Shattered Candy - OPI / China Glaze crackle mani

Let me start this post by saying that I'm definitely not fed up with crackles just yet. For me, crackle polishes are here to stay. It's a "new" type of finish, just like I'm still loving matte manicures, suede finish, you name it. I just wear whatever floats my boat, LOL!

I recently made a bunch of crackle rings, and I decided to match my manicure to one of them. I'm wearing four polishes: China Glaze For Audrey with OPI's Black Shatter and Wet'n'Wild Black Creme with China Glaze Crushed Candy.

It took me one, thick coat to mostly cover my nails with For Audrey, and Black Creme is a one coater even with a thin-ish coat, so it was a fast manicure overall. I had a few issues getting Crushed Candy to crack right, but I think it's because it has thickened a bit. 

I'm including a picture of both hands, and I must say I like the result on the right hand the most (the picture on the left). Big crackles are so beautiful; it really shows the colour underneath it!

Shattered Candy - OPI / China Glaze crackle

And here's a picture of my right hand with the matching ring :)

Shattered Candy - OPI / China Glaze crackle

That's all I have for you today!

♥ Vetten

Office Polish-tics and Crushed Candy (a crackle mani)

I received a wonderful package with nail polish the other day. I had ordered 4 back-up top coats, a few cremes and the new China Glaze Crackles! Today I'll be showing you the first I tried which is the colour I was most excited about.

Office Polish-tics

As the base colour, I used one of the new cremes - Misa Office Polish-tics. Excuse the horrible, horrible over exposed picture to the left, I must've left my photographic skills (the few I have LOL) in my polish drawers.

Office Polish-tics is a dark blue-based grey (more dark than the bottle shot). It's gorgeous on it's own, but a bit too dark for me at the moment. I'm all about layering polishes right now, and it makes my fingers itch to see a perfect, gorgeous dark creme on my nails. I can't help but make them flashy!

I used two coats of Office Polish-tics. If you're better at applying than me (which is almost impossible not to be - one day I have to show you how my nails look without clean-up and topcoat to even out the coats, LOL! It's embarrasing!), you can get away with one, thick coat. Especially if your nails are shorter - mine are getting a length where I can't avoid bald spots even with a one-coater. Again, I'm terrible at applying even coats.

This is the first Misa polish I try, and while I love the long handle and the square bottle, the brush is extremely small and it takes so many strokes to cover my wide nails. Office Polish-tics had a great formula and with an OPI wide brush it would've been perfection.

Anyway, onto the crackled part of the manicure. Since this is my first test with China Glaze's crackles, I wanted to try using it in two different ways, so I applied one coat of China Glaze Fast Forward on one hand and left Office Polish-tics to dry alone on the other. This results in different crackles, and I guess it's a matter of taste and preference which is better.

Crushed Candy over Office Polish-tics

Personally, I prefer the result to the right - crackle glaze over a touch-dry (but not dent-safe!) polish. I just love the strings it creates! I used a thick coat of China Glaze Fast Forward on top of the crackle, but two regular coats would make the finish more even (again, this is my preference. Others may like the different levels).

How does China Glaze's crackles compare to other brands?

In my opinion, the thin brush is a little harder to work with compared to OPI's wide brush. It takes me 3 strokes with ChG's, and overlapping is inevitable for me. I do want to add that ChG's crackle are more opaque (at least this one is) than Depend's, and it means they're easier to use over dark base colours. Not to mention that I am loving the colours China Glaze did! Mint-blue, pink, grey, white, these are perfect for spring!

I hope you guys are not too tired of the crackles just yet, I have a lot of combinations planned with these ;)

♥ Vetten

Depend Crackle Effect - Red

This'll just be a quick post to show you the last of the four crackle effects I bought last week, made by the Scandinavian brand Depend :)

Crackle Effect polishes from Depend

The bright red crackle effect is the one I decided to wear as a full manicure when I was having fun with these.

While the thought of a red crackle intrigues me, the red effect from Depend is not the most opaque crackle.

While you can certainly make this work on black base colour, you will need a topcoat to pull it off - without it it will look like dried blood (brown red), and IMO that just doesn't look great. 

I took a comparison picture, and mind you - it looks redder/more orange-ish in the picture than in real life. I'm not exaggerating; I really think it looks like dried blood without top coat.

In general, this crackle was a bit fickle to get a good picture of - at least for me. 

Either the crackles wouldn't show up at all or the colour would be really off, so I used the best results for both with and without topcoat. I hope they're use-able ;)

I used one coat of base coat, one coat of Wet'n'Wild Black Creme and one coat of crackle for the shot on the left and added a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward before the right picture.

Red Crackle Effect from Depend, natual sunlight on the left (no topcoat) & flash on the right (with topcoat).

While I wish this crackle would've been more opaque and more visible from afar, I'm pleased with the result and will be using it every now and then. I just need some good red colour combinations - any ideas? And how do you like the red crackle? I know many people were excited about the red version (as was I, since it's quite a bold colour), did it disappoint or are you still psyched about it?

♥ Vetten

Depend Crackle Effect - swatches (blue, purple and pink crackle)

Crackle polishes are really in this season. Isadora and Barry M released crackle polishes Fall/Winther 2010 and this spring we are seeing crackle polishes from many companies - such as OPI, China Glaze, Isadora and Depend. 

Depend Crackle Polish

Today I'll be showing you three of four crackles I got my hands on last week from Depend - I went to a store carrying the brand and when I saw the display it was already half empty. 

White and black crackle was gone, there was one pink left but oddly - the most interesting colours were still there! I already have a black crackle from Barry M and plan on getting the entire collection from China Glaze when it releases, so I can honestly say I was super psyched about getting a pink, red, purple and blue effect crackle ♥ 

While crackle is not something I'd wear every day, I'm sure I'll be using the lighter shades (and pair the darker ones with lighter shades) this summer - I think it really stands out in the sun. I was lucky enough to catch a few sunbeams today, so I can show you these in their full glory.

I wanted you to see them on both a dark base and a light, so I used Wet'n'Wild Black Creme for the first swatch and GOSH Gypsy Blue, Depend purple and Depend white for the last swatch.

Depend crackle polishes - left is on dark base without topcoat, right is on light base with China Glaze Fast Forward. Natural sunlight.

As you can see, they are quite different on dark/light base colours! 

Blue Crackle

The blue crackle is packed with gorgeous shimmer that really glows with a topcoat. Unlike the P2 silver shimmer crackle polish I bought in Germany (which was a pain to work with), this one has a great formula and it was easy to apply in an even layer. It looks amazing on both light and dark base colours - and it's quite a unique shatter since it's got shimmer. If you must pick out one of these, this one's definitely the most unique.

Purple Crackle

Purple is the most opaque creme of the ones I have, and again the formula was great. I love how subtle the purple is on black - it's definitely a combination I'll be using for an entire manicure, and the pale purple/dark purple combination? Perfect for a sunny day this Spring!

Pink Crackle

I don't like how the pink crackle looks on white, so I will have to try out a few other colour combinations for that one. It's a bit more sheer than the rest and the formula is a bit thinner too, making it is a bit see-through on black (but still looks great if you ask me). Even though it has a thinner formula, I still find it easy to work with.

In general I am very happy I got a chance to buy these before they sold out. Best 5-6$ I've spent on mini polishes (each) for a while! If I find the white one I will pick it up, as Depend makes some great opaque whites.

What is your opinion on crackle polishes - and what do you think about the colours from Depend? :)

♥ Vetten

P2 Crackle Polish : Silver Blast

Today I want to show you a crackle polish - I'm looking so much forward to China Glaze's versions, lots of different colours = win ♥ When I was in Germany I found a silver crackle polish, called "Silver Blast" and I had to pick it up. It cost less than 2 €, that's cheap!

P2 Crackling top coat - Silver Blast - second from the left

I decided to try it on top on Essence "Must Have" - you can see it here:

Essence "Must Have - second from the left

Here's the result!

Essence "Must Have" and P2 Silver Blast

Essence "Must Have" and P2 Silver Blast

I used one coat of Must Have, but I should've used two - there's bald spots, they became very obvious by the flash : / I love the colour though.

The P2 crackle I wouldn't recommend unless you like thick and droopy polish. Plus it cracked in an annoying way so I had to go back and cover the biggest baldest patches. 

♥ Vettelicious