Wheel E14: Crackle Polishes

I remember when crackle polishes were impossible to get and old Cover Girl ones on MakeupAlley were on a lot of wishlists in the swapping section (when swapping went away there, I pretty much stopped visiting the site). So when the later waves of crack came out, I scooped them up. And as my recent acquisiton of the Zoya one attests, I'm still scooping. I might have a problem. I'll deal with later. Now I'm going to do this Nail Wheel Wednesday post with 20 crackles (and I still probably have another 20 after this to get on a wheel, not counting the ones that have completely dried out and which I might just throw out rather than trying to rescue, because seriously, I could put crackle on my nails from now until I move into assisted living decades from now and probably not run out).

 

(all one coat over white creme base, except for #8, which is a black creme base)

1. Zoya Leopard Spots Topper
2. SinfulColors Black Crackle
3. Sephora by OPI Blaste Black
4. Ulta Quake Nail Top Coat
5. Maybelline Color Show Carbon Frost [left the clearance sticker on this so I could feel better that at least I didn't pay full price for the eleventy billionth black crackle in my collection]
6. Sally Hansen Big Crackle Top Coat Black On
7. Barry M Nail Paint Instant Nail Effects 311 [black]
8. Barry M Nail Paint Instant Nail Effects 316 [white]
9. Barry M Nail Paint Instant Nail Effects 315 [blue]
10. Barry M Nail Paint Instant Nail Effects 314 [pink]
11. Barry M Nail Paint Instant Nail Effects 322 [purple shimmer]
12. Maybelline Color Show Purple Possibilities
13. Avon Mosaic Effects Plum Illusion
14. Claire's unnamed [I thought this had a name and I just didn't know it because the bottom label was missing, but I looked at my spreadsheet which I fill in soon after I buy polishes and I didn't record any names for any of the Claire's crackles]
15. Sephora by OPI Blasted Purple Glitter
16. Finger Paints Crackle Effect Purple Crackle
17. Avon Mosaic Effects Blue Flash
18. Avon Mosaic Effects Gleaming Emerald
19. Maybelline Color Show Shredded Silver Stunner
20. Expression Crazed Deep Coffee [looks more grey than brown but my spreadsheet tells me it was this color when I bought it so who knows if it was once coffee colored]

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wheel A13: Spotted and Crackle Polishes

Today's Nail Wheel Wednesday episode is a lesson in why one might want to swatch polishes right away. I pulled out all the spotted polishes I could find plus some crackles from less common brands and discovered that a lot of the spots weren't working well ... or at all. It was disappointing. The crackles still cracked, but the spots weren't behaving as they should have. Some did nothing. Some had a few spots in amongst cracks. Only one worked like I'd expected them all to, though who knows how long before that one degrades, too. I've read they can be picky about what base polish they're used with, and how wet/dry that is, and one person added some hair serum to their bottle and it worked again, so maybe I'll experiment a bit more before I give up on these, but maybe I'll just stick to crackles.



(all one coat over either black or white creme base, or in the case of #13 both black and white)

1. OPI Black Spotted [just a few spots, mostly cracks]
2. Fing'rs Get Spotted [even fewer spots than the OPI, just a few pin pricks among the cracks]
3. Layla Bubbly Effect Black Forest [straight lines in the finish here are due to an ill-advised attempt to topcoat before it was fully dry; I left topcoat off all the others, though I notice now that the area I put the topcoat does have fewer cracks]
4. Layla Bubbly Effect Cherry Muffin [the Laylas for the most part at least made more and bigger spots in amongst their cracks]
5. Layla Bubbly Effect Anise Shake
6. Layla Bubbly Effect Red Velvet Cake
7. Layla Bubbly Effect Meringue Pie
8. SinfulColors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat Purpink [I can see that it's trying to work ... maybe if I'd concentrated on doing a thinner coat with it]
9. SinfulColors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat Concrete Jungle [againk, maybe a thinner coat would have coaxed a few cells to pop here]
10. SinfulColors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat Rebel Rebel [best of the Sinfuls by far]
11. SinfulColors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat Punk the Town [nope, nothing doing]
12. SinfulColors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat Redrum [fail]
13. IsaDora Graffiti Nail Top Masterpiece Pink
14. IsaDora Graffiti Nail Top Subway Green [took the cardboard cover off the cap of this one]
15. IsaDora Graffiti Nail Top Black Tag
16. Relouis Graffi Collection 08 [should have put this over white, maybe as it's darker than I thought]
17. Dior Crocodile Effect Top Coat 608 [took a long time to form the pattern, but worth the wait]
18. Barry M Croc Effects Black [a finer grained croc than the Dior; also took a while to show up, and one edge never did finish cracking]
19. P2 Crackling Black Explosion
20. P2 Crackling Silver Blast


Bottles 1 and 2:



3 through 7:



8 through 12:



13 through 16:



17 through 20:

Bargain Shopping: Sally Hansen Crushed Metal Kit

Since this is THE weekend for bargain shopping in the US, I think it's appropriate to share these Sally Hansen Crushed Metal swatches today (yes, in a rare weekend post—the holiday has even my relaxed retirement schedule all messed up), as I bought this kit only after I saw it on clearance. I passed on it when new because I wasn't sure I'd like the finish and heaven knows my stash is a monster already. But at a bargain price? Well sure, that was worth taking a chance. I chose the rose gold though as I recall, Ulta also had the silver and gold in their clearance bins.



The kit comes with three bottles: Dual Base & Top Coat, Crushed Effect Coat, and Chrome Lacquer. They're applied in that order, circling back around to the first bottle at the end.



I thought it was interesting that the instructions on back recommended the foil method for removal ... only years after it was popularized in the nail polish community online.

The Crushed Effect Coat in step 2 goes on smooth and pretty; just after application it looks like any other slightly milky base.



As it dries, the texture appears, but since it's got no color to contrast with anything, it's a bit hard to see the crackling.



When the chrome color goes on, the pattern really shows up. I liked this way more than I expected to; it's interesting and different but in a way that's subtle.





I wanted to compare them to some other "odd" finishes. I pulled out Finger Paints Sea Temptress from 2014's Enchanted Mermaid collection, which was billed as having a "mermaid tail" texture. I also grabbed one of the China Glaze Crinkled Chrome shades, I'm a Chromantic, as well as NYC Crackling Effect Top Coat in City Treasure and Sally Hansen Chrome Nail Makeup in Pure Chrome to see if I could achieve a similar effect to the Crushed Metal by layering polishes.



Top to bottom below: Crinkled Chrome (I remain unconvinced that glitter belongs in chrome, especially bar glitter), Crushed Metal (still liking it), Enchanted Mermaid (age has not improved its lumpiness), and the regular chrome layered over crack (which sort of worked, but it seems the Crushed Metal crackle coat is also a chrome smoothing base coat so provides better results).



Another view:



Now I'm wishing I'd grabbed the other shades of Crushed Metal, too ... maybe I'll see them again in a bargain bin and can scoop them up.

Wheel S11: Solid Color Crack

I tell you what ... when the crack polish trend comes back around, I am going to be sitting pretty. Today I've got a rainbow of solid crackles. Some I painted on diagonally, some straight. They all still work, which is reassuring; I don't have to worry about getting to these before they poop out, unlike thermals.



(all one coat over white creme base)

1. Wet 'n' Wild Color Craze Construction Zone [I should have let the base dry just a touch more before I painted this one on]
2. Color Club The Big Bang
3. Wet 'n' Wild Color Craze Inmate in Love
4. Color Club Bomb-blast-ic
5. Revlon Nail Art Break-Up Break
6. NYC New York Color Crack Me Up Heat Wave
7. LA Splash Crackle'd Love'd
8. Color Club Burst Things First
9. Wet 'n' Wild Color Craze Pretty Pink Punk
10. Nabi Crack 47-CNP60
11. Color Club Shock Rock
12. Kleancolor Crack Purple Crackle [very slow to dry but when it did it had a pattern unlike any other on the wheel]
13. NYC New York Color Crack Me Up Broadway Smash
14. Finger Paints Crackle Effect Blue Crackle
15. Color Club Take a Crack at It
16. LA Splash Crackle'd Psych'd
17. Burst Crackle Rolling Hills
18. Wet 'n' Wild Color Craze Living in the Limelight
19. Color Club Living on the Edge
20. KDS Nail Manufactory Cracker Shatter


Bottles 1 through 4:



5 through 9:



10 through 12:



13 through 15:



16 through 20: