Crackle Polish Challenge #15 - Rainbow Graffiti Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #15

Featured crackle application:
Combining multiple crackle polishes with regular polishes for a graffiti art effect

Featured crackle polish:
OPI 'Black Shatter'

Rainbow Graffiti Mani

Polishes Used

Claire’s ‘Splatter Paint’

Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat ‘Cherry Smash’

Nicole by OPI ‘Tangerini Bikini’

OPI ‘The “It” Color’

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure ‘Grass Slipper’

OPI ‘Turquoise Shatter’

OPI ‘Super Bass Shatter’

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri ‘Silver Sweep’

OPI ‘Black Shatter’

Konad Special Polish in Black

Polishes Used

Nail Stamping Plate Used:

Moyou London Rockstar Collection - 12

I wanted this manicure to be colourful and fun, so I decided to use a bright yellow base colour (OPI 'It Color'), to layer all of the other polishes over. I started with small strokes of the four shatter polishes (red, turquoise, purple, and black) , and tried to vary the direction, placement and length of the strokes for a random effect. I used the black shatter polish last, to help it stand out a little more.

Then I used a dotting tool to add dots of the orange and green regular polishes, again varying the size of the dots, and their placement. After that, I topped all of my nails with a splatter effect glitter topcoat. I made 2 graffiti tag nail stamping decals using silver and black polishes, and then placed the decals over my ring fingers. I finished the look off with some topcoat to seal everything in and to add shine.

I really love the finished look! This manicure was so much fun to do, and to wear - I found myself looking at my nails a lot as I went through my day!

Here are some more shots of the completed manicure:

Rainbow Graffiti Mani - Extra Shots

Crackle Combo Mani #2

So I gave in to temptation and re-did the Crackle Combo Mani from my last post! Here's the Do-Over:

Crackle Combo Mani #2

Polishes Used:

Essie 'Mint Candy Apple'

Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Cherry Smash'

OPI 'Navy Shatter'

Konad Special Polish in White

Polishes Used

I like the overall look of this mani much better, due to the lighter colours. However, I noticed that the stamping image doesn't stand out as much on this one as it did in the last version. If you look closely at the pinky, you may be able to see a bit of Sally Hansen 'Silver Sweep' nail polish outlining a portion of some of the circles. I tried stamping the image using silver polish on that nail, to see if the pattern would stand out more. It didn't make much difference, so I just stamped over it again with white so that the nails would be consistent.

I did a side-by-side before and after collage to show the differences between the manicures.

Stay tuned for my next post, where I will continue with the rest of the 2015 Crackle Polish Challenge!

Crackle Polish Challenge #14 - Crackle Combo Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #14

Featured crackle application:
Combining two colours of crackle polish for a cool abstract art effect

Featured crackle polish:
OPI 'Navy Shatter'

Left: Crackle Combo Mani
Right: Jazzed-up Version 

Polishes Used:
OPI 'Navy Shatter'
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Celeb City'
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Cherry Smash'
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Silver Sweep'

Polishes Used

Plate Used:
Lily Anna 06

I really don't know what to say about this manicure! I guess I'm kind of indifferent to the final look. It's a fun looking manicure, but it's not my usual style - I usually prefer brighter and/or lighter colours. I think if I were redesigning it now, I'd probably go with a light blue base, and maybe less coverage of the shatter polishes so more light blue shows through. Then I would probably try stamping the same negative space circle pattern in white instead of silver. As much as I would like to avoid doing a 'Do-Over' mani during a challenge (I've been wearing crackle polish manicures exclusively for over a month now, and still have 7 more to go!) - I'm really tempted to do just that!

Crackle Polish Challenge #13 - Dragonfly Double Crackle Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #13

Featured crackle application:
Layering a crackle decal over a crackle background to achieve a 'crackle on crackle' effect

Featured crackle polish:
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Vintage Violet'

Dragonfly Double Crackle Mani

Polishes Used
    Crackle Decal:
        Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Vintage Violet'
        Wet n Wild Wild Shine 'Bijou Blue' (also used as base coat under glitter)
    Glitter:
        Finger Paints 'Daubigny's Garden'
    Crackle Background:
        Sally Hansen Color Foil 'Minted Metal'
        Nicole by OPI 'Gold Texture'
    Solid Nails:
        Nicole by OPI 'Canadian Star', from the Justin Bieber Collection

I chose dragonfly themed colours for this manicure. They are are a combination of cool, shimmery and iridescent polishes. Here's a picture of the bottles.

Polishes Used

This was quite an elaborate manicure to do. The most time consuming part was making the nail polish decals.  To do this, I spread a large swath of (an inexpensive) nail polish over a flat piece of plastic. I used one of the flat sides from one those annoyingly difficult to open transparent rigid plastic packages that pretty much everything you buy these days seems to come encased in. It was great to find a use for them other than accidentally cutting myself, and frustrating me to no end! LOL!

After the polish was completely dry, I put a few different crackle polishes over the swath. When that was completely dry, I attempted to remove the polish from the plastic. At first, I was trying to peel the polish away from the plastic. I had a little difficulty with this method, so I added a layer of topcoat, to try to make it a bit more pliable. I was then able to peel and lift the polish when it dried.

I actually made two crackle sheets, using different base polishes. Due to all of the problems I had with the first sheet, I tried a different removal method for the second sheet. For that one, I tried bending the plastic backwards, along the edge of the dried polish. It worked like a charm - the polish lifted easily and cleanly without topcoat.

The next step was to cut the dried polish into shapes using hole punches. I made heart shapes, and dragon fly shapes since those are the 2 decorative punches that I have. After that, the decals were ready to be applied. I also have a bunch left over, for future manicures.

I've included a pictorial tutorial below:

Here is another collage showing different pictures of the manicure. The thumb close up shots give a better view of the green and gold crackle background, under the decal.

This manicure was a lot of fun to do, and I really like how it turned out! So far, this is one of my favourites from the challenge!

Crackle Polish Challenge #12 - Red Shatter Tip Valentine Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #12

Featured crackle application:
Using crackle polish to embellish nail tips

Featured crackle polish:
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Cherry Smash'

Red Shatter Tip Valentine Mani

Polishes Used:

Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Cherry Smash'

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Strawberry Shields'

China Glaze 'Love Letters'

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Cherry Red' 

Plates Used:

Moyou London Festive Collection - 20

PUEEN43

Polishes Used

Today I have one final Valentine's day Mani to share for this year. Still keeping with the Crackle Polish Challenge, I used red shatter polish to decorate my nail tips. One thing that I really like about using shatter polish this way, is that you don't have to be as careful when polishing your nail tips as you would normally have to be for a traditional French manicure. Actually, this is the main reason that I don't do a lot of tip designs or French manicures on this blog - I rarely have the patience for that!

I could definitely see myself trying this shatter tip mani again with my white shatter polish, or maybe even trying to layer a different coloured shatter polish over a traditional white French tip.

Bye for now, and Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Crackle Polish Challenge #11 - Pink, Red and White Valentine's Day Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #11

Featured crackle application:
Basic stamping over a shatter background.

Featured crackle polish:
OPI 'White Shatter'

Pink, Red and White Valentine's Day Mani

Polishes Used:
OPI 'Got a Date To-Knight'
OPI 'White Shatter'
OPI 'Minnie Style'
A England 'Perceval'
Konad Special Polish in White

Plates Used:
Moyou London Festive Collection - 20
PUEEN35


Today's manicure is another variation of the stamping over shatter polish, that I did in my last post. The difference is that on today's manicure, I did more traditional stamping where the stamped image is in the foreground, as opposed to my last manicure, where the negative space stamping becomes the background of the final image. In other words, this manicure uses shatter polish as the background for stamping (on my ring finger), while my last manicure uses stamping to put the shatter in the foreground.

I really love the colour combination for this manicure - it just screams Valentine's Day!!!

Crackle Polish Challenge #10 - Purple Monochromatic Shatter Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #10

Featured crackle application:
Tone on tone shatter application, using different opacities to create contrast.

Featured crackle polish:
OPI 'Super Bass Shatter'

Purple Monochromatic Shatter Mani

Polishes Used:

OPI 'Super Bass Shatter', and OPI Sheer Tints 'Don't Violet Me Down'

Today's manicure pairs 2 versions of essentially the same colour. Usually with crackle manicures, you see two different colours paired together, obviously so that the base polish showing through the cracks will appear as a different colour than the cracked polish on top.  Monochromatic Crackle manis are frequently done, however you will usually see a pairing of two different shades of the same colour, (for example light pink and dark pink, like in my shattered heart mani) -rarely do you see the exact same shade of the exact same colour.  

That's what makes today's mani a little different. I've used 2 medium-dark purples in this shatter mani, but to create the contrast needed to make the crackle effect worthwhile, I've used the shade in formulations with different finishes. The base polish is translucent, while the crackle topcoat is opaque.

I am surprised by how much I like this manicure! It's very simple, but fun, pretty, and slightly edgy all at once!

Crackle Polish Challenge #9 - Negative Space Stamping over Pink on Pink Shatter

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #9

Featured crackle application:
Stamping a negative space image over a background of crackle polish so that the objects created by the stamped image end up crackle patterned.

Featured crackle polish:
China Glaze's Crackle Glaze in 'Broken Hearted'

Negative Space Stamping over Pink on Pink Shatter

Polishes Used:

China Glaze Crackle Glaze 'Broken Hearted'

OPI 'Pink Friday'

Konad Special Polish in Black

Plate Used:

PUEEN55

I really like the finished look of this mani. This manicure also gave me some new insight on how to take better advantage of the negative space etched images in my stamping plate collection. I usually don't use those images on my plates, because previously, I never really clued in to the advantages of stamping the background colour polish over most of the foreground colour polish except for the design you want, when usually you could just as easily stamp the design in the foreground colour over the background colour. 

Now, I finally get it! Negative space stamping gives you more possibilities, because it allows you to use a pattern or texture as your base coat, or maybe even a sheer colour, (or anything else that is difficult to stamp over another colour), and have that ultimately be the pattern/texture/colour of the design. For example, if I wanted to get the same look of today's mani, without negative space stamping, I would have to stamp crackled hearts over a black background. To do this, I would have to first make sure that the light pink polish was opaque enough that the black won't show through it, (or use multiple coats of the light pink, which would present even more of a technical challenge), stamp light pink hearts over the black, and then apply the crackle polish individually to each heart. That would be way more time consuming, and might not even work without the right light pink polish!

Another interesting technical thing I did with this mani, was using thin, short strokes when I applied the crackle polish, so the cracks would be finer. This way, the smaller cracks would look more proportional on the small hearts. 

Here's a variation of this manicure that I did on my left hand:

Negative Space Stamping over Pink on Pink Shatter - Variation

Originally, I didn't want to have a lot of contrast in my final design, so instead of using black polish, I tried to stamp a silver polish, China Glaze 'I'd Melt for You', over the pink on pink crackle base. That didn't quite work out, because there was not enough contrast! In order to salvage the design (I really didn't want to have to start all over again) I ended up stamping a heart outline image from plate PUEEN41 over it. By the way, this is what I call a 'peace sign' mani, because the index and middle fingers, the fingers used to make a peace sign, are different than the rest of the nails - now, I'm not sure if anyone else uses this term, but that's how I think about it!

Polishes Used

Crackle Polish Challenge #8 - Teal and Gold Crackle Sandwich

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #8

Featured crackle application:
Using crackle polish and jelly polish to make a 'crackle sandwich'

Featured crackle polish:
Sally Hansen's Crackle Overcoat in 'Antiqued Gold'

Teal and Gold Crackle Sandwich

Polishes Used:
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Antiqued Gold'
Sally Hansen Color Foil 'Liquid Gold'
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Mermaid's Tale'
Zoya 'Frida'

Polishes Used

Plate Used:
Konad M70

This 'Crackle Sandwich' was created by sandwiching a staircase shaped application of 'Antiqued Gold' in between 2 layers of 'Frida'. The ring finger accent nail was done with a base coat of 'Mermaid's Tale' stamped with the scribble image from Konad M70, using 'Liquid Gold'.

I really love this manicure! So far, based on the results of this challenge, I'm pretty sold on the idea of keeping all of my metallic crackle polishes handy for nail art.  I've been especially impressed with both of the gold crackles that I've used, this one, and the Nicole by OPI shatter from this post.

I think this sandwich technique really updates the crackle look by toning it down a bit, but still letting the texture shine through.This is something that I can definitely see myself trying again!

Crackle Polish Challenge #7 - Shattered Heart Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #7

Featured crackle application:
Using crackle polish to make a decal

Featured crackle polish:
Sally Hansen's Crackle Overcoat in 'Fuchsia Shock'

Polishes Used:
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in 'Fuchsia Shock'
Sally Hansen 'Big Smoky Topcoat'
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Rouge Rush'
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Presto Pink'
China Glaze 'Feel the Breeze'

Plate Used:
Pueen Celebration Collection 'Fireworks Festival'
PUEEN41

Today's crackle technique involved making a stamping decal out of dried crackle polish.  To do this, I started by painting a couple coats of my base polish, 'Feel the Breeze', a light pink creme polish, over a stamper. When that was fully dry, I painted a layer of 'Fuchsia Shock' over it, and allowed that to dry.  When the stamper was completely dry, I carefully peeled off the polish, and then cut two heart shapes out of the dried polish.

After painting my nails with the sheer black polish, 'Big Smoky Top Coat', I placed the decals over the slightly wet nails, and then added a layer of topcoat in order to get the decal to adhere to my nail. I finished up with a little stamping, glitter, and rhinestones on my other nails.

On the bottom right corner of the collage, you can see a variation of the decal that I did on my right hand. Not only is the heart decorated with shatter nail polish, but this heart is also cracked into three pieces, and slightly separated to reinforce the shattered heart theme. I really like this variation because it takes advantage of one of the special features of decals - you can manipulate their shape, and placement.

All in all, I really like how this mani turned out. I love how the shards of 'Rouge Rush' glitter echo the 'shattered' theme, as well as how awesome-looking the double stamping on my thumb turned out - I may have to do an entire mani like this! I also think that this use of shatter polish really does add something special to the overall look of the mani.