO. Also, at around $8.50 a bottle, are you really going to complain that you only get a few uses out of a bottle before it dries out and gets clumpy? NO – not if the alternative is a bad application experience and loooong drying time. right?
Crackle Nail Polish Review with China Glaze Crackle
Ok – I admit it…while I write a lot about using OPI Nail Polish, China Glaze has some cool colors and effects that I also indulge in, and in general I’m pretty happy with their quality as well [still not sure where Chanel nail polish ranks given it's cost and my limited financial ability to try all of their colors].
Crackle Nail Polish China Glaze 2011 Spring Crackle Glaze
An EXCELLENT way to get immersed in China Glaze’s collection of polish is to by one of their Crackle Shattered collections – for around $17 bucks you can get a collection of 6 different crackle colors – amazon is a great place to shop especially for the collections.
One of my favorite colors in one of their 6 bottle collections is “Crushed Candy Blue Crackle” – this is simply an awesome color to try with multiple variants of nail polish base coats. Try it with a black base coat for a somewhat daring, double take effect, or with more neutral colors such as white or beige. Many women tend to use a pale blue as a base coat for other shatter polishes [including me], but having the pale but vibrant blue polish as the crackle top coat provides for some variations that give you beautiful nails!
Some manicurists recommend putting on a very thin coat and try not to apply a thick coat of China Glaze Crackle – apparently if it goes on too thick the crackles don’t appear as naturally or cleanly. I’ve never had an issue, but maybe I’m just a natural light touch?
China Glaze has a simply AWESOME collection of what they call “Crackle Metals Collection” – suffice it to say that these provide a great metallic crackle effect. The gold and lilac crackle polishes are my personal favorites, and aren’t really offered in the same shades by other manufacturers.
Sally Hansen Crackle Nail Polish Designs – Beautiful Nails or Bust?
Ok – bias time. I’ve never been a fan of Sally Hansen [do you see a lot of articles on my site about this line of polishes?].
Maybe it’s a personal bias, maybe I’ve had a bad experience…not really sure myself.
I can say that the few times [years ago] that I tried Sally Hansen polishes, I was just never really impressed with the quality…they have cool funky bottles, but the coolness stopped there for me.
When I look at their crackle polish designs and effects on your nails, their crackles seems thicker, less random, and, well, kind of clumpy to me. If I’m applying it wrong, then I must be doing something weird that never gives me the same trouble across OPI, China Glaze, and even the one bottle of Chanel I ponied up for.
They offer 8 different shades of crackle polish – covering the basics…except for their “ink splatter”, which is kind of cool in the pictures in terms of a light and dark [almost black] mix of shatter effects. I did however also find some collections on amazon that seemed to have more than 8…so now not sure how to characterize their collection!
I always associated Sally Hansen polishes with the supermarket, corner drug store, etc. – not to say they are bad nail polishes, but they always seem to be in the discount stores and lower end supermarkets etc.
It could be that Sally’s crackle polish is the best under the sun…I struggled to find the volume of positive reviews however that I could find for more popular polishes like OPI or China Glaze.
Their prices for their shatter polish are not much less that other brands like OPI polish – maybe 1-2 bucks cheaper…
Their regular nail polish prices on places like drugstore.com seem to be in the $3-5 range, which is cheaper than other brands…but why?
Summary – Crackle Nail Polish for Beautiful Nail Designs
Ok, so maybe this isn’t a wikipedia article on crackle nail polish, but I think you got some additional info you didn’t have before reading it right? Seriously, Crackle nail polish is a lot of fun, and if you’re going to try it [you should], please start with a higher end polish that has good reviews – you don’t want to overlay bad quality crackle polish and form a conclusion that crackle nail designs are bad in general. Start with a good bottle [< $10], and then after you see whether you like the effects with different base polish colors you can start trying other brands that may be cheaper.
Make sense? Go do some crackle nail designs – see my other articles on some WAY cool crackle polish effects when you use a glitter polish as the base coat – really!
Talia