A clash of crackles: China Glaze Black Mesh

Hi guys! So for those of you that got the George R.R. Martin reference (clash of crackles, yeah), kudos. The rest of you should really check his books out! Coming from somebody that never liked Harry Potter or Lord of the rings, these books are great. 

Moving on to polish, I thought of doing a comparison between the two crackle polishes I own. One is the famous and widely covered China Glaze Black Mesh, the other one is the no name brand Butterfly Collection, that is probably available only to (Eastern) European polish fanatics. I also went for a different look with each of these crackles, so that you can see the possibilities you have when you use them. Today I'll start with the China Glaze black crackle.

The base color:

Color Club Gossip Column is a dark teal. Altough it came out in a spring collection, I have to say I’m getting more of a fall vibe from this one. Application is good, the Color Club brush is similar to the China Glaze one and the polish is opaque in two thin coats. I haven’t worn this one for a long time so I can’t really say anything about the wear time. The only thing about this polish is the fact that it stains the cuticles, being so dark and all, so take care at removal and try to smudge it as little as possible on the area around the nail. 

Sorry for the phone pictures, but the camera wouldn't capture the color of the polish properly.

phone picture again

The crackle:

Black Mesh was the first crackle I’ve ever used, so I must say I was kinda nervous the first time and thought I would maybe mess it up, but this wasn’t the case. You basically have to be careful and not apply it too thick or it won’t crack properly. You also aren’t allowed to go over the same area multiple times with the brush. Being a crackle though, you don’t have to be very careful to get the edges perfect, cause you’re going for a graffiti look. The polish is a little thick, but easy to work with. It dries to a matte finish so if you want it to be shiny, top coat is mandatory. What I’ve noticed in particular with this crackle polish is that it cracks in bigger chunks and the chunks stay on the nail and can be easily leveled with top coat. You will see in my next post why these observations are so important.

Verdict:

All in all, I like this look very much. The fact that I’ve used a darker base color made it not pop as much and you couldn’t really see it from the distance, but this only made it a more elegant crackle combo.