Wheel M5: Crack from OPI and Others

Today's installment of Nail Wheel Wednesday is a blast from the past, back when crack was the hot nail polish trend about two years ago‐and also way back when it was a hot trend at the end of the 90s. This wheel has nine of OPI Shatter polishes, which isn't even all the ones I own (Shatter the Scales and Super Bass Shatter joined my stash after I painted this wheel). It's got four of the Nicole by OPI Texture Coat line—not the kind of texture that's hot right now. (I have one more of those, too—Quartz Texture; I actually managed to not buy the other three that came out in that same group after I sent the review bottles I swatched on to my samples buddy Lucy.) I've got four Cover Girl Crackle Lacquers, the oldest cracks in my stash. These are somwhat of a pain in the butt to work with compared to modern crackle—they work best over a slightly wet base, so timing is important, and they take a long time to dry (using a blowdryer on them does speed things along), and it's best to use topcoat to keep the cracked bit stuck to the base color. Still, they have a unique pattern to them, so they stay in my stash.

I layered these over Wet 'n' Wild black or white creme, as seemed appropriate for the crack color. No topcoat, except as noted below.



I layered these over Wet 'n' Wild black or white creme, as seemed appropriate for the crack color. No topcoat, except as noted below.

1. OPI White Shatter [very thin coat, which makes a sort of stringy pattern]
2. OPI Black Shatter [slightly thicker coat than the white]
3. OPI Silver Shatter
4. OPI Gold Shatter
5. OPI Turquoise Shatter
6. OPI Blue Shatter [my favorite of the Shatters]
7. OPI Navy Shatter
8. OPI Pink Shatter
9. OPI Red Shatter
10. Nicole by OPI Red Texture [pretty much identical to the OPI, I just used a thicker coat of it than the OPI so the pattern is different]
11. Nicole by OPI Silver Texture [looks identical to the OPI]
12. Nicole by OPI Gold Texture [ditto]
13. Nicole by OPI Black Texture [very thin coat, so doing strings like OPI White Shatter]
14. Cover Girl Crackle Lacquer Ghost (has topcoat)
15. Cover Girl Crackle Lacquer Boo (has topcoat)
16. Cover Girl Crackle Lacquer Blue Moon (has topcoat)
17. Cover Girl Crackle Lacquer Jack O Lantern (has topcoat)
18. Claire's unnamed gold
19. Claire's unnamed teal
20. Milani Krackle Topcoat

Bottles 1 through 4:


5 through 9:


10 through 13:


14 through 20:






















The wheel shown at the top is the second iteration, as I messed up the first one enough that I felt compelled to redo it. Still, some of the tips on version one were quite nice, so I'm added a couple bonus shots. Here's OPI Blue Shatter and Turquoise Shatter over black:



And Cover Girl Blue Moon and Boo showing off different patterns:



Do I have an excess of crack in my stash? Of course. I could see getting rid of some of these, but not all. Even though it's been a while since I wore crack, I want to have some around so I'll have that option at any time regardless of what's on trend.